yes, i know they recorded this in 2011. (so not last year... but the year before last. how weird.) but it is STILL amazing. and they should just get together already. yeeeeeah.
anyway - happy New Year :D i hope you all had really wonderful parties or get-togethers or solo gatherings (like i had) and that you're all looking forward to the coming year - i know i am!
now, i've never been a resolutions girl, and that didn't change this year, but i felt like doing something to look over the year that's just passed and look forward to the year that's coming... so i did a little googling (like i do for everything, doh) and found this list, which i thought looked fun :) herewith follows my slightly abridged version of people and things i've loved this past year, in groups of ten, and things i'm looking forward to for good ol' TWENTY-THIRTEEN!
first off, people that matter:
if i were to take a fantasy train trip (which sounds amazing right now - let's DO IT!) with people i love, these are the people i'd want along for the ride (and i cheated a little here and included whole groups of people as single entities... so don't shoot me):
1. obviously Chris, who is the best and whom i'd want with me any time, anywhere (HE ARRIVES HERE TOMORROW YES PLEASE!);
2. my gesin - Mom, Dad and Sindi, who are legendary and the coolest cats in the nuclear family business;
3. Huw and Mary Elyse, because they are wonderful and hilarious and make for legendary game sessions (particularly during Apples to Apples and 30 Seconds - when Dire Straits is defined as "a bad situation in a not curvy way");
4. Kymmie and her Robies, who are firstly amazing people and secondly know how to party :)
5. Celia and her Floreses, who are also such legends and who make me smile pretty darn wide;
6. Karen, Beth and Nick - for the sake of some serious awesomeness, obviously;
7. my dear friend Natalie, who would assist fearlessly in the face of any harebrained scheme i'd come up with for parties on the train (generally on the baking front) and who would otherwise just shine her loveliness everywhere;
8. the wonderful Cathryn, who would be my person of sanity and would endure long talks and laughter and singing with me;
9. the marvellous Judy, who would serenade EVERYONE and would challenge us with her boldness (she's busy climbing Kilimanjaro now... yeeeeah, bold);
aaaand
10. the beautiful Hayley, who would put up with me and listen to me and laugh with me and clean with me and bake with me ;)
(disclaimer: there are about another 300 people i'd like on the train. this list was already expanded... so don't be hurt if you aren't on it, but rest assured that you're definitely on my extended list that was spiralling out into insanity!)
then, let's talk about people i'd love to meet - these're the top ten guests i'd have on the train (some of them are dead in real life, but this is a fantasy trip... so they can just be there, alright? :| ):
Anne Lamott (1), Donald Miller (2), Jane Austen (3) and C.S. Lewis (4) could dazzle everyone with their awesomeness, have long philosophical discussions (ok, i don't know if Jane Austen was much of a philosopher... but still) and give animated readings and discussions of their books... i would die. meanwhile, Zooey Deschanel (5), Joseph Gordon-Levitt (6), Audrey Hepburn (7) and Dylan Moran (8) could entertain the train-trippers with dramatic performances, and Cheri MacNeil (9) (obviously joined at many intervals by Zooey, JGL, Cathryn and Judy) would sing us all into a blissful state. Oh, and Sebastian Vettel (10) could join the party, too... because he's awesome :)
now, after that long-windedness, let me list, in no particular order, the top ten books i devoured last year:
1. The Sound & The Fury - William Faulkner
2. The God of Small Things - Arundhati Roy
3. The Story of an African Farm - Olive Schreiner
4. Mrs Dalloway - Virginia Woolf
5. The Unbearable Lightness of Being - Milan Kundera
6. One Thousand Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
7. Pegasus - Robin McKinley
8. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close - Jonathan Safran Foer
9. Pride & Prejudice - Jane Austen (for the third time... still as awesome)
10. Clarice Bean Spells Trouble - Lauren Child (consumed last night... hee!)
and the top ten books i plan to devour in the coming year:
1. Robinson Crusoe - Daniel Defoe
2. Help, Thanks, Wow - Anne Lamott
3. A Million Miles in a Thousand Years - Donald Miller
4. Shadows - Robin McKinley
5. Life of Pi - Yann Martel (finally)
6. Bird By Bird - Anne Lamott (also finally)
7. Paradise Lost - John Milton (okay, okay, so it's not really a book... but it's one of my main study areas next year, so i had to include it :) )
8. Sense & Sensibility - Jane Austen (again - this time as course work!)
9. Fall of Giants - Ken Follett
10. The Problem of Pain / The Four Loves - C.S. Lewis (another cheat. i'm going to read both... so technically the list is 11 books long. but whatever :P )
the top ten movies i watched last year:
1. Ramona & Beezus
2. The Hunger Games
3. Brave
4. Moneyball
5. The Avengers
6. Batman: The Dark Knight Rises
7. Inception
8. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
9. Tintin
10. Elf (again... as is Christmas tradition ;) )
the top ten movies i'm anxious to watch this year:
1. Lincoln
2. Man of Steel
3. Skyfall
4. The Hobbit
5. Looper
6. Django Unchained
7. Les Miserables
8. Moonrise Kingdom
9. Zero Dark Thirty
10. Wreck-It Ralph
the top ten musicians who formed the soundtrack to my 2012:
1. Flyleaf (and their album New Horizons - specifically Fire Fire, but really the whole album)
2. Dear Reader (and their album Idealistic Animals, which i got at the start of the year and listened to the whole way through 2012)
3. The Civil Wars (...all of their music. seriously.)
4. Daughter (particularly their song Youth, which is fantastic)
5. Noah Gundersen (his song Cigarettes and his cover of Joni Mitchell's A Case of You)
6. John Mayer (and his new album Born & Raised)
7. Mumford & Sons (and their recent album Babel, particularly Not With Haste)
8. NEEDTOBREATHE (their album The Outsiders, which i got for Christmas in 2011 :) )
9. Regina Spektor (Far, of course)
10. William Fitzsimmons (particularly his songs Beautiful Girl, Psychasthenia and Everything Has Changed)
and finally, my top ten places for exploration and adventure in the coming year:
1. Hogsback (because it is relatively close to Grahamstown and beautiful and i've never been there. yep.)
2. Kenton (because the beach is where it's at)
3. Cape Town (hopefully my mom, sister, grandma and i will be heading off there in June - yessss :) )
4. California (another hopeful - because it's looking like we might be going on a little stateside visit this coming December - woot!)
5. Texas (heh. if Huw and M.E. get married there ;) )
6. Johannesburg (to see Chris and hang out with friends, maybe)
7. Durban (to see my Cathy and my Natalie!)
8. Mtunzini (because, again, the beach is where it's at... and there are good food places there, yo)
9. Seattle (because i am being dreamy here, and i would love to visit that place of awesomeness!)
10. Scotland (again... dreamy. ah, beautiful land of my ancestors!)
aaaaaand now that i have bored you all to tears with my lists, HAPPY NEW YEAR! :D in the words of Neil Gaiman,
"May your coming year be filled with magic and dreams and good madness. I hope you read some fine books and kiss someone who thinks you’re wonderful, and don’t forget to make some art — write or draw or build or sing or live as only you can. And I hope, somewhere in the next year, you surprise yourself."
love to you all :)
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