But moving on let's take a look at some of the highlights, in no particular order:
1. The weight loss saga - Like every year, my year starts with focused determination to lose weight, to be thin and sexy and that focus lasts about a day till I open the first packet of chips and then it's Mexican Fiesta (my new found flavour) all the way. However in the middle of this year I was forced by my sister to join this health group and I shed about 8 kilos (which only I could notice), put back 4 of them already (may be more, but I blame it on Christmas) and next year I will most definitely make more weight loss plans that I will not follow again.
2. The house - To move in or not to move in. Living in our tiny apartment in the city we were content. Of course we couldn't fit in all the people we wanted at one time, though we have managed some extremely crammed gatherings where people were walking sideways for the lack of space, but we were still content. To leave the convenience of the city where we didn't need a car and managed very well with public transport; where during winter snow melted away immediately when temperatures hit above zero (no dealing with extreme icy conditions and no need to get out the grandma spikes, which I still have to learn to walk in by the way); where we could easily get a takeaway in 5 minutes walking distance if we were too tired or rather too lazy to cook (usually the latter). However, the greed for more space to store all the junk we had collected over the years won over and we decided to move to the suburbs.
3. The stuff - How much stuff can you collect in 5 years? I'll tell you; 4 large suitcases, 26 large cartons, 12 medium cartons plus throw in a few blue ikea bags for things we will now call miscellaneous. And this is excluding furniture and appliances. Our tiny apartment was a fully furnished serviced apartment which meant that the only stuff that belonged to us were our small personal items which would normally be clothes, books, toys (the kid's of course), etc.
If you had to ask me to recall all the items in those boxes we could be sitting here for months, just trying to recall. I think there was one box filled only with wires. I don't know what they did, where they went, what they connected to, but what if we did need them one day and had thrown out that exact same wire, oh the horror! So of course, we had to keep all the wires including the neon green ones with a broken ear bud at one end; for a future auditory emergency! These wires had been together so long they were now almost one entity. There was probably some binary fission action happening there while we were not looking.
4. The move - Friends offered to help us move and we had to politely decline. Have you tried fitting 38 boxes in one car? We were not aiming for a world record here. So on moving day we ended up with a humungous van and a very bewildered friend who had trouble believing the amount of stuff this tiny apartment was spewing out.
5. The hill - I always thought that the walk to my daughters school in the city was a bit cumbersome because of the climb, all 100 meters of it. And then came the walk to Emma Hjorth Skole. First day of school was full of blood, sweat and tears, by a very unfit 38 year old, me. That evening a desperate googling for electric cycles happened. It was either that or I needed a teleportation device. The hill was ultimately conquered with some more sweat and tears, until winter came and out came the old lady shuffle. One evening it took me over 30 minutes to walk down the hill, it would have been faster if I just rolled down.
6. The bartender - After more than 16 years of working in IT the husband quit his job, and decided to become a bartender. He slogged it out in bartending school, topped his class and truly achieved his dream. More drinks for us. Also, now our daughter has dropped her confused looked when asked what do her parents do. The dad's profession is voiced vociferously to whosoever will listen; even the random guy at the takeaway place.
7. Bijli ki Rani - The most mind-boggling discovery of this year after about 30 years of living in blissful ignorance, was when my friend corrected the words of the most famous song of my one of my favourite movies as a child, Mr. India. The Indian lady pretending to be a Hawaiian was actually saying 'Bijli Giraney' (which means she came to drop lightning) and not 'Bijli Ki Rani' (The queen of lightning) which I had believed to be true my entire life up until few days ago. I am still coming to terms with it... she was the queen of lightning...the queen!
To round up, we still have boxes to unpack, still have the goddamn hill to climb, but I hope 2018 to be just as great, of 'Bijli ki Rani' revelations and may be this year will be the year of the thin and sexy.
Happy New Year!
