2015: the year that was!

2015 was a great year, the best I have had in a long time.

 

Of course with greatness, there is always darkness, my theory is the darkness helps you connect better with greatness!

 

So the darkness first, cause as much as I like to write about happy, it is equally important to write about the opposite. You gotta keep it real. So most of the darkness this year is pretty much everyone else’s darkness...boy the world got very intense and rather fukt! From Syria to Paris, the embarrassment of Tony Abutt, the state of politics and the rise of the far right (or reich, am I right!?!), the poor treatment of women, racism, sexism, misogyny, and war and hate and killing. Makes you want to make your own little republic and be very selective in who you let join you! With all of those atrocities came greatness, you see the beautiful, kind, and considerate people rise above the hatred, it felt like a minority (which is actually worse than the list itself) but at least these people were there, you and me - regular people hoping for a better world.

The other half of my darkness came from within, I started the year with a deep depression, but also incredible love, knowing people had my back and they loved and cared for me, it didn’t take long to break the chains of the black dog. So by the second half of the year I felt pretty much back to regular me. Yes this horrid disease lurks beneath the surface and rears it’s ugly head from time to time, but the bounce back is brief, which is all you can ask for. Within this depression, my old fiend, anxiety, also returned...bigger and better than ever. You gotta love that! A mix of depression and anxiety is pretty freaking awful I tell you, you feel like the push me, pull me creature from Doctor Doolittle, you just don’t know what the fuck is going on and it takes all your worth to put one foot in front of the other and get everyday things done. And I did, I got everyday things done, and I slept a lot and I cried a lot – and this may sound awful, and it is, but it is also important, life changing, and totally appropriate and necessary to move through such a period and reclaim greatness.

 

I am – surprising as it may seem – a very private person, believe me there is a lot about me I do not share. But I think it is important to talk about the bad, the dark, the horrid...because it is an equaliser. This I know, as the more I write and converse about such things, the more I have others engage with me about their own issues. And this is so very important and weirdly comforting. So I shall continue to share the realities of my life (to a certain extent) to assist whoever needs it and to make others uncomfortable, because talking about reality should not be an uncomfortable thing.

 

And you know, in the grand scheme of things, life wasn’t so bad, it could have been a hell of a lot worse.

 

And so onto the greatness.

 

2015 – I started the year with the following: focusing on positives and the ground work I laid for this year, live in the moment and do what I was meant to do, let fate and adventure take it’s course, and hope to meet someone...and I did all of that and more, ok I have not met ‘the one’ but I did meet a lot of new people!

 

I also planned to do my Project 42 for life and I have been following those little guides I set up a few years back and find they really keep my life on track, and I figure if I can be organised at work, why not at home too! Project Read – this I definitely did, I read so many great books this year, and finally Project Declutter, YES! I finished this too, although I look at both of these as ongoing projects. The key to all of this is set acceptable goals and projects that have meaning, you know you can achieve, but still push you without causing stress!

 

Work was great this year, if I may say so myself. My terrific team worked hard and we had a lot of fun doing our regular work on top of special projects and event. Proud of these guys and it’s my pleasure to work alongside of each and every one of them all year round. On a personal note I worked on a lot of special projects, was guest speaker for a few local groups, attended the IAML conference at APRA headquarters, helped establish the wonderful Share the Story with Carol Duncan, and ended the year on a high recruiting two new staff members for Swansea and receiving my 25 years of service.

 

Dating – yep I embraced online dating in the last quarter of the year. And that has been very interesting, challenging, heart breaking, and fun. But that’s life hey? And when you are looking for a life partner, I expect no less. I am in no hurry, geez I just turned 45, I have no internal clock (hurrah!!!) and I am after the right match for me. I’m happy to wade through toads to find him...wherever he may be!

 

Personal Stuff – I got glasses, a new car, and a new laptop. I decluttered my study and turned it into a room of tranquillity and inspiration. I holidayed in Melbourne. I turned 45 without too much drama!

 

Art – as always I soaked up a lot of Art. The Pop into Popism exhibit at NSW Gallery, Chuck Close at MCA, Archibald prize at Maitland Art Gallery, Midnight Oil exhibit at Newcastle Museum, David Bowie exhibit at ACMI, Catherine the Great exhibit at NGV, Hellenic Museum Melbourne, Orry Kelly exhibit ACMI, Frank Gehry building at UTS Sydney, and the Mambo Exhibit at Newcastle Art Gallery.

 

Culture including Books, Film, DVDs, Music  - I experienced a lot of great culture this year, stay tuned for my Top 10 lists! I loved this years Oscars. I had Ukulele lessons.

