no fixed abode

This year was not a good year. I worked very hard all year, yet accomplished very little, and I have finished the year having been refused what I was working for, and not knowing what I will work towards now. I feel sad about things that happened this year, and that didn't happen. More than the personal, this year felt bad politically, locally, nationally, globally. So much death, destruction, damage. That is demoralising and hard to accept. We could so easily do so much better, and it is hard to live among humanity at the moment as we destroy our home, the gains we've fought hard for over generations, the better life we've made, and the potential for good lives for future generations and species. We can do better. I want to believe we will. I feel optimistic and determined for the year ahead, and I'm going to hang on to that and nurture it and breathe carefully on that little flame to keep it burning and bring it to light.

The good things this year were enjoying beauty and goodness in little moments, taking time to do things that I love, and making time to do those loved things more fully and more often.

Dawn over Portobello, Dublin, 28th January 2019.

I enjoyed that moment of beauty as dawn broke over my home in Portobello in January.

a-ha at The Point, Dublin, 29th October 2019.

I went to see a-ha play in October. The first real tape I ever got, music I listened to over and over again as a young girl before I really knew what music was, music I loved. I got to be in the same (large) room as Morten Harket. After 30 years I was so happy I went to this gig. 12 year old me thanks 42 year old me.

Björk, Cornucopia tour, Dublin, 28th November 2019.

That helped me remember how much I like going to gigs. So I went to another one less than a month later. Björk. Thank you to the person who sold us his tickets (so close to the stage!) a few days before the gig for less than he paid for them. And thank you to this Icelandic wonder. It was captivating, absorbing, amazing.

Underworld, at Wembley Arena, London, 7th December 2019.

So less than a month after that concert I made time to go and see Underworld, music that I love, that has been very important to me for 25 years and still is. I have seen them perform many times and loved every gig. This one I had been looking forward to for most of a pretty terrible year. It was wonderful. And so are they. Thank you Karl Hyde and Rick Smith.