Monday 8 January 2018

Questions About 2017

Yes, I know - 2017 is gone, dead and buried. 2018 is already 8 days "old". But I am still thinking about the past 12 months, and I guess I am not entirely alone in that. Of course, I am also looking ahead, not just back, but let me focus on 2017 just for a few more minutes.

We spent New Year's Eve at my sister's, a small party of six. It was a nice evening, quiet and lively at the same time. I had prepared a game for us all to play, based on something I had been reading the day before in my weekly paper: Several more or less well-known people from different walks of life were asked the same questions about 2017. I adapted these a bit and made a card game of it, where we asked each others those questions in turn. It meant not all of us got to answer each question, but I thought about what my answers would be while I was preparing the game.

Here they are:

1. What did you do for the first time in 2017?
Oh, many things! For instance, I was present at the setting up of a maypole for the first time. Also, I visited Zurich for the first time, and had a very posh afternoon tea with all the traditional parts for the first time. (These and several other "firsts" featured on my blog.) Some food and drink I also tasted for the first time.

2. Was 2017 better or worse than what you expected?
Both. It was much, much better in terms of work, but worse under some aspects to do with my health.

3. Who or what was "hope" for you in 2017?
That's a tough one. I rarely expect something from others, but more from myself. I did have some hopes regarding our government to DO SOMETHING about certain things going wrong in this country, but I won't go into detail on my blog when it comes to politics.

4. Who or what was disappointing in 2017?
See # 3 - those things did not come about. And I was disappointed with myself more than once. Also, it was somewhat disappointing that we did not manage a proper family gathering in Yorkshire the way we had done in previous years, and that Aunt J and Uncle B were away and we could not spend time with them as we had done before.

5. Your personal success in 2017?
I won a customer I'd been after (so to speak) for almost two years.

6. Your personal failure in 2017?
Mostly to do with running. Don't ask. Work-wise, I did not manage to make three people who were assigned to a project of mine (not by my choice) do what they were supposed to be doing, when they were supposed to be doing it. The nice approach didn't work.

7. What were you most happy about in 2017?
Another difficult one - there were so many happy moments and beautiful times in 2017! I went on three lovely holidays, saw wonderful places and met the nicest people. Again, a lot of it featured on my blog.

8. What made you most angry in 2017?
Maybe not most angry, but I often was angry about the inability of our rail services (both local and long distance) to provide what I paid for - a trip from A to B in time with the schedule THEY had set up.

9. What was the biggest surprise for you in 2017?
That Ripon introduced its first female Hornblower in the more than 1,000 year old tradition! :-)

10. What news in 2017 could you have done without?
Oh, nearly all of the ones that I saw daily on the main news on TV - too much bad stuff going on everywhere, all the time.

- - -

There were several more questions in the paper, but I think ten are enough. I wonder how my answers will differ after the next 12 months!
(If you feel like answering all or some of them in your comments, or use them on your own blogs, please feel free!)

18 comments:

  1. A great post on your wonderful 'game' - and if OK with you Meike I may keep a copy of your questions and use it myself next year.
    Thanks for sharing your thoughts on 2017 - here's to a great year ahead. You may like the Rainer Maria Rilke quote I used in my post today.
    Mary x

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    1. Of course you may use the questions, Mary - I nicked them off the paper anyway :-)
      I have not yet seen your Rilke quote, but will pop over to your blog in a minute.

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  2. I didn't know about the female hornblower and I only live about ten miles away!

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  3. That is an interesting way to consider the past year.....I will probably think about this more later today. Congratulations on getting that customer...And commiserations that the "nice way" did not work. I wish you and all your family a 2018 of good health, happiness and satisfaction. Today I am satisfied because we have temperatures above freezing which we have not had since well before Christmas.

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    1. Thank you, Kristi!
      Like you, I found some of these questions made me think long and hard, even though I did not elaborate on them all that much here - the post would have become VERY long, and not very interesting to anyone but myself.
      We're still having spring-like temperatures of around 10 Celsius during the day, but it is supposed to get colder on the weekend.

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  4. My sister visited Switzerland this year, wouldn't it be amazing to think that you might have walked right past each other? Let's see, she was there in the summer, I think, not sure when you were there. (You must have done a post about it, but I can't remember much this days, let alone dates! LOL!)
    P.S. She visited several countries but she said that Switzerland was her favorite.

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    1. O.K. and I were in Zurich for 3 days in September, Kay, when your sister was probably back home. But it would have been entirely possible for us to walk past each other - we would have never known, as we have never seen each other. Also, not expecting to see someone makes you not "look", if you know what I mean. I have met people I've known from a specific context (for instance work) in a situation where I did not expect them (for instance at the station) and would have walked right past them had they not stopped me!

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  5. Loved reading this, but being me, I'm worried about your health. Did you talk about it during the year, in yet another post I didn't get to read? I'm with you about the news and politics.

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    1. Thank you, Nan!
      No, I have not said much about my health. It is mainly about my eyes; I will probably need surgery this year, and it scares me quite a lot.

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    2. I'm sure it does scare you. I will be thinking about you.

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  6. An honest appraisal of an interesting year! I'm sorry about the health problems, though, and hope they are now resolved..

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    1. Thank you, Frances! The health stuff is still in the making, so to speak. Some time in March I will know when and if I'll have eye surgery, and what it will mean in terms of work etc.

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  7. I always find it more interesting to read what other people have to say about themselves than I find trying to think up answers in my own life.

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    1. I like both, and also find it interesting to see how different people may answer the same question in a very different way.

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  8. What did you do for the first time in 2017?... I stayed on the Isle of Anglesey and visited Saltburn-by-the-Sea, Kirkudbright and Lanzarote. I also attended some art classes and sent pictures of Fred Fox to various people including my only German friend.

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    1. I remember all that from your blog! And as I happen to know your only German friend quite well, I see Fred's portrait on the wall almost every day.

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