2025 Goals

2024 was a year of unexpected upheaval, moving back from Brazil to Europe, settling into a new country, home and school. I did manage to complete the podcast challenge I set myself in 2023, finishing off 60 Weeks, 60 Books just after my birthday in March, but otherwise, I didn't do much writing. Which brought me to the realisation that whether it is fiction or verse, writing is my main outlet, whether or not it ever gets to a state where I would share it publicly or try to find a publisher. 

So this year's personal goals are about writing. Not resolutions, and these aren't big goals either. They are small daily practices that I hope will embed as habits. 

1. Write 165 words of fiction every day - if I do more, that's a bonus. 

2. Put on a timer for 10 minutes daily and free write based on a prompt word. 

3. Weekly blog - return to a steady routine here. I toyed with switching platforms, but the technical logistics and decision making that would involve seemed a distraction to doing the writing. 

Professionally, there are all sorts of accountability measures in place: we have an inspection visit this term, working in a busy school, there are always ongoing projects and initiatives, but the main task continues to be getting to know students, colleagues, parents and building relationships within the local landscape. 

I could, and probably should, make all sorts of resolutions about health and sleep and weight, but no. That always smacks of desperation and seems doomed to failure. I was struck recently reading an article about how particularly in UK and US, increased the amount of ultra processed foods that we eat and that are clearly so bad for us, and now we are resorting to a chemical injection to protect ourselves from excess. I have culinary goals - I want to learn to make a really good chicken soup and stick to using fresh ingredients where possible. Keep walking, try to stretch more and enjoy the dog. 

If I were in puritanical mode, I would spend less time looking at figure skating and silly cat/dog/bear reels on Instagram, as well as giving up YouTube videos of people finding five million ways of writing a diary, techbros salivating over their latest gadget haul and celebration of cunning ways of living in tiny spaces. What I have experimented with is putting time limits on social media outlets, and mainly, that works...

This year, I will continue to listen to podcasts and read the papers. My goal is to read more of the Economist and less of The Times, and to try and branch out a little from the Rest Is stable of podcasts. I like to know what is going on in the world, and the ripples of decisions do affect us all, eventually, but when I think of politics, diplomacy and the unfolding of world events, it seems to me business as usual - expect the worst, keep hope alive, focus on looking after the people in our immediate vicinity - family, friends, colleagues, community. In the great scheme of things, our small actions may not seem significant, but where we see kindness, compassion, decency, let us celebrate it and continue our individual work of trying ourselves to be decent, kind and compassionate to our families, friends and colleagues. 

My wish for 2025 is good days and the ability to recognise them, as well as the humour and resilience to bounce back from the bad days - and may the good outnumber the bad. 

2024 in books

Thanks to my good friend Shelly, I discovered StoryGraph at the beginning of this year which is a simple way to log books without falling into the Goodreads cesspit. My challenge was to read 80 books, but I will finish on a respectable 67 today. The start of the year involved a lot of re-reading as I entered the final quarter of producing a weekly podcast on the books that shaped me - you can check out 60 weeks 60 books here. 

Best literary novels - The Bee Sting, by Paul Murray, English Passengers by Matthew Kneale and Biography of X by Catherine Lacey. 

Years ago, I read Murray's Skippy Dies, which was the first in a while to make me laugh out loud. I picked up a copy of The Bee Sting at an airport bookshop, read the first pages and was hooked. Although there are funny moments, it is a clever, sombre book, the characters rich and engaging, enriched by a complex structure and some well organised surprises. 

English Passengers has been sitting on my TBR pile since it came out in paperback, but even moving to the Isle of Man and meeting the author in person at Manx Litfest did not push it up to the top. Then I read it and it blew me away. Like Bee Sting, it is a tough novel to read. Terrible events occur, individuals get through them as best they can, the best intentioned can cause dreadful damage, but EP also has some very funny set pieces and ambiguous individuals - some appear good but do great evil, others are positively criminal but fundamentally decent. 

There were reviews of Catherine Lacey's Biography of X that intrigued me, not because of their descriptions of the book which were minimal, but because it was such a marmite piece of writing. But I started reading Henry Oliver's substack The Common Reader, and he recommended it. I'd also highly recommend TCR, Oliver is a voice of reason in the welter of nonsense that is the internet. But back to the book - it is rare these days for me to find a novel unputdownable, but that was the case with Bio of X. The central characters were well drawn, in particular the unreliable narrator, CM Lucca, widow of the artist known as X. The counter-factual history that Lacey created for the US was fascinating and could almost do with further exploration - she imagines a world where in 1945, the US splits into two, not dissimilar to the split between East and West Germany with the added superspice of making the South a tyrannical theocracy. I also liked the way that Lacey essentially points child-like at the pretention of art-making in 1970s and 80s New York. It is smart, clever and human, if not humane. 

Best non-fiction - Feeling & Knowing: Making Minds Conscious by Antonio Damasio, Holding a Mirror up to Nature: Shame, Guilt and Violence in Shakespeare Gilligan & Richards, Exam Nation by Sammy Wright, Coming of Age by Lucy Foulkes, My Dear Kabul, 21 Afghan Women. Twelve Months. One Group Chat. Lost in Thought, Zena Hitz.

