My stepmother died this year. It wasn’t the first time I lost a parent but it was the first time that I was one of the people dealing with what was left behind, a house and everything in it. It is a weird feeling, sorting through things that you have seen a thousand times and things you’ve never seen before, potentially butting into a privacy that doesn’t exist any more. It’s a different form of mourning, not easier or more difficult but with the constant reminder that no matter who you are, in the end, you’re gone and your stuff remains. It’s a lesson that I’m still thinking about and not one that has given me any wisdom I could share with you, yet.
But I did find some old photographs of me and I can confirm that for part of my childhood I looked pretty cool…
but in another part of it I looked like Steven Seagal
Something else that happened to me this year, was I had one of those health check ups you can get at the doctors.
Seriously, get yourself booked in for one of them. They are free.
My cholesterol was ‘a bit’ high and my vitamin D was ‘a bit’ low. Which wasn’t a huge surprise considering I got out a lot less in 2023, my diet has probably got a bit worse, and I’m no longer the Jello Biafra t-shirt wearing/Under Siege-star resembling teenager I once was.
So, in 2024, I’m going to leave the house more, do more exercise, and eat more vegetables. Fortuitously, we have just got to the top of the waiting list at the allotment, which should help me achieve all three.
Remember that cool/stupid looking teenager from two paragraphs ago? Well let me tell you a little story about that dipshit. He kind-of coasted through high school, smart enough to learn enough to ace his exams in the week before he took them and too lazy to do any more. The exception was in French where he (let’s skip the subterfuge eh?) where I couldn’t get away with that sort of nonsense. You can’t blag a language. You can get a D in it though, which is what I did.
And while I don’t look on those days with any real regrets – I had bigger things on my mind than how to ask for directions to the camp site in La Rochelle – as I have gotten older I have often thought about how being able to speak French would be a very good and useful thing.
So I’m on the Duolingo innit, and last year I did at least one lesson on it every single day, and I consider that quite the achievement. I am still a long way off my ambition of going to Paris and buying myself a big pile of bandes dessinées but I’m closer than I was twelve months ago.
So that’s lessons and achievements, but what about epiphanies? Well, they have been thin on the ground too. Sorry. I did have one, and that was that Twitter is over, but I think you already knew that. It’s proper improved my life sacking it off though. Couldn’t recommend it more.
Benjamin Judge 