I haven’t done The Nocturnal Wenchy’s Year End List* in several years, but I think this last year is an important year for me to look back on and think about and find the good in.
2012 was a long, hard year for us… we’re still recovering financially from when my Glugster was unemployed for a few months in 2011 and everything that had even a little bit of value was sold. Our DVD collection is gone, the Xbox and its games are gone. My ring was sold too. It was the last thing we wanted to sell, but it had to be done. We are grownups after all. Our cars are also gone and we’ve been borrowing my parents’ “spare” car for months. We have now taken over the payments on another car so that we can give my folks car back to them.
We are still in debt, but we’re not in trouble. We didn’t lose the house and we are wiping out our debt little by little every month.

1. What did you do in 2012 that you’d never done before?

• Celebrated mine and my Glugster’s second wedding anniversary!
• Celebrated my son’s twenty first birthday!
• Celebrated my thirty ninth birthday!
• I was technically unemployed for the whole year! LOL! Okay, I was working as The Cupcake Lady, but according to my tax return I was unemployed.
• I drove a performance car- the new Ford ST- on a racetrack, and did it well too!
• We raised a guide-dog puppy and gave him back to SA Guide-dogs to be trained as a seeing-eye dog.
• I got paid to write a piece for a magazine!
• We adopted a half blind Labrador puppy, whom we named Riddick, and he has become the light of my life.
• I “mingled” with people I don’t know- deliberately and with purpose! I really battle to talk to people I’ve never met especially with no prior social media interaction, and attending sponsored social media functions and events means I am faced with that scenario, so I decided I had to learn to do it and I’m getting pretty good at it!

2. Did you keep your New Years’ resolutions, and will you make more for next year? I don’t do the resolution thing. My self-discipline sucks so badly that I know I won’t be able to keep them and I will only end up kicking myself for not following through with anything.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth? My friend Alida gave birth to baby Rhys, and Mandi gave birth to Mika, and there were LOTS of pregnancy announcements last year!
4. Did anyone close to you die? My precious, sweet, super Nathan. Oh God how I miss that little boy…
5. What countries did you visit? We stayed home! We were too broke to go anywhere!
6. What would you like to have in 2012 that you lacked in 2013? Money! I know that seems shallow, but for me money in the bank means peace of mind. I don’t need to be rolling in it, but not being sure if I am going to be able to cover my commitments at the end of the month stresses me immensely!
7. What dates from 2012 will remain etched upon your memory? April 19^th. The day my nephew Nathan was killed in a car accident.
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year? I think that raising and training guide-dog puppy Volt, and then giving him back to SA Guide-dogs was a huge achievement. He’s got a few months left in his training so there may still be a chance that he doesn’t make it as a guide-dog, but so far he’s doing really well. It was a time consuming and very labour intensive process and doing it well was very important to us, and when Volt graduates this year we plan to raise another puppy for SAGA.
9. What was your biggest failure? My diet. Or rather, my lack of dieting. And not focusing enough on my business and ideas I had for my baking and other ideas I had for potential income.
10. Did you suffer illness or injury? Errrrm… no. Not that I can remember.
11. What was the best thing you bought? I can’t pick just one thing, but I did add several items to my cake decorating tool box which I am very excited about.
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration? My Glugster and my knucklehead both. My darling husband is my rock, my love, and my biggest fan. And my knucklehead has stayed at a job he’s not mad about and for the most part our home life is pretty stable.
13. Whose behaviour made you appalled and depressed? There is a small group of people on a shit list in my head, but I’m not going to be naming any of them here.
14. Where did most of your money go? Groceries and petrol. Yup. I can hardly contain my excitement.
15. What did you get really, really, really excited about? Being invited to submit images of my cake decorating and sugar work to the UK based Wedding Cakes & Sugar Flowers Magazine for their April 2013 issue!
16. What song/album will always remind you of 2012? I honestly can’t think of one… I listen to music when I bake and work but its not new releases or anything… And I still have Gotye’s “Somebody That I Used To Know” as my phone’s ringtone!
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:

• Happier or sadder? Happier.
• Thinner or fatter? Fatter.
• Richer or poorer? Richer.

18. What do you wish you’d done more of? Blogging… I feel like I may actually be getting a bit of my mojo back, so here’s hoping 2013 is a better blogging year for me than 2012 was.
19. What do you wish you’d done less of? I ate so badly! I am fitter than I have been in a long time thanks to walking my dogs regularly, but I am fatter than I have ever been in my life and I hate it. Not having the income to spend on healthy groceries, we ended up resorting to pasta or rice and mince more than anything else. I really need to make a plan to get back to a healthy weight.
20. How will you be spending did you spend Christmas? It was a very quiet one this year, with lots of staying home and doing as little as possible, and if we ventured out it was to see close family.
21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with? I’m always on the phone, so in terms of actual phone calls- probably my Glugster and my mommy darling.
22. Did you fall in love in 2012? I fall in love with my husband several times a week!
23. How many one night stands in this last year? *coff* I don’t discuss our sex life on this here blog!
24. What was your favourite TV program? Ooh Revenge and Smash are top of my list! I miss Desperate Housewives though.
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn’t hate this time last year? The bitch who stole my BB Bold 9900! Her name is Catherine, and even though I have her cellphone number I have resisted the temptation of calling her or doing anything spiteful…
26. What was the best book you read? It took me months to finish it (all books do lately) but I really enjoyed An Unpopular War by JH Thompson.
27. What was your greatest musical discovery? VH1 Classic on DSTV!
28. What did you want and get? A tilting and rotating cake decorating stand!
29. What did you want and not get? Lots of things… I have a Stuff I Want board on Pinterest!
30. What were your favourite films of this year? Sheesh… I can’t remember what we saw but Star Wars Episode I in 3D was pretty darn cool, and The Dark Knight Rises in Ster Kinekor’s uber luxurious Cine Prestige was fabulous!
31. What did you do on your birthday, and how old were you? I turned thirty nine and the day itself was spent quietly at home with my siblings and parents visiting, but a month before my birthday my Glugster and I had a joint celebration at Gilroy’s with friends and family, and it was AWEsome!!
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying? Hhmmm… Not having to part with my beloved Audi! I miss it every day!
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2012? Erm… I wish I could say Boho chic, but I am clueless when it comes to dressing myself and I currently live in my denim shorts from Pick n Pay!
34. What kept you sane? My puppies and my husband. There’s nothing quite like the love you get from a dog and my Riddick is my baby.
35. Which celebrity/ public figure did you fancy the most? Sass… she’s my celeb crush…
36. What political issue stirred you the most? There was one issue that stuck in my craw, IOL reported in November that “Charities could face ruin over a government proposal that firms could lose black economic empowerment (BEE) points if they donate to charities that do not have 100 percent black beneficiaries… Legislation that is in place allows for charities to assist all races, but lower points are scored when companies assist organisations where less than 75 percent of the recipients are black.”
37. Who did you miss? My BBF who lives in Australia. And they are doing so well down under! Her boys are A students and sports superstars and she’s looking gawjiss all fit and trim and tanned…
38. Who was the best new person you met? Ooh that would have to be @jeannierogersza!
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2012. Don’t allow your anger at some people to affect your relationships with others.
40. Quote a song lyric that sums up your year? For some reason The Darkness’s “Givin’ Up On Giving A Fuck” keeps coming to mind, but thats not true…

*I’ve been seeing Wenchy’s meme all over the interwebs and unfortunately she isn’t always credited for creating it, so if you see it, it was her brainchild forever ago!