Happy New Year to everyone reading this. May your 2006 be better than your 2005. Which probably won't be hard in my case.

Onto the review of 2005 and my new years resolutions from last year.

The 2005 in review meme:

1.What did you do in 2005 that you'd never done before?
Went to the other side of the world. It was only the second time I've been out of Europe too.

2. Did you keep your New Year's resolutions and will you make more for next year?

See further down for the first part. For the second, I'm not planning on making any more because I just don't know how the year it going to turn out.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
No

4. Did anyone close to you die?
No

5. What countries did you visit?
Australia. And technically speaking, since I didn't leave the airport, I didn't go to Singapore.

6. What would you like to have in 2006 that you lacked in 2005?
Food that tastes nice. Plus a car (which is cheating really, as I know I'm getting dad's in the summer). And a place to live that's not in someone else's house.

7. What date from 2005 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
None of them in particular. I'm crap with remembering dates.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Going to a strange country on my own for three weeks, one week after going lactose-free.

9. What was your biggest failure?
There's no one thing that sticks out in particular.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?
Depends on how you define illness. I have all these intolerances now, and I have something making me tired, which seems to be caused by nothing at all and I'm hoping is going to go away.

11. What was the best thing you bought?
A ticket to SG10. Because it was good fun and I wasn't really expecting it to be.

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Anyone whose lives were made more complicated by my eating problems

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?
Everyone at the work Christmas party smoking

14. Where did most of your money go?
Looking at My Money, most of it went on rent and savings. But the biggest non-boring thing was my Australia trip.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?
Going to Australia.

16. What song will always remind you of 2005?
Probably Amarillo. I just remember everyone dancing to it at Conference. I had never heard the song before and had no idea why they were all doing a conga to it. I later found out it was No 1 in the charts.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you: Happier or sadder? Thinner or fatter? Richer or poorer?
Probably sadder, but thinner and richer.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Travelling. Not just abroad, either.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Going to the doctors!

20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent it at home, relaxing

21. Did you fall in love in 2005?
No

23. How many one-night stands?
Yeah, right.

24. What was your favourite TV programme?
Doctor Who

25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
No

26. What was the best book you read?
Not a book, but the Lois McMaster Bujold ones were good new reads.

27. What was your greatest musical discovery?
A guitar!

28. What did you want and get?
I wanted freeview and got it.

29. What did you want and not get?
Oh, so many things.

30. What was your favourite film of this year?
I really enjoyed Narnia, Harry Potter, Wallace and Gromit, Star Wars

31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old did you turn?
I spent the bank holiday weekend at Rotaract Conference, having a good time and getting drunk. I turned 26.

32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Being able to eat whatever I like.

33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2005?
Cheap is good.

34. What kept you sane?
Sometimes I just don't know.

35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?
Ewan McGregor. Like that's going to change, especially having seen him up close (through binoculars)

36. What political issue stirred you the most?
The whole smoking ban thing.

37. Who did you miss?
Emma. Although she's only been gone a couple of months.

38. Who was the best new person you met?
Maybe David for being enthusiastic about Rotaract (never a bad thing)

39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2005:
To expect the unexpected

40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:
I don't know any song lyrics!

The 2005 fic review meme:

Fics completed this year: Including drabbles, 9. 8 of them were Lord of the Rings (double) drabbles.

Twins Forever
22nd September
The Fords of Isen
Morning
Wishing
The Presence of Presents
The Choices of Master Samwise
Rivendell Revisited
The Law Society's Annual Ball

Looking back, did you write more fic than you thought you would this year, less, or about what you'd predicted?
Less. Just a tad. I still have a list of birthday drabbles I've been meaning to do dating back, oh, nearly a year now. Which make me feel more guilty because other people have written lots of nice things for me.

What pairing/genre/fandom did you write that you would never have predicted in January 2005?
I wrote Stargate Atlantis, which I didn't think I would. And it's Sheppard/Weir, which I hadn't seen at all a year ago; and Teyla/Ford, which I don't like reading in non-AU.

I also wrote Théodred, who I had discovered was quite interesting, but hadn't really got round to reading much about him.

What's your favourite story of the year? Not the most popular, but the one that makes you happiest?
I think The Law Society's Annual Ball. Ok, so it helps that it's the most recent, and not a drabble (or double drabble). But it took three weeks from start to finish, where finish means it was posted, which is a new record. And it's about 6500 words which is another record.

Re-reading it, I still quite like Wishing.

Did you take any writing risks this year? (See above for unexpected pairings, etc.) What did you learn from them?
I learnt train journeys are good for writing, as long as they're longer than from Reading to London. I learned that if I sit down and get on with it, I can't get things finished.

Do you have any fanfic or profic goals for the New Year?
Get some stuff finished! And write more drabbles, not only to fulfil the finishing thing, and to actually get them done for people, but also to just practice writing.

2005 Resolutions:

1. Eat 5 fruit & veg a day (and try some new ones because there doesn't seem to be that many I like atm)
Actually, I mostly have. It does help that the only one I can't eat is cherries, but everything else I can eat as much of as I like.

2. Eat less chocolate/biscuits/crisps (TimTams don't count, because I say so)
Er, never mind.

3. Walk faster to work and back (therefore making it count as 30mins of exercise a day)
Er, yeah.

4. Actually write the Rotaract agenda before the night it's on
I was going to say that was only really applicable for half the year but not only did I not really manage it most times, I now make a note of what I want to say that night, every time.

2005 Fannish Resolutions:

1. Finish tag team challenge fic - it's already over two months past the deadline
It's now 1 year past. Never mind.

2. Finish fic I started in April 2003 before it reaches its second birthday
Now approaching birthday number three...

3. Actually read the drabbles in tolkien_weekly. For a start anyway, then write some as well, and try and go back to writing them once a week.
Not so much. But then they changed the settings so I have to go to the site to read them, so that counts as an excuse, I reckon.

4. Read Birthday drabbles forum - and write some
I started well.

5. Write some fic. And read some. And send more feedback/review on Sel's site - by actually doing it at the time rather than a few months later when I can't remember what happened.
Not so much on the writing but I've done better on the other two! I am fairly up-to-date on reviews and I am getting better at sending feedback on what I've read

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