Well... 2011 is over eh? I hope it was a good one for you. It's been an awesome one for me with lots of great Martha moments, a cool holiday to Northumberland, an expedition to the Netherlands, 2 fab weddings, another National Novel Writing Month and lots of other awesomeness. I'd normally review the music I most listened to or the books/films I've watched but instead I think I'll review my 4 "hippy" personal challenges that I tried for 2011:
  1. Ditch the bus and walk more - success. I saved a fortune by cancelling my Rideacard and lost a fair chunk of weight walking the 2.3 miles to work and back. It was also a time saving as the construction of Edinburgh's trams meant that the bus was taking 35 minutes on a good day and I can walk it in 28!
  2. Stop using normal deodorant and use salt rockcrystal instead - again success. I'm allergic to practically every other deodorant and one rockcrystal has not only lasted 12 months (big financial saving) but hasn't even gone down a quarter and I (nor the people around me) have noticed me being smelly.
  3. Stop using shampoo/soap - success. I read on boing boing! about this one and decided to give it a go. Basically needing to shampoo every day is usually a self-fulfilling prophecy and once you break the cycle your hair will look after itself. It was actually harder to remember not to reach for the shampoo that you can possibly believe! (I was still doing it in May!) The results have been boringly fine - for me shampoo was totally superfluous.
  4. Try to cut down on unnecessary commitments to free up more time for what we'd like to do - still a work in progress!
And for 2012?
  1. Ruth's Photo A Day has been a huge success this year so I am going to take the reins for 2012 by taking a photo each day... I hope that I remember to do it every day and don't end up with too many late night photos taken out of the bedroom window!
  2. Inspired by some of the blogs/books I've read (Zenhabits, Mnmlist and the 100 Things Challenge) we're going to try to get rid of/sell/charity shop approximately 200 things... we're not going to go crazy, just try to free up a bit more space.
  3. I'm going to make much more of an effort to catch up with and visit friends
  4. I'm going to try to see more gigs - not just Frightened Rabbit (although maybe just once!)
  5. We're planning a rather adventurous holiday... it's not really a resolution but it's going to be awesome!
Wish me luck.