{"id":8857,"date":"2023-12-31T14:05:26","date_gmt":"2023-12-31T13:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/?p=8857"},"modified":"2024-01-01T12:17:27","modified_gmt":"2024-01-01T11:17:27","slug":"retrospective-16","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/2023\/12\/31\/retrospective-16\/","title":{"rendered":"RETROSPECTIVE"},"content":{"rendered":"![\"T\"\/](\"http:\/\/dailydropcap.com\/images\/T-1-cap.png\" "\\"Daily")
he best thing about 2023 was the fact that the world was opened up for travel again. Anders and I made the most of it, though much of his was for work, of course. I went to the US for the first time since 2018 and got to see both my mom’s and my sister’s new places. We had our epic tip-to-tip trip in the Tesla during the summer from the very southernmost point of Sweden, to the very top. I’m already looking forward to some travel next year as well: back to the US in the spring, and somewhere fun for my big birthday, perhaps finally to Ireland, we’ll see! And of course, our road trip with the 3 of us plus mom and Danely to Germany for Christmas! Mom and Danely are here until January 4, and I don’t start work until the 5th, so a nice easy start to the new year.<\/p>\n
Family & Personal Highlights of 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Anders’ ski trip to Canazei and getting to see Karin<\/li>\n
- Getting the crate from the US!<\/li>\n
- My trip to the US to stay with my mom and visit with Sarah and family<\/li>\n
- Working at the Axis Boston office for a week<\/li>\n
- The gorgeous kitchen renovation by Anders<\/li>\n
- Martin moving to a new apartment in Malm\u00f6<\/li>\n
- Karin working again at Axis from May to end November<\/li>\n
- The Tesla trip up to Treriksroset<\/li>\n
- Adding another country (Finland) to my list of visited countries<\/li>\n
- Seeing Becky for a weekend in London<\/li>\n
- A day trip to Odense for my birthday, with Martin<\/li>\n
- The little red MGB convertible<\/li>\n
- Martin’s new boyfriend Theo<\/li>\n
- Getting into crossword puzzling with Martin<\/li>\n
- Karin heading off to St. Anton for another ski season as ski guide manager<\/li>\n
- Mom and Danely visiting for 3 weeks over Christmas<\/li>\n
- Another epic road trip down to Germany to spend a week with John and family<\/li>\n
- Seeing Karin on Christmas Day<\/li>\n
- Losing 7 kilos!<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
According to Goodreads, I read 85 books in 2023. Definitely better than last year’s count! I got a new Kindle for Christmas from Anders, and am very motivated to read more! <\/p>\n
Best books of 2023 (in no particular order and not including re-reads)<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- H is For Hawk<\/em> by Helen MacDonald<\/li>\n
- The Past is Red<\/em> by Catherynne Valente<\/li>\n
- The Address Book: What Street Addresses Reveal About Identity, Race, Wealth, and Power<\/em> by Deirdre Mask<\/li>\n
- The God of Endings<\/em> by Jacqueline Holland<\/li>\n
- With My Little Eye<\/em> by Joshilyn Jackson<\/li>\n
- Girlfriend on Mars<\/em> by Deborah Willis<\/li>\n
- Keeper of Enchanted Rooms<\/em> by Charlie N. Holmberg<\/li>\n
- Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow<\/em> by Gabrielle Zevin<\/li>\n
- The Road to Roswell<\/em> by Connie Willis<\/li>\n
- Go as a River<\/em> by Shelley Read<\/li>\n
- The Wishing Game<\/em> by Meg Shaffer<\/li>\n
- The Magician’s Daughter<\/em> by H.G. Parry<\/li>\n
- The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches<\/em> by Sangu Mandanna<\/li>\n
- Thornhedge<\/em> by T. Kingfisher<\/li>\n
- Nettle & Bone<\/em> by T. Kingfisher<\/li>\n
- Wild Ones: A Sometimes Dismaying, Weirdly Reassuring Story About Looking at People Looking at Animals in America<\/em> by Jon Mooallem<\/li>\n
- The Empyrean books 1 & 2 (Fourth Wing & Iron Flame)<\/em> by Rebecca Yarros<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I listened to, and added to my playlist, a lot more new music than in previous years, mostly because Martin added good stuff for me and because I made a habit of listening to Spotify’s Discover Weekly list curated for me. <\/p>\n
Best new music artists of 2023<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Vitamin C<\/li>\n
- Heather Small<\/li>\n
- Blaest<\/li>\n
- Mysie<\/li>\n
- Tahiti 80<\/li>\n
- Lighthouse Family<\/li>\n
- Goldfrapp<\/li>\n
- Tove Lo<\/li>\n
- Titiyo<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
I watched fewer movies in 2023 than any year since I started keeping count, only 34 films. We didn’t watch as many series either, probably due to Anders being away so often during the week for work. <\/p>\n
The movies I enjoyed the most in 2023 were: Don’t Worry Darling, Air, Tick Tick Boom!, Barbie, Past Lives, Mission Impossible Dead Reckoning Part 1<\/em>, and Mrs Harris Goes to Paris<\/em>.<\/p>\nThe new (to me) series I enjoyed the most and recommend were: For All Mankind, Hawkeye, Lucifer<\/em>, and The Bear<\/em>. We watched the final seasons of several shows we liked as well, including The Marvelous Mrs Maisel, Sex Education, The Morning Show<\/em> (maybe not the last season), Lupin<\/em>, and Ted Lasso<\/em>. And of course, we watched B\u00e4st i Test<\/em>, Fr\u00e5ga Lund<\/em>, and P\u00e5 Sp\u00e5ret<\/em> on Swedish television.<\/p>\nSome manageable goals for 2024<\/strong><\/p>\n\n- Continue with the weight loss after the holidays<\/li>\n
- Cut down drastically on sugar<\/li>\n
- USA trip in the spring<\/li>\n
- Install a fireplace in the living room<\/li>\n
- Pave the swing patio and plant trees & bushes<\/li>\n
- Ireland for my big birthday<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
2024 is already looking like it will be a good year. Martin will be moving home at the end of February while he looks for both a new job and a new apartment. Karin will be home in April, and it might work out that both kids and possibly even Anders go with me to the States (we’ll see) for 3-4 weeks. Karin may finally be starting university next fall, maybe Martin will too, who knows? It’s VERY hard for me to believe that I will be turning 60 in August. I don’t feel 60. I don’t look 60. How can that even be possible?? We’ll see if it hits when it finally arrives. <\/p>\n
Tonight we are celebrating New Year’s Eve with my mom, Debbie and Ola, and Camilla. Danely is going to hang out with Martin and his friends at a party in Lund. We don’t have any fireworks, but Anders is already in the kitchen cooking up a feasty storm. Happy New Year’s!<\/p>\n
Mood: relaxed
\nMusic: Sarah Crean\u201402:00 AM<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"he best thing about 2023 was the fact that the world was opened up for travel again. Anders and I made the most of it, though much of his was for work, of course. I went to the US for the first time since 2018 and got to see both my mom’s and my sister’s new places. We had our epic tip-to-tip trip in the Tesla during the summer from the very southernmost point of Sweden, to the very top. I’m already looking forward to some travel next year as well: back to the US in the spring, and somewhere...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":7885,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[4,8,14,27],"class_list":["post-8857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-beinglizardek","tag-blogalicious","tag-goodthings","tag-holidaze"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8857"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8857\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8866,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8857\/revisions\/8866"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/7885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/lizardek.com\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}