It's Here! It's Here!

Happy New Year!

I had an absolutely marvellour 2013, my best year yet. I know I've been saying for abour 4 years now that every year was the BEST YEAR YET, but that's because they keep getting better and better.

Let's sum up some of the things that made 2013 great:

• Leo and I celebrated New Years 2013 in NYC, at what was probably the trendiest restaurant I will ever celebrate a major holiday in. We then had the most bizarre and surreal journey back to Long Island.
• We packed up everything, Leo quit his important job, I my less important multiple jobs, and we moved to Copenhagen, Denmark, in the depths of the winter snow. 
• We began a carpentry and design course which was impossibly hard for someone as inexperienced as me, but I learned so much from it.
• We got bikes and cycled absolutely everywhere, especially in blizzards. 
• We went on a number of small but very exciting trips, including an overnighter to Berlin, and a trip back to London for old time's sake.
• I learned how to drive, but have thus far failed my test twice (God loves a trier, third time lucky, how many cliches can I use until I have convinced myself failure is ok?? Ce sera sera.).
• I learned the principles of organic gardening, and am eying the prospect hungrily for the future.
• I was in an airport at least four times a month, on average, every month last year.
• In one day, my first day driving a car that was not a lesson, I drove half way across the island of Ireland, drove in rain, in the dark, did a u-turn and parked several times. Score!
• I cooked Christmas dinner twice, once with friends, once for my entire family. I now consider myself very good at cooking brussel sprouts.
• I turned 25 and was surprised by the most amazing cat cake. Everyone in my family is now divisible by 5, and long may it last.
• After refusing to consume any alcohol dogmatically for the past 24 years, I have one glass of champagne, one glass of prossecco, two glasses of mulled wine and about a shot of Johnny Walker. Everything in moderation, that's something it took me a very long time to accept I was ready for, but now I'm looking forward to a year filled with lots of different kinds of spirits. Preferably fancy whiskies. But only in moderation.
• All the friends I have. Spending time in Ireland has been so perfect, because I have rekindled my friendship with so many. I feel so lucky to have as many friends and acquaintances as I do. Something as simple as sitting in an aga-warmed kitchen on a Friday night, or jogging together, or going shopping, or going on a roadtrip and staying in a hostel, all these memories colour a life and make it wonderful. I'm not interested in cliques or exclusive best friend logic, I just want to have lots of fun with as many different people as I can. 'Have a good time, all the time, that's my philosophy in life'.
• I managed to keep a blog for a whole year, update it frequently, and not put any angsty, emotive shite on it at all. The greatest victory of all.

 I went to a bunch of new places, including:

Malmö, twice, Berlin, the Austrial Tirolean Alps, Long Island, D.C. and Virginia in the USA, northern Germany, The Giant's Causeway, Co. Antrim. I also went on trips to lots of places I've been many times before. Tiny trips make life more colourful.


Leo and I celebrated New Years by getting Turkish food and then cycling to a hill where we could watch the sky being lit up all around Copenhagen. Fireworks aren't for sale in Ireland and we've been fed urban legends the whole of our lives that if you go too near a firework your hand will explode and you might die. Well, not so the case in Denmark. The whole sky (and the streets around us) was lit up with a million different colours. It was the most spectacular night time display of colour I've seen (I haven't yet been to Iceland to see the aurora, see), and it lasted for hours. Danes know how to do New Years!

The picture below is not, as you might be tricked into believing, a very bright constellation. It is a firework exploding. Now, isn't that just the prettiest sight?

I hope everyone has a great 2014, filled with positivity, hard work, creativity, and logic. Possibly the 4 greatest devices for happiness and longevity. Stay fabulous.