simonvarwell.co.uk

Dear reader,

Wow, what a year! Where did the time go? It seemed like it was only twelve months ago that I wrote my last circular.

Oh, actually, it was only twelve months ago.

Last year’s letter was pretty accurate in terms of predictions and plans, in that much I wrote as forthcoming has indeed forthcome. Lost series 5 was astounding, and I played (badly) in April’s Join Me North v South football match, got an iPhone, and saw Jay-play.

2009 also started with what would turn out to be one of my best photos of the year (right).

How could I top such momentous events? Well, one or two things spring to mind. Getting engaged, getting married, and having a book deal signed, for starters.

The wedding and honeymoon were, of course, terrific, and married life is wonderful, though the fact I’ll say little about it on this blog is not an indicator of its unimportance but of the fact it’s only half my story to tell.

Probably the next biggest event was the book deal. The launch is in February, but the writing, editing and early publicity have been a major commitment in 2009.

It’s really exciting that the mullet adventures will finally be in print, and with Up The Creek Without A Mullet only telling half the story so far (and only including a quarter of the total mullets), it’s also exciting to reveal that I am in discussions about a second book too.

This might sound geeky (in fact it definitely is), but the top highlight after that would have to be getting an iPhone. It’s not just a toy, or a gadget, something that is like most pieces of technology a functional improvement on one small area of life. It’s so much more than that – everything from a phone to an music player, the internet (web and email), camera and calendar, and so many other handy features that have permeated so many corners of life.

The camera and video camera are useful, the notepad is great for things like meetings or shopping lists, and the huge range of applications – from the frivolous to the functional – that I have barely scratched the surface of, all add up to something I couldn’t imagine living without now. It’s handy, beautifully-designed, breezily easy to use, and I can highly recommend it to anyone.

Workwise, I’ve travelled around most of Scotland and in February and September to London, and that’s allowed me to take quite a few photos, and for me one of the highlights of my year in photographs has been this photo on the right taken in Bradford en route to London.

A work trip to Shetland in June was expanded to a long weekend’s holiday, in which Nicole and I explored that beautiful place from end to end in the most remarkable weather. A far cry from our next big journey, a rainy honeymoon in Mull.

Those have been the most adventurous I’ve been travel-wise this year, and it occurred to me the other day that 2009 has been the first year with no travel outside the UK since (I think) 2002.

A mixture of doing up the flat, getting married and the whole book malarky has impinged on the time and money this year, unfortunately. The feet are most certainly itchy.

Moving on to music, I’ve been to only two gigs of note this year – Jay-play at Hampden and Explosions in the Sky in Sheffield.

Coldplay has just come back to mind because I had an approach the other day from the American special effects company behind Coldplay’s show asking if they can use the photo on the right on their website. The $55 is in the post, I understand.

Meanwhile the Explosions in the Sky gig was wonderful and reinforced to me that they are definitely my favourite band. I hope I see them again one day.

The other big musical discovery of the year has been chilled techno purveyor The Field, while my album of the year has to be The Side‘s excellent and catchy Nowhere Left To Run (available on iTunes).

As for films, the best I’ve seen this year at the cinema (from an admittedly small pool) are the highly-recommendable science fiction flicks District 9 and Moon. Meanwhile on TV/DVD, the Firefly and Serenity watchathon was brilliant, while of course Lost series 5 was superb and I cannot wait for February when the final series airs.

What will happen after “the incident”? Will everyone make it back to the present day? Will all the mysteries of the island be explained? Will Ben turn out to be good or evil? I am on the edge of my seat, and am sure series 6 will deliver and conclude spectacularly.

That’s about the size of 2009. A good year, without doubt.

2010, logically enough, comes next. I’m not sure precisely what it will hold, but I can rule in a book launch and rule out getting married again. I will no doubt also get stuck into a potential second book, and there might be a big overseas adventure or two and hopefully a bit more clarity and progress with the mullet mission.

I’ve written far too much already, and should be doing other things with my Christmas Eve.

Happy Christmas/Inclusive Winterval.

This entry was posted on Thursday, December 24th, 2009 at 2:31 pm and is filed under Entertainment, Personal, Technology, Travel, Writing. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.