Goodbye 2018; a short review of the year

Reading and Writing

Joined a book club and, whilst not inspired by all recommended, I did enjoy Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine by Gail Honeyman, The Storyteller by Jodi Picoult and The Blood Of Flowers by Anita Amirrezvani.  At the moment I am loving Life after Life by Kate Atkinson and look forward to reading the follow up, A god in Ruins.

My writing hasn’t been wonderful this year, both in output and content but I joined an online writing group and the challenges and feedback has provided the motivation needed.  I did co-write at radio play for the local Writing on Air festival.
 

Visits

Having exchanged our RHS membership for National Trust, we have visited some new places of interest.  Details of these and other destinations visited have been described in earlier blog posts.  
 The glorious summer enhanced the time we spent at the Yorkshire coast and in my capacity of judge for Yorkshire in Bloom allowed me to discover some beautiful, hidden spots.

 

 

Family and Friends

We’ve celebrated many milestones from 1^st to 99^th birthdays and many big ones in between, my grandson’s Bar Mitzvah and a couple of Golden Weddings plus we managed a whole family holiday in the summer.

Having an extensive family and many close friends is a blessing but the downside is that we have lost quite a few this year.

Other Highlights
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0bty2g2

My nephew presented a programme on BBC about my maternal grandmother’s journey from Vashilishok with yours truly having a small speaking role.  Entitled A Very British History; The Jews of Leeds aired on BBC1 Yorkshire and will be shown on BBC4 in early 2019.

 Also, saw James Taylor live.

 Looking forward to hearing what you’ve been up to this year and wishing you good health and happiness in 2019