 

Festivals and Shows – Newcastle Writers Festival, Carriage Shed Film Festival, Absinthe, Go Elsewhere, APRA concert, French Film Festival, TRavelling Sydney Film Festival, Australian Ballet, Many great local theatre productions, The Lion King, Bell Shakespeare’s Hamlet, Fleetwood Mac, This is Not Art Festival, The Doubleclicks, Hunter Valley Gardens Lights, and Star Wars!

 

Interesting people I saw – Neil Gaiman, Peter Lewis, Lisa Heidke, Megan Washinton, Daniel Johns, Steve Smyth (three times), Jon Ronson, John Safran, Magda Szubanski, and Barry Morgan.

 

I also got out and about, ate out a lot, and walked and explored my neighbourhoods including the lake, beach, and inner suburbs. All the while documenting and diarising my life through my blog, photography, and other SM applications. I love sharing what I am up, but mostly it’s just a record for me, so that fact that others interact and enjoy my musings makes me happy.

 

And finally the most important aspect of my life are the people I share it with. Family and friends – you all know who you are. Without you, there would be no me. That’s the honest truth. You have my back, keep my head above water, keep me smiling, and let me know it’s ok to have bad days and are always around to share whatever life throughs at me. I love you all.

 

I will be posting my Top Tens and hopes for 2016 over the next day or so.

 

NOVEMBER ROUND UP

Is it just me or did November come earlier than usual this year?

And flew by just as quick?

I always say once we are celebrating my brother-in-law's birthday (very early in Nov) it's all down-hill to Christmas!

November was hectic at work, with my 2ic being transferred to another branch and the staff member temporarily doing her jobs on holidays, I found myself juggling all three jobs with the fabulous assistance of my part-timers. I did pre-school visits - something I've not done in years - storytelling and puppeting and loving every minute of it...even though I was totally exhausted at the end of each day. I entertained schools, I was guest speaker at Caves Beach View Club, helped celebrate Star Wars, and began the recruitment of the 2ic position, all on top of my regular jobs. I'm still here to tell the story...just!

And in addition to all of that we launched what will be our top-line library program - Share the Story with Carol Duncan, our first event being Carol interviewing - as only she does best - the interesting Mark Tedeschi QC. It was a well attended afternoon at our Belmont Library, and with Wendy Whiteley as one of our guest early in the new year, a program that will continue to grow and shine.

I am still on my online dating thing, which is equal parts fun, amusing, terrifying, and a complete nightmare...in other words, every thing I thought it would be and more, lol. Look, I have no expectations and ever the romantic hope I meet someone IRL, as that is truly a better story, and I'm all about good stories! But hey, if I meet someone via an app, who cares, and in the meantime I have many other types of stories to write about....soooooo many stories!!!! Plus at my old age, I am picky, and in no hurry to find just anyone, this person is going to be (or at least I bloody hope so) the last one, so they had better be freaking good!!!!

So due to that and the festive period I ate out a lot, Verde Luna, Foghorn, Talulah, Eurobar, East End Hub (twice - their breakfasts are to die for!), Murrays beach Cafe, Das Haus Hund, The Lass, and sat for a bit at Peg's before I realised I had sorta kinda been stood up (one of those other types of stories!)

We celebrated the fabulous Ms A's birthday at The Movies - seeing the superb The Dressmaker, The Lass, AND Moneypenny!! Birthdays should be celebrated over a week, yes??

I did my usual market thing, at my regular - Speers Point, and at Broadmeadow, I also indulged myself with a Pedi, and did some actual shopping for Christmas etc.

I stayed at Js, not once but twice...always a delight, caught up R and C for their birthdays. And had C visit from Sydney.

That was for out Twitter Christmas Party at The Lass, and then there was The Mambo opening night!

I also sat still - surprisingly - and caught my breath, because all this rushing about is a recipe for bad mental health, and whilst I had my moments, I was a-ok.

The beach and lake are always great places for breath-catching, or on my lounge with a book.

You can read about what I have been reading, listening to, and watching here.

And I started a new project within this blog, Perfect Songs.

Oh, and I decorated Club Cathy for Christmas.

As always some photos from round and about.

OCTOBER ROUND UP

Well to say I was uber busy during October would be an understatement!!

I had everything going on and I think it's a tribute to how well I am doing with my mental health that I can sit here calmly and write all about it all.

Firstly work was crazy busy, I had a lot of Social Media one on one lessons scheduled as a follow up to last month's overview. And we embarked on Rocktober, a month of music in the library. It was a lot of work and mostly things were successful. Unfortunately the Open Mic Nights we wanted to run were a failure. The people who had promised to assist just didn't deliver and as much as we tried without their help the nights just didn't work. This was extremely upsetting and annoying, but not everything in life goes according to plan and not everyone in life is trustworthy. This was to become a theme of my month! However we did schedule a lot of School Musical Showcases and they were extremely successful with fun performances within the library that were very well attended. And at the last minute I came across a worthy collaborator for future musical endeavours, so not down and out, we shall try something different in the new year. This was on top of regular work, meetings, starting to organise two separate staffing recruits and the awful news that it looks likely we will amalgamate with Newcastle Council resulting in about 130 lost jobs.

