Review of 2024

I always end the year with a list of books I've read. This year I also wanted to add something else: a personal reflection on the past year. I've selected some categories, like 'best book', 'most inspiring person' and 'things that made me smile', and started thinking about the things that happened over the past year and what I learned from them. 

It's shocking how much I've already forgotten. The most examples I came up with were all from the past few months. I guess my intention for 2025 will be to take more notes on what's happening in my life, instead of just living it.

However, I ended up with a - rather long - reflection of 2024 that was still worthwhile (at least for me).

Most inspiring person

I met so many people in this category this year, and choosing the most inspiring among them all seems like an impossible task.

But there was this one woman, a local entrepreneur from Ghent, who I had coffee with and who agreed to help me out, with her baby on her lap, with my research project on sustainability in vegan cafés and restaurants in Ghent. Taking care of an infant, running a business, and taking on social projects, her life was already more than busy. She could have easily dismissed me - like many others did - but instead, she took an hour out of her day to accommodate me.

Knowing some of the hardships she had to endure in life and still being so passionately committed to inspiring and supporting others... Yes. My most inspiring person of the year has to be Laura Verhulst from Madam Bakster.

Apart from running a sugar-free and plant-based bakery, she is committed to reducing packaging and food waste. As if all that isn't enough, she has also set up a non-profit to help disadvantaged families, sold baking kits to donate part of the profit to Doctors Without Borders, and launched PEPwalk, a guided tour through Ghent, in which she shared tips on how to increase mental resilience.

There should be more people like Laura. The world would be a much better place.

Best book

I don't even know why I want to try this... This year, I've read 30 books, some of them disturbing, others pretty decent, some so brilliantly amazing I had to grasp for air. How to choose between those?

So, can I cheat and pick three? Pretty please?

Demon Copperhead, by Barbara Kingsolver. A book I was reading on my Kindle but immediately bought on paper for my dad to read as well. About growing up in a trailer park with drug abuse and a teenage mom. Gobsmacking beautiful book. Must-read. Now. Off you go to the bookstore.

The heart's invisible furies, by John Boyne. Breathtaking book about the harsh history of prejudice against homosexuality in Ireland during the 1940s and 1970s. Very much a must-read.

Fresh water for flowers, by Valérie Perrin. Has the setting of a graveyard and the soul of heaven. Thoroughly enjoyed this one. 

Wolf, by Lara Taveirne. Blown away by the very first pages - they left me breathless. About the author's brother's suicide. I especially loved the writing style in the first 52 pages. Contained some of the most memorable sentences I've ever read.

(Yes, I know that was four. Just let me pretend I have zero understanding of basic math and this has nothing to do with me being unable to choose.)

My something new

Every year, my goal is to do something new, something that pushes me out of my comfort zone. Two years ago, I tried ceramics. Last year, I did a diving initiation, which ended badly because I prematurely ended the session due to anxiety. Some marine lover I am... *sigh*

This year, it didn't seem I did anything spectacular, or creative, or out of my comfort zone, or even new, for that matter.

But the more I started thinking about it, the more I realised there were in fact many things. 

I went to the annual EMSEA Conference for the first time, something I'd like to make an annual thing.

I dug up my sketch book and finally started experimenting with paint. Although a short-lived experiment, I've not written it off yet.

I read a book in French for the first time since secondary school (Les Oubliés du Dimanche by Valérie Perrin).

I made Ottolenghi’s baked orzo with mozzarella and oregano (from his book Plenty More) for the first time but definitely not the last.

I crocheted a tiny and very cute whale.

I got on a racing bike - not that I'm racing on it, but at least I got on it.

So... Go, new things!

Least fun moments

Forgetting to record an interview about a very detailed project, which I had to write an article about. Then again, I ended up writing a lovely piece on their project and both interviewees felt extremely honoured with it; so, all ended well.

The burglary. Then again, we weren't home when it happened, we weren't attacked, the house wasn't vandalised, not much was stolen and our most personal items were still there. So, all in all, that could have been worse.

Getting the diagnosis of Menière's disease. Then again, there are so many diseases out there that are way worse and at least it's an eccentric one. Sure, I may end up with dramatic hearing an/or balance loss, but - if things go well - from time to time, I might just need a cane like Bridgerton's Lady Danbury to help me with my vertigo and look totally badass with it. And a bit wonky maybe. A wonky badass.  And then at least I'll have a stick to run along the public railings, like the woman in purple in the poem Warning by Jenny Joseph (see below).

So, in conclusion: all things considered, this year could have been a lót worse. Especially because there were so many...

... things that made me smile

The effects of autocorrection on my mum's messages

Drinking coffee each morning from a cup I made myself

Zadar's sea organ

Russell Arnott's quirkiness

When Lizzie dipped her paint brush in her rosé to wetten the water paint

My son's hugs

The ocean

The many interviews I did for EMSEA 

Sharing books with my mum and dad

Morning walks in Bourgoyen

How the chats with this one school mom always last way longer than expected 

The office cat at EMSEA's headquarters

Watching a deer eat apples from a tree right out the window

Our garden-visiting fox

While I'm at it, all other garden-visiting species: great tits, blue tits, long-tailed tits, jays, starlings, crows, jackdaws, heron, hedgehog and many others

How my husband always makes me a hot water bottle when I'm cold

The feeling of lychees in my hand when held tight

The Saint-Sauveur landscapes

Tree tops filled with jackdaws at twilight

And many many more...

Loveliest poem

Warning - by Jenny Joseph

When I am an old woman I shall wear purple

With a red hat which doesn’t go, and doesn’t suit me.

And I shall spend my pension on brandy and summer gloves

And satin sandals, and say we’ve no money for butter.

I shall sit down on the pavement when I’m tired

And gobble up samples in shops and press alarm bells

And run my stick along the public railings

And make up for the sobriety of my youth.

I shall go out in my slippers in the rain

And pick flowers in other people’s gardens

And learn to spit.

You can wear terrible shirts and grow more fat

And eat three pounds of sausages at a go

Or only bread and pickle for a week

And hoard pens and pencils and beermats and things in boxes.

But now we must have clothes that keep us dry

And pay our rent and not swear in the street

And set a good example for the children.

We must have friends to dinner and read the papers.

But maybe I ought to practise a little now?

So people who know me are not too shocked and surprised

When suddenly I am old, and start to wear purple.

Although I'm not much of a poetry lover, this one I had to share. It beautifully represents my ambitions for when I get old ;)

Happy New year, all. Wishing you something new and many things to smile about this year.

Love

Anke