I didn't mean to read so much non-fiction this year - there are quite a few books that I have left out here because they were re-reads, but these six books really did enrich my year. I have probably found myself quoting most from Coming of Age, which is an exploration of aspects of adolescence. Remembering my adolescent self and working daily with adolescents, I found this a really insightful, if incomplete, tour of some of the impacts of society and neuroscience on teen brains. However, the book I have started pressing into people's hands is Zena Hitz's Lost in Thought, a valiant argument for living a life dedicated to learning, exploring the nature of learning and its importance to our human souls. 

Best genre fiction - Jennifer Crusie & Bob Mayer collaborated steadily this year, and I thoroughly enjoyed the first two books in their latest trilogy Rocky Start and Very Nice Funerals. Looking forward to the season finale. I also re-read the complete Mapp and Lucia books as light relief while enduring packing and read an early Ellie Griffiths mystery. But the winner was Real Tigers by Mick Herron - brilliant!

My other pleasure this year has been using Readwise. This is not a plug, but I have found it a really helpful way to collect quotations and ideas from books that I may then wish to use. 

The aim for 2025 is simply to read more. This time, I will make my target 70 books, and see where we go from there. Currently on the reading pile are Julian Baggini's How to Think Like a Philosopher, an education book, Leading School Change, and in the fiction arena, am making my way through the ridiculous but readable Adeline Mowbray by Amelia Opie, a bestseller from 1804, based a little loosely on the life of Mary Wollestonecraft and her belief in free love. So far, there has been some swooning, there is a sleazy villain and our hero and heroine are in a cleft stick because they both have affected to believe that marriage is an abomination but what they want most is to get married to each other. Hurray! 

Wishing you all rich reading for the year ahead. 

Halloween/Half-term

This morning, I took my mother-in-law to Kew Gardens for a gentle stroll amidst the ghouls and ghosts artfully arranged for a ticketed after-dark event. And thanks to the clocks going back, dusk came early and here it is, 6pm and we are in winter mode, blinds drawn. 

I've just finished my first half term as Principal at my new school. As always, I am stunned by how fast the time has passed, how much has been packed into eight weeks, and how a school can be at once joyous and strenuous, stressful and intense for all of us, students and staff. 

As always, I have learnt more than I have taught. We started the term with a session on Appreciative Inquiry, about how we can harvest ideas and whilst not all of them will grow, we can select and tend the ones that may genuinely improve our environment and make life better for our colleagues and our children. 

Speaking of environment, I think I am in the most environmentally conscious school that I've yet worked in. Although there is always more that we can do to reduce our carbon footprint, although it may not always be popular...I have discovered that if we add a second meat-free day in the canteen, it will significantly cut our emissions, helping us move towards our target of net zero by 2030. 

It has been encouraging to see so many teachers displaying the monthly calendars of Action for Happiness. Displays can become background noise, but the fact that we have to change these regularly means that we do take note. It isn't every day that I remember to check the calendar. Last week, one of the suggestions was to share a hopeful quotation, image or video with a colleague.

The night before, I had been catching up on Skate America, watching Kevin Aymoz, a skater who is incredibly gifted, but has struggled mightily over the past year with mental health and motivation. He came second, because he is not able to pull off quad jump after quad jump like younger skaters, but his free skate was flawless, beautiful and his Gala performance, skated to Jeff Buckley's cover of Hallelujah is a thing of wonder. I did share with a colleague - I hope they weren't just being polite when they agreed with me about Aymoz's performance. 

A highlight has been working with my Year 8 class - working with students is a constant reminder of the real priority in any school. This term we've been working on The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas, a book I do find problematic but stimulating, and one of those rare instances where the film worked better for me than the book. 

Just now, I have stopped, pressed pause and will be enjoying a few days avoiding email, hoping that my colleagues also will have a chance to switch off and decompress. 

Autumn!!

Our first autumn in three years: the bite in the air; the mist settled in the valley, waiting until the sun summons the strength to burn it off, the crunch of twigs and leaves underfoot, steaming mugs of hot chocolate after a brisk walk. São Paulo, I hear, is sizzling in 40 degree heat. That I do not miss. 

It has been nearly six months since I posted here. It feels like a good sign that I can begin to summon up words and ideas again. I'm not sure I am yet ready for the relentless commitment to a weekly schedule, but a new school year, a new job, a new country, these have all bedded in. We've had our first weekend guests, I've driven Minion 2 to university and the rhythms and routines of our new life are quietly assembling.

We have a couple of routes for the daily 5k with the dog. DH will start Luxembourgish classes on Tuesday, I am underway with daily Duolingo sessions to learn German (I have a very long way to go if my experimental stabs during our visit to Trier yesterday are any indication). And here is Autumn, with the leaves beginning to turn to flame, with the conkers tumbling to the ground, calling to mind Milosz's poem And yet the books, 'still wet as shining chestnuts under a tree in autumn'. 

The mornings are now dark, I've already driven home at the end of the day in the dark a couple of times.Yesterday, we bought winter coats, DH and I, ready for rain and wind, ready for frosts and icy starts. Yesterday, I saw the first Advent calendars in a shop. This year, we will have a real Christmas tree. We miss our life in Brazil, but it already feels a little distant, a little unreal. The chestnut, rich, gleaming, hard nut in a spiky overcoat, is round and firm in my palm.