It's been a stinker of a year, there are no two ways about it, but I'm sure you figured that one out for yourself, when you noticed that I fell silent. I lost my darling dog, I fractured my foot, and work was abysmal, and that's putting it mildly. While calm, the word I bestowed upon 2016 in the dying throes of the previous year, served me very well indeed, it is joy that I am craving next. I can only hope that 2017 will deliver.
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Movies watched at the cinema: 42 [last year's 78 seems like a very distant best...]
Some of the best: Spotlight, The Danish Girl, Bridget Jones's Baby, Florence Foster Jenkins, A Bigger Splash, Nocturnal Animals, The Big Short, The Girl on The Train, Finding Dory
The worst: High-Rise
The most over-rated: The Revenant
Books I bought: 95
Best home video addiction : Smallville
Best fiction : The Henry Experiment, The Santa Klaus Murder
Best non-fiction : Georgia O'Keeffe, Art as Therapy
Best exhibition : Sunken Cities at The British Museum
Favourite bookshop : Foyles
Best art bookshop : Royal Academy of Arts
Best charity bookshop : very slim pickings this year, nobody wins
Best online bookshop : The Book People, same as last year and the one before and the one before then
Best art event : Lorenzo Quinn at The Halcyon Gallery
Number of significant writing endeavours started : 2
Holidays taken : 0
Most unexpected encounter : Mark Ruffalo at Claridge's
Most longed-for encounter : Tom Hiddleston
On my birthday : I received a fabulous crisp packet and some Dior earrings
then I had dinner at Fera
Best Christmas present : 12 Dyptique candles and the complete Beatrix Potter
Best times : long walks with my new dog Saffron
Worst time : February - March - April when my elderly dog Victoria passed away and I was dog-less for the first time since 1999
New best friend at the office : Bart
Phone addiction : Farm Heroes Saga
Number of visits to Claridge's : countless, as per usual
Best beauty buy : Ambra di Venezia body cream
Most happy about : Saffy, a very sweet rescue from Cyprus
