Perhaps
an over-the-top title for a post but I really think I might be the worst
blogger ever. It's been a year since my last entry on this blog - but in
fairness I've had some life changing circumstances this year.
2016 was a year of dramatic change for
the world: Britain voted Brexit, the US voted Trump and we lost a seemingly
endless list of big-name celebrities. The year was also a big one for me - my
best friend got married, I did my first ever 10k run, I played for the Queen
and took a bunch of kids on tour to France for the first time. Oh, and I moved
to the Caribbean.
I won't dwell on that here as I have a whole other blog about my exploits in Grand Cayman (which you can find here) but suffice to say it's been a life-changing move for me. Before August the closest I'd ever gotten to the Caribbean was playing Monkey Island, so it's been a bit of a culture shock. It has however, enabled me to check a few more items off my list!
First of all, I started off the year with free ice skating lessons! It's a fab initiative that Altrincham Ice Rink were running for anyone aged 25 and under (lucky me I was just under the cusp at the time) that meant I could go along for a free group lesson for 6 weeks, not having to pay for skate hire or rink entry, and I was also allowed to stay to skate after for up to 2 hours for free! I got quite into my ice skating, even buying my own pair of skates, and was quite excited to see they're planning to build a rink in Cayman! It's not been built yet but they are telling everyone to watch this space. Hmm.
Moving my entire life across the world meant I had to downsize my personal possessions quite a lot and sell a lot of things to make sure I had plenty of money to move over with. Tragically I had to sell some of my beloved musical instruments but I also managed to save up over £300 of £1 coins in my terramundi pot, which was fun to smash! The original intention had been to spend my terramundi funds on an expensive bottle of champagne from Selfridges but no matter - there'll be plenty of time for that. I also did an epic car boot sale to get rid of a lot of my junk.
I also wanted to try and do as many UK-based things as I could fit in before I left the country, which included a day trip to Stonehenge! I also went to see loads of musicals and plays - including Rocky Horror show in full on slutty Ann Summers outfits, and a dramatic enactment of King Lear live at the Royal Exchange in Manchester - which included a horrible scene of a man's eyes being plucked out!
Packing up my life meant I got chance to watch a lot of TV, so as well as watching the entire series of Desperate Housewives (which took up a significant chunk of my time and became a surprising addiction!) I managed to tick a few iconic films off my must-watch list: Home Alone, Blazing Saddles, Breakfast at Tiffany's and Castaway, all classics in their own way but also in my opinion fantastic films! I LOVED Castaway and couldn't stop saying WILSON!!!! for days afterwards.
Once I'd finally arrived here in Cayman I was able to tick off one item I've been struggling with for ages - Try 20 kinds of food I've never tasted before. Since being here I've tasted such a weird and wonderful number of foods I've easily checked this off. The big traditional food in Cayman is turtle (farmed locally on island and NOT taken from the wild) which was surprisingly tasty and similar to really tender beef rather than fish as I was expecting. I've also tried tropical fruits like starfruit, rambutan and longan; sampled Caribbean staples like Saltfish & Ackee, Jerk chicken/pork; and new exotic sounding fish with hilarious names like mahi-mahi and wahoo. It's really a whole new world of flavour to me, I love it.
So to sum up, it's been a good year for the list even if I haven't necessarily been the best at updating the blog. As for the rest of the world....well I guess like the Cayman ice rink we'll have to watch this space....