In the middle of all of this I decided that my dwindling field of possibilities romantically needed to be broadened! Well actually that decision was made last month, it was this month that saw things get moving. I guess I don't talk much about all of this, there are some things you gotta keep to yourself. I do date but yet to meet, you know, the one. Or at least the one who feels mutually about that, lol! But in between these dates can be what I call dry periods. Anyway, I love my life and for the most part don't actually get too down about being single, it would just be nice to share those special moments with someone that is all. At my age there is no hurry, no ticking clock, and I know what I want, so it's kind of refreshing really. Having said that I do have moments of despair and longing...cause you know, I'm human! 

So the broadening of my net so to speak unleashed, well, a range of situations that I initially struggled to navigate. Far out, it's a nightmare out there, I thought I knew that, but I had no idea really. It's a wonder the world continues to populate itself with so many idiots out there I can tell you. I have had some very awful experiences this month, one in particular that still has me scratching my head, but I do think I dodged a bullet by getting out of that fairly early, but not without great upset. You would think by the time we get to my age, we'd be grown up and done with games but apparently not. Anyway, I have had good experiences that more than made up for the bad, and the amusement of observing some of the dreadful behaviour is sadly entertaining and given me MUCH material to write about, lol! No, I haven't found the one yet, but it's been interesting and kind of fun. And as I write I feel less anxious than I did at the beginning of the month. Huge shout out to my lovely close circle of friends who look after my wellbeing and love me, in particular C and J, who are my constants and sounding boards.

And if all of that was not enough, boy I got some socialising in!!!

The month started in Sydney for a Music Librarians Conference I was thrilled to take part in. I felt like a rockstar Librarian as I entered the APRA HQ where the conference was held. I mingled with proper Music Librarians, and other interesting related people like The Brandenburg Orchestra, ABC etc. Afterwards I finally checked out the Gehry at the UTS which I absolutely loved of course.

The October long weekend is the This Is Not Art (TINA) and National Young Writers Festival and we had a long day listening to loads of interesting people talk about a range of subject matter. We also checked out the premiere of a local filmmaker's movie, filmed in Newcastle and Transylvania at The Towers. 

There was a crazy night in Newcastle where A, L, & I double booked ourselves (purposely) to see Magda Szubanski and Barry Morgan on the same night. Squeezing in Bookclub and a meal prior we were on fire!

Magda was here to be interviewed by the wonderful Rosemarie Milsom about her memoir. It was an hour of sheer delight, we got to see Magda and what a beautiful soul she is. She spoke mostly about her upbringing, her father who was a sniper during the war, and her struggles with her weight and sexuality. She was intelligent, well spoken, and just a fascinating person. Yes she dipped into her comedy and told a few fab stories, but it was the other that had me - and I suspect the entire audience - in the palm of her hands. I could have listened to her all night. I've always thought of her as a national treasure, but now more so.

As soon as that finished we hightailed it to the Carrington Bowlo for Barry Morgan. We'd only missed a small amount of his show which was hilarious and camp, as you would expect. If you don't know who Barry is, google him, he's another national treasure. I've loved his shtick since I first saw him on Spicks and Specks years ago. He entertained the very full audience, with songs, tales, double entendres, and divine organ playing. Gosh we loved Barry's organ. It was one of those nights of laughing until your cheeks hurt.

I also saw two plays this month, one an amateur production of a hospital farce at St Matthews Hall at Georgetown with H, featuring some of her family and with superb catering by the talented J. The other at The Playhouse with A, after a lovely meal at The Clarendon, called Between Two Waves, about a climate scientist whose life is falling apart around him. Clever staging encompassing relationships, climate change, politics, and mental health. I enjoyed both plays.

L and I were also privileged to be part of a small group of people who were lucky enough to see The Doubleclicks, a cool duo from Portland, who sing geeky songs about Dinosaurs, Cats, being an introvert, and sci-fi amongst other very cool things. Huge thanks to S for pulling this together. Definitely a fan now!

Here is them singing Oh, Mr Darcy.

My personal favourite, Will they or won't they?

And The Doctor Who Theme as you've never heard it before.

I also managed to head to a small Tweet Up at The Lass, attend an ALIA meeting at The Press Book House Cafe, check out Newcastle Gallery, do a lot of second hand book and clothes shopping, celebrate my nephew's 13th birthday at Foghorn, and catch up with D at Qs.

But the highlight of my month, and possibly my year was seeing Fleetwood Mac with C and E in Sydney. They were absolutely brilliant and you can read all about our experience here.

Here are my few reviews from October too, didn't have much time left to read or watch many DVDs.

And as always some random photos: