Because of the order in which things arrived at me from the iPod – I don’t know why – I got to listen to all of the second half – allegedly – of the unabridged version of Good Omens. While I was doing the cardigan.

I have been living with the cardigan since before Christmas. It’s this cardigan – I keep linking to it because I am slowly making progress about it. Anyway, yesterday, after a fiasco called “not reading the pattern properly” I wound up contacting the designer via Ravelry for guidance on “what does this mean.” With the benefit of the response and a good night’s sleep plus one lot of laundry and some food, I now don’t understand why I didn’t understand how to finish off the body of the cardigan but at any rate, by 9pm the main body of the cardigan was finished last night and some of one of the sleeves was done.

The cardigan is still – after another afternoon of crocheting, pulling a part, counting shells and wondering how it is I can’t count to 4 on a Sunday afternoon when it’s no problem for me ot count to 345, for example – not finished. But it’s almost there; in fact if i really, really was motivated, I could finish it tonight. But I’d be dead from grape coloured cotton. All that remains is the left sleeve and having spent the guts of 3 hours on it this afternoon, I’ve had enough for now. I will go back to it – again – tomorrow and hopefully finish it sometime Tuesday or Wednesday. Then I will order more yarn in a different colour and do another one.

In the meantime I am contemplating going back to a long laid aside skirt, a necklace or possibly the pineapple square doily that’s hiding beside my bed at the moment. In the meantime, I am contemplating ordering this. Which probably means I need more sleep.

Good things I did this year

• moved house back into the city after threatening to do so for 3 years. I realise now that after 7 years in Swords, I didn’t really like living there very much.
• went kitesurfing once. I planned to go more often but then, when I did go, it was with Kristin Boese, a world champion.
• entertained two lots of foreign visitors.
• fulfilled ambition to go abseiling. Hated it.
• fulfilled idle curiosity to start learning to climb. Liked the indoor stuff a lot. This along with the house moving counts as the major success story of the year
• had one photograph published in the Irish Times
• won a motorsports photography competition
• courtesy of the motorsports photography competition fulfilled a childhood ambition to do racing driving lessons. I would probably better if I took just one more lesson.
• fulfilled life time ambition to start diving lessons, discovered they made me incredibly sick (it’s the chlorine) and abandoned it after two. Filed under the “at least I tried it and won’t die wondering” code.
• successfully avoided X-Factor
• got the boards.ie photography exhibition done.
• fulfilled lifetime ambition and went to Tarifa. I’ve wanted to go there since the windsurfing days which is almost 20 years now. What the hell was I doing?
• Split up with Vodafone.
• rebuilt a broken bridge.

I don’t much like the concept of New Year’s Resolutions. They seem to be very guilt inducing. Usually I focuse on one or two things that I want to do and try to get around to them at some stage. I’ve been generally quite good at this in the past but there’s a slight problem this year. With one sole exception, I’m not really sure what I want to mark 2010 with in general.

The one outstanding thing for 2010 which is linked to the climbing is to go ice climbing in London. My mother thinks I’m nuts. I think I’m nowhere near fit enough. I originally planned to go in January but that had to be shelved when it was clear that I wasn’t going to be fit enough by the end of December.  Apart from that I’d like to go to one of Kristin’s clinics, preferably the one in Cornwall as I would love to go to Cornwall anyway. This would be suitable. But the kitesurfing isn’t exactly new, in fairness.

So, for 2010, the list currently looks – more or less – like this

• go to London iceclimbing  just to try it once
• go to Cornwall for Kristin’s kitesurfing clinic.
• go kitesurfing more often.
• learn to make creme anglaise without it ever curdling. Currently I have a 30% success rate.

Stuff is going to happen in 2010 that I have zero control over. Anyone who knows me knows what that’s all about. I can only try to tweak it here and there when or if I get the opportunity.

EATF: someone’s reminded me I want to do flying lessons. Hmm.

About 15 years ago I was teaching English as a language assistant in France to a bnch of teenagers. The classes consisted of games and then, finally a song. Occasionally I let them choose the song.

On one occasion they chose Killing in the Name of by Rage Against the Machine. I don’t know how but I hadn’t actually heard of it – don’t ask. Anyway I was supplied with the song. Oh, did I mention I had never uttered one swear word in my life at that stage (had to wait until I become a systems programmer before that became a habit and even now I hate swearing…but anyway)….

Although I absolutely hate it, I’d love it to make number one because it brings back some very, very happy memories.

I wish I had Lebkuchen though. They’d be nice.