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Meme of the Year 2021

1. What did you do in 2021 that you'd never done before?

I got a job outside of science! I’m not a scientist! I am become civil servant!

2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?

Heck, no. I resolve nothing!

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Nope, but that’s ok because they’d have to be very close before I’d be able to cuddle the baby, what with the pandemic and all.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Nobody, thank god! Keep living, everyone! Live forever!

5. What countries did you visit?

Scotland only. I may have been through Wales on a train back form visiting my sister, but I didn’t leave the train.

6. What would you like to have in 2022 that you lacked in 2021?

I think I’d like an abroad holiday. Somewhere we can splot in the sun and look at old things. Otherwise, all is glory.

7. What date from 2021 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

22^nd November- it’s when I started my new job. T’was a Monday. You’d think I’d remember when I left my old job, but actually, no, the date has vanished already.

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

This has been a less achievey year, but I managed to get out of west London. Yesssss! Wooo!

9. What was your biggest failure?

Keeping in touch- but I suspect that everyone has this issue. Time means nothing, never will again and all that. I don’t feel like this year was a major success or a failure. It just comes out on the thumbs up side of okay in the end.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

Not beyond the usual colds and my uterus being a dratted nuisance. My beloved tiny gremlin of a niece is also a plague vector and has delivered unto me some pretty rotten colds.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

I really like my fancy fountain pens with shiny sparkly purple ink. It’s so much fun to write with. Vacuum fill fountain pens. Do you understand the mess I could have made if I’d discovered these at school?

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

Rob! He feeds me and generally gees me up and keeps me going. Best Rob. Kam and Darren were superstars too, and I will miss working with them so much. I’m also going to celebrate Dolly Parton, because you can scarely ever go wrong with that.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

Ok, look, she started it last year and was up to no good, but if JK Rowling could just fucking not, ok? Trans people had never done anything to her before she started advocating for them not to exist.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Amazon. Some rent. Some nice weekends with the Gremlin.

15. What did you get really, really, really excited about?

I was so excited when I got my new job. I’d been trying for a long time to have a job that feels like it has potential, rather than one that feels like I’m trapped in a cul-de-sac. I’m learning so much that my brain is fizzing with it. I don’t know if I’ll be any good at this project management lark, but I’m going to try.

16. What song will always remind you of 2021?

I feel like there are three songs that really stuck in my head this year, and two of them are by Swedish artists. The first one is “Behöver inte dig idag” by Clara Klingenström. It did really well at Melodifestivalen, and is a bop. I may sing it as “Bading, having the meaty socks…”, but still!

The other is a new ABBA song. I’m not wild about all their new music, but ‘Don’t Shut Me Down’ is catchy as hell and is some good old ABBA vibes.

Meanwhile, Taylor Swift swung in at the end of the year with her re-release of Red. Ok, but listen, the 10 minute version of ‘All Too Well’ is a work of art. Jake Gyllenhaal was read for filth, and I am hear for it. It’s a beautiful song made more beautiful by the additional content.

17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

i. happier or sadder?

Happier, but I think a bit more anxious.

ii. thinner or fatter?

Fatter. Bah!

iii. richer or poorer?

Earning less, but keeping more of the earnings, so it balances out.

18. What do you wish you'd done more of?

Do you know, I think I maybe did ok again? Like, I don’t feel like there was much in the tank after last year. It didn’t feel safe to visit people for the most part, and when we could, it was time to visit the family and see them. I mostly got through the year, and that’s all I can say.

19. What do you wish you'd done less of?

I think I probably should have done less stressing about when my new job would start, and when I’d get to leave the old one. It was a horrid period with the general feeling of having prepared myself to leave, and then not being able to for a couple of months. It was bleh, but I really let it get to me too much.

20. How will you be spending Christmas?

I had a Christmas up in Yorkshire with my parents and my sister’s family. We had a quiet actual Christmas where Rob made the Christmas dinner for his parents at our place. It was a peaceful-ish day.

21. Did you fall in love in 2021?

Fourteen years with Rob! The poor sod. The list of crimes he’d get less prison time for grows.

22. What was the best thing you made?

I made diddy versions of my colleagues as leaving presents! I knitted them and I sewed and I designed and they look ever so convincing and I am so proud of them. You would be too if you sawed them!

23. What was your favorite TV program?

Oooh. Well, I enjoyed ‘Blown Away’, and not just for the personalised gloryholes. I didn’t love the Disney+ series, and I didn’t really make it through the new series of Lucifer, despite being excited for it. I really waited with bated breath for the new Contrapoints video, which, fair does, ‘Envy’ is a masterpiece.

24. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?

Nah. Am just a grumpy bum generally.

25. What was the best book you read?

Ok, but listen, you have to buy and read ‘All The White Spaces’ by Ally Wilkes. It is a really good book. It’s a meticulously researched period piece on polar exploration. And also a thriller. I have very vivid mental images from it and genuinely liked the characters. It did give a sense of unease. Read it. Read it!

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

I really did listen to a lot of country music this year. I just like the sass of it all. Mostly of the Loretta Lynn, Reba McIntyre, Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert bent. I also stan Lil’ Nas X. Just think he’s neat!

27. What did you want and get?

I wanted my phone replaced, and I got that. I got to see my family and my niece. I got another job. It was great!

28. What did you want and not get?

I want COVID to go away and to never have to think of it again, but no such luck.

29. What was your favorite film of this year?

Oooh, what did I watch? Tragically, I haven’t seen No Way Home, or Venom 2. Very tragic. I honestly can’t remember what I watched. I definitely think everyone who’s into Disney should watch ‘Twisted’- the Starkid musical Disney’s Aladdin pastiche. It was very funny, more so than the soundtrack alone suggested.

30. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you?

Well! I’m reasonably sure there was a lock down. I know I had to burn off a lot of leave before the end of the leave year, so I was off for about four weeks around my birthday. I don’t think I did anything in particular, but to be fair, it’s really hard to remember last January when it’s still May 2020 in my head.

31. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?

Hearing about a start date for my new job in August rather than October.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2021?

Comfortable hill walker. I am aiming for 1920s tweed gentleman- stay tuned for next year to see if I manage it.

33. What kept you sane?

Rob did! He told me if I didn’t get sane, I’d have to go to therapy, and I hate therapy.

34. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most?

Fancy is very strong, but I thought that Cat from Blown Away season 2 was precious.

35. What political issue stirred you the most?

I want everyone to keep having abortions if they want them, and I want all people, but especially trans people, to have access to the medications they need in a timely fashion and with a minimum of gatekeeping.

I also really want everyone, especially the left, to recognise the concept of ‘their heart’s in the right place, even if they just put their foot in their mouth’, and not eat their own alive.

36. Who did you miss?

I miss working at my old work. I miss my chumrade Stephen who danced off to parts darkest west. I miss everyone. I really wish everyone I love or like lived within a fifteen minute bus/train ride of me.

37. Who was the best new person you met?

New colleagues seem nice. 

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2021

I’ve been a bit ‘nose to the grindstone’ to really take a step back and look at life lessons. I know I’ve been told a lot not to let things get to me this year, but I haven’t learned that. I probably should. I’m too full of opinions.

39. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year:

I want a life of adventure

With no orders I have to obey

And dangers galore

Long as I can be sure

That I'm safe and secure at the end of the day

[…]

I wanna make my own choices

I mean please, is that so much to ask?

But decisions are hard and I'm being bombarded

Why can't somebody help with this arduous task?

The life of a princess is fraught with complication

It's enough to make me wish I were lowly and poor

But, like, with money…

Everything and More- Twisted.

Meme of the Year 2021

Meme of the Year 2021

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