This is probably the 10th year I have answered these questions. 2015 contained some highs, but many, many lows. The 12 months July 2014-15 were probably the worst of my life. I hope I have learnt from it- the future will tell.

1. What did you do in 2015 that you’d never done before?

I enrolled in nursing at CQUni. Best decision of the year!

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

I don’t tend to make resolutions, although I note last year I said I was going to be kinder to myself.

3. Did anyone close to you give birth?

Not close friends, no.

4. Did anyone close to you die?

Husbands and fathers of friends.

5. What countries/states did you visit?

I had several visits to Melbourne which was lovely- school reunion, Bendi and Melbourne Uni open day for Immy. I also went to the Sunshine Coast (Noosa) and Rockhampton for res school for uni.

6. What would you like to have in 2016 that you lacked in 2015?

Some income would be nice.

7. What dates from 2015 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?

MIML™ moving in was huge and has been just wonderful!

8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?

Surviving. I was also awarded Fibrecrafter champion at the Cairns Show.

9. What was your biggest failure?

I think this answer is clouded by my PTSD. I have to stop taking other people’s failures as my own.

10. Did you suffer illness or injury?

An official PTSD diagnosis, and I had my gallbladder out.

11. What was the best thing you bought?

The car fiasco that I hope will be resolved in 2016. But the car has been amazing!

12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?

The way Immy completed her High School education with such amazing and wonderful results and the way Japs has turned his study habits around really make me smile, as does the wonderful MIML™.

13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed?

I still do not know why a former close friend suddenly cut me off from her life. It has taken much therapy for me to realise that unless she can show me otherwise, it is not something I have done. It still hurts greatly however.

14. Where did most of your money go?

Textbooks

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

The election result in January was pretty exciting. My grades at the end of first term also got me excited.

16. What song will always remind you of 2015?

Probably Hello, even though I am not a fan!

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

a) happier or sadder?
overall happier, but it has taken lots of therapy!

b)thinner or fatter?
thinner

c) richer or poorer?
poorer.

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

Travel, but that is in the medium term goals now. I would also love to start podcasting again sometime.

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

Procrastinating

20. How did you spend Christmas?

MIML™ and I together again- long sleep in, brunch then a late lunch of seafood! It was delightful!

21. Did you fall in love in 2015?

Over and over again with the gorgeous MIML™

22. How many one-night stands?

None!

23. What was your favourite TV program?

Game of Thrones, Vikings, Scandal, Outlander, Downton Abbey, Call the Midwife…

24. Did you make a friend with anyone that you didn’t know this time last year?

I am meeting some wonderful nursing students :)

25. What was the best book you read?

Simply Nigella

26. What was your greatest musical discovery?

I have loved using Pandora in the car. This cover is just hauntingly beautiful…

27. What did you want and get?

A full-time job- for a few weeks at least.

28. What did you want and not get?

A regular income

29. What was your favourite film of this year?

The Martian and Suffragette were both awesome.

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

I was 43. I was discharged from hospital after having my gallbladder out.

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

A different February-July! The rest of the year has been spent trying to catch up from those dreadful months.

32. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2015?

Comfortable.

33. What kept you sane?

Therapy.

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

Ewan McGregor still does it for me, and I wish Justin Trudeau was Australia’s PM!

35. What political issue stirred you the most?

Asylum Seekers, proposed cuts to penalty rates.

36. Who did you miss?

Friends who I used to chat with regularly and now haven’t spoken to in months :(

37. Who was the best new person you met?

My new therapist!

38. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2015.

I can start my life over no matter what my age.

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

It’s hard not to say the same as last year (Everybody Hurts), but…

I am a rock (Paul Simon)

A winter’s day
In a deep and dark
December;
I am alone,
Gazing from my window to the streets below
On a freshly fallen silent shroud of snow.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I’ve built walls,
A fortress steep and mighty,
That none may penetrate.
I have no need of friendship; friendship causes pain.
It’s laughter and it’s loving I disdain.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

Don’t talk of love,
Well I’ve heard the words before;
It’s sleeping in my memory.
I won’t disturb the slumber of feelings that have died.
If I never loved I never would have cried.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.

And a rock feels no pain;
And an island never cries.

Here’s to 2016!