Bonjour, 2024!
Howdy!
Last we spoke, I see I promised my next post some weeks ago. The truth of the matter is I didn’t really want to do a wrap up of 2023, because it was a year of flats and dips and it would’ve looked suspiciously like one of those sunken cakes people try to disguise with a mountain of delicious-looking icing.
I decided to take some time off to enjoy Christmas and settle into the new year, and to think about what I’d like from 2024. It took some time, and honestly, I’m glad I didn’t force it.
Don’t fear, I won’t be using the word ‘manifest’, not even once (besides using it once to explain that I won’t use it again, language is hard like that).
So here we are, mid-February, after a January that seemed to last for six months, and so much has already happened.
In the southern hemisphere it’s been hot, but we seem to have avoided the drought many promised, and the kids are back at school after decades of holidays.
I got air-conditioning installed after five years living in a house that gets as hot as an oven. The installer told me it was the hottest house he’d ever been in, which made me feel oddly proud.
My first dahlias bloomed, and I did about four hours of solid digging to remove my old clothes line, only to discover it was set with so much concrete that I couldn’t lift it out of the giant hole I created. Luckily I have a very fit mother, with an iron will.
Taylor Swift got more people interested in the Super Bowl than ever before (despite any claims it was Usher’s half-time performance which drew in the crowds) and Ms Knowles had the audacity to drop the first two singles for her impending country album right in the middle of the game, a move so bold that it gave me such a level of second-hand enjoyment that you’d think I was somehow involved in it.
Super Bowl Sunday. The day that stops a nation. The day where even non-sports ball people suddenly have an opinion. A day where so many people tune in to watch the game, that, according to The Wall Street Journal, the average cost of a 30 second ad is $7 million. Brands pay celebrities even more millions of dollars to appear in said ads, which are then dissected as though they are Oscar-nominated films. The day when media discusses nothing else but the half-time show and we all suddenly become critics of stage production and modern dance.
This is the day Beyoncé decided to release two new songs. On the day of the year when it would be hardest to break into the news cycle, let alone move the needle, and yet she did it. With two country songs.
I’m not suggesting everyone go into 2024 with that level of ambition, but I do think 2024 is a good year to disrupt things, whether it be something as small as your routine, or bigger, like challenging yourself to tackle a couple of your fears, or ideas you’ve had about the way your life works because maybe the world has moved on from when you first formed ideas about what a successful adult life looks like.
Looking around, the world isn’t getting any more stable or kind.
Being a life-long avid consumer of media, particularly magazines, I like doing an ‘ins and outs’ list far more than just rattling off a bunch of resolutions for the year, so here they are, my ins and outs for 2024:
Ins1:
+ Building miniatures - I have a JEKCA corgi and a tiny clay brick church to build!
+ Reading - I’m aiming for 52 books again this year, but reviewing them by theme, not one-by-one
+ 35mm photography - I bought myself a split frame camera and some black and white film for Christmas!
+ Music appreciation projects - Listening to back catalogues, seeing more live music, playing guitar
+ Travel - Small country towns and road-side attractions are super hot this year!
+ Newsletters - Writing them and reading them
+ Clearing backlogs - If you have a stack of magazines or books to read, this is the year to do it
+ Australian film with the outback as a character - The Australian outback is a strange and ominous place, centre of some excellent unsettling films
+ Water - Float in it, drink enough of it
+ Resilience - It’s been a bit of a discovery in the last 12 months that resilience takes practice, you’re not necessarily born with or without it, you have to build it, like a muscle. Speaking of which …
+ Muscles - Grow them doing whatever makes you feel good
+ New hobbies - Just start with one! My first new hobby is going to be making spooky little mini masks from air-dry clay
+ Clothing with colour
+ Saturday mornings with freshly squeezed orange juice and a newspaper.
Outs:
- Fiscal irresponsibility
- [Pointless] late nights
- Avoiding things that don’t give you an immediate dopamine hit
- Fast food and fast fashion
- Mess and disorganisation
- Wallowing.
There you have it, what I want from my year. I hope everyone’s 2024 has been at the very least kind to you so far, let’s make the most of the last of the warm weather!
I will expand on each of the ‘ins’ throughout the year as I make progress on them.