2008 in One Easy Quiz

1. What did you do in 2008 that you'd never done before? Bought a house, super grown up.
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?I did – lost 3 stone and went to the gym regularly. 2009 – when one door closes another door opens. Love, adventure and happy families.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? Yes and I haven’t got a cuddle off him yet.
4. Did anyone close to you die? Yes, the two most important women in my life.
5. What countries did you visit? Egypt
6. What would you like to have in 2009 that you lacked in 2008? Confidence
7. What date from 2008 will remain etched upon your memory, and why? 7th July, the day that Jan flew away from us.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? Starting a settled, happy life in Exeter
9. What was your biggest failure? Being too within myself and not telling anyone what was going on in my head.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Yes, ongoing. 2009 is the year to sort it out; I have an appointment booked in June and hopefully then an operation.
11. What was the best thing you bought? Our house!
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? My brother for being so damn grown up this year.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? My own…
14. Where did most of your money go? House, books, perfume.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? The Manics are working on a new album using some of Richey’s lyrics. I almost couldn’t breathe when the email popping into my inbox. They release the record next April or May. The working titles are “Journal for Plague Lovers” or “I Know I Believe In Nothing But It Is My Nothing”.
16. What song will always remind you of 2008? Wade in the Water by The Staple Singers
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i. happier or sadder? Happier
ii. thinner or fatter? Thinner
iii. richer or poorer? Poorer
18. What do you wish you'd done more of? Having fun.
19. What do you wish you'd done less of? Being miserable.
20. How will you be spending Christmas? Done and dusted; a quiet one with my fiancé and my brother.
22. Did you fall in love in 2008? I’m always falling in love with new people for a fleeting moment or two. Singers, band members, novelists, poets, emo boys in HMV! Those people in relationships that say they don’t fancy other people are out and out liars. Love and lust are what make the world turn around.
23. How many one-night stands? None unless you count those evenings in alone with a book, CD or DVD.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year? Hate, no. Dislike, yes. Unsure of where I stand so super wary, yes.
26. What was the best book you read? The Dud Avocado by Elaine Dundy… found in the hotel in Egypt. Fantastic.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery? Gosh, I think everything I bought in 2008 was from people I already knew.
28. What did you want and get? An engagement ring.
29. What did you want and not get? The elusive child, when it finally arrives and stays it can never say it wasn’t wanted.
30. What were your favourite films of this year? Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street. I saw it 3 times and bought the soundtrack too.
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I went to the local veggie restaurant and then to a club and misbehaved. I was 31.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? More holidays; I really must try harder to have holiday once or twice a year rather than every two years.
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2008? Sack-like comfort, 2009 will see an overhaul of that.
34. What kept you sane? My boyf but only just.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most? Johnny Deep as Sweeney Todd.
36. What political issue stirred you the most? Nothing, nothing, nothing.
37. Who did you miss? My mum with all my heart.
38. Who was the best new person you met? A lot of lovely new people but no one has risen to the top just yet.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2008. To live life to the full as we really do only have a short time.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year: “There's a hole in the world like a great black pit, / And the vermin of the world inhabit it, / And its morals aren't worth what a pig could spit, / And it goes by the name of London. At the top of the hole sit a privileged few / Making mock of the vermin of the lower zoo. Turning beauty into filth and greed.” Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet

Ten Things About Me

1. I whistle and click my fingers really badly. Both things took me years to learn - years of dedication. My brother could do them both from a really young age. This is the source of all our sibling rivalry.
2. Because my hair is crazy curly, I can only brush it in the shower when it's wet.
3. I eat hot pepper sauce with almost every meal (not breakfast though, that would be too weird). This started because I suffered from bulimia and throwing up hot pepper sauce is horrible. The sauce helped me get out of the habit.
4. I need to be busy - a bored Boo is a dangerous Boo.
5. I bite my nails. I've tried everything to stop but nothing works for more than a few weeks.
7. When people meet me for the first time they tend to think that I'm rude. I'm not, I'm shy.
8. The thing I miss most about living with my ladies is the toothbrush-offs in the bathroom and hall before bed.
9. I hate moths.
10. I keep Smash Hits style pop facts in my head.