Be Excellent To Each Other

Here we are again. Same procedure as last year and all that.

I've tried to take advantage of the world opening up again. I had a lazy week on Gran Canaria for winter sun, marked by my birthday and choosing to fly back on the day of heavy storms (a bumpy landing is still a landing). I also had a couple of weeks in Italy, finally seeing all the places I read about in Asterix books.

The highlight was a week's trekking in the mountains of the Balkans. Started in Kosovo, and kept on crossing between Albania and Montenegro. Some amazing treks and breathtaking views, and felt very remote throughout. Highly recommended.

I've done quite a bit of hiking here, and explored parts of the country I usually overlook, such as Dorset and the Welsh/English borders.

I really enjoyed going back to live performances. I finally saw Derran Brown live, which was as mind-blowingly awesome. Gigwise, I took in Frank Turner, British Sea Power, and Bellowhead. I also went to the opera in Florence for The Barber of Seville and thoroughly enjoyed the amazingly batshit performance (at one point there were policemen in Donald Duck masks chasing giant balloons for art). It also changed my view of the genre because other than the popular excerpts I always struggled to listen to an opera on disc or the radio, meaning I was completely missing the point. It's not just about the music, it's all about the performance. Really keen to see other operas live now.

I'm still going regularly with friends to the ice rink to see the Oxford City Stars play ["valiantly" - ed.] and even took in a couple of international games in Milton Keynes and Coventry. Might do more of that in the new year.

Still playing board games and loving exploring new mechanics and themes. It's good that my board game group has resumed after the forced hiatus and continues to go from strength to strength - we currently end almost every night with a round of Feed the Kraken. Probably should start playing some of my existing games before buying any more but that's the way of the hobby.

Cottage was its usual mad daze of a weekend and Tuesday nights are still very enjoyable.

Overall, 2022 has been a much better year than the last two, and I'm feeling far happier and relaxed.

Thank you for continuing to be the best people on the Internet, and have a fantastic 2023!