The best of...

Many a moment of reflection over coffee has occurred prior to creating this post. The moments or things I can fit into a category to give it a "Best of 2013" award. All my own creation and subjective opinion and at times rather obviously contrived.
On with the awards then.

Best Movie

We love the movies and New Zealand has a wondrous array of fantastic cinemas. I've started tracking the movies we go see on Pintrest boards. 2013 is right here and after careful consideration and serious thought to giving the award to 'Star Trek' or 'About Time' the award goes to…'The Secret Life of Walter Mitty'.

I thought it was great but I was also surprised. I went along a bit dubious but was sucked in totally and came away with a glow in my heart. It was also the last movie of the year and a perfect one to set you up for a New Year.

Best Food Moment

This award centres around an acknowledgement that work is exhausting because I love it and I work really hard. So no, I don't come home and feel the need to hand-make anything from scratch. I don't want to spend my weekends menu planning, shopping and cooking. I do though want to eat well but not shop every night while racking my brain for what to eat. So thanks to a rather practical recommendation from a kindred soul at work 2013 was the year I welcomed My Food Bag from Nadia Lim.


Seriously good food, thought out menus and not that bad to prepare. Reduced waste, less thinking and shopping but a great meal every night (well most nights, I currