Happy New Year: My 2018 Review

Happy New Year everyone!

2018 has been a pretty good year for me and I thought I would do a review post of my year. I went on a total of four trips away (two of them abroad) and went to two music festivals. So it was quite a packed schedule.

Firstly in April I went to Amsterdam for King’s day which was a fun experience. I want to go back there sometime because there are a lot of places that I ran out of time to see.

I was originally planning to go to see the battlefields in Flanders this year around June time. But unfortunately, it didn’t happen. I think it was because we were having trouble finding somewhere suitable to stay. But no doubt I will manage to get there sometime.

Next, I went to blue Dot festival in July. This was a brilliant experience as it was the first time I had stayed in an accessible motorhome. There were a couple of hitches with the vehicle including running out of power and water at one point, but apart from that, it was great.

Moving onto August I spent a week down in Kent where I saw my family, and went to some interesting places.

My second music festival this year was Lost Village which took place near the end of August. It wasn’t as good as the previous year – primarily because it rained most of the time, and there was loads of mud.

This was followed in September by a week in the Netherlands. I went on a river cruise aboard an accessible ship. It was good visiting places but there weren’t many other disabled people my age on board. Most of them were OAPs.

At the end of September I went to New Scientist Live at the Excel Centre in London. I didn’t write a post about this one for some reason. I stayed in a hotel for two nights and attended two days of the event. There were lots of talks, exhibitors, and experiences all about science. It was good fun.

My final trip of this year was back down to Kent. We spent Christmas in Deal in an accessible holiday cottage that was within spitting distance of the beach. It was very nice. I will be writing a post about this week very soon so keep an eye out for that.

The blog

On the blog front, it was an exceptional year. The number of views on the blog in 2018 was more than the previous 3 years combined. So thank you to everyone who has read a post or two this year. It seems to be moving in the right direction but there is still a lot of improvement needed. If this is the first time you have visited my blog I hope you come back for more!

In 2019 I am planning to go to Rome for a week. The city is packed with history so it should be a fascinating place to visit. The only thing I am a bit worried about are the cobbles which I have read are quite numerous and troublesome.

In terms of festivals, I am going to go to the Isle of Wight Festival in July and Wilderness Festival in August. I’ve already booked my accommodation for the Isle of Wight and I need to sort out accommodation for wilderness next. I’m sure it will be an awesome experience which I can’t wait to tell you about.

I’m also intending to go to the Lincoln Steampunk Festival next August. It will be the first time I’ve dressed up in proper steampunk outfit for it so I’m sure it will make for some good photos.

I’m sure there will be some other interesting things happening so stay tuned to find out what else I get up to next year.

The only thing that is left is for me to wish you all a happy New Year! I hope that it’s a good one for you.

I will leave you with the words of Neil Gaiman:

I hope that in this year to come, you make mistakes.

Because if you are making mistakes, then you are making new things, trying new things, learning, living, pushing yourself, changing yourself, changing your world. You’re doing things you’ve never done before, and more importantly, you’re Doing Something.

So that’s my wish for you, and all of us, and my wish for myself. Make New Mistakes. Make glorious, amazing mistakes. Make mistakes nobody’s ever made before. Don’t freeze, don’t stop, don’t worry that it isn’t good enough, or it isn’t perfect, whatever it is: art, or love, or work or family or life.

Whatever it is you’re scared of doing, Do it.

Make your mistakes, next year and forever.