2009 was made possible, or made more fun, with help from the following:
Monty the dog, keeping us active and giving Martha someone to 'mother'
the Michael Wells and Tom Mumford dog-sitting services, for when we had to be away
Apple's wonderful laptops: well worth the extra dosh for the easier and more efficient way you can work with them
Apple's equally wonderful iPod Touch, which makes clothes shopping with Martha bearable for Jonathan, as he always has a ready supply of blogs and news to catch up on, or a short game to play
disappointingly, there were no new great musical finds this year, but Abdullah Ibrahim gets an honourable mention for Senzo
25 or so books, with Only Say the Word by Niall Williams and The Reader by Bernard Schlink being the best novels for Martha, The Noticer the best Christian book, and Sons of Thunder for Jonathan
11 gigs/concerts/shows, highlights being the visuals, staging and audience participation at U2's Cardiff gig, An Inspector Calls by the Kneehigh Theatre Company, and the marvellous two-hander Sign of the Times, starring Steven Tompkinson.
75 or so films, led by The Time Traveller's Wife for Martha. Many of them had harrowing elements, such as The Reader, Revolutionary Road, The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Slumdog Millionaire, and No Country for Old Men. We enjoyed the thrillers such as State of Play, Michael Clayton and The State Within, and continued mourning the end of The West Wing.
Michael McIntyre made us laugh all the time, and Bill Bailey and the QI team most of the time. Should see more of Eddie Izzard, too.
And, for the record, some numbers:
- 16,500 miles in the car, fuelled by CoffeeNation and Werthers Originals (for the drivers!)
- 1,100 miles walking Monty the dog (almost all by Martha)
- 110 miles running (Jonathan), helped by Nike+, and music from the iPod
- Jonathan was reading 120 different blogs that averaged 1,500 posts a month between them.
- Jonathan wrote 85 posts on this blog, and a similar number on his work blog with a much larger readership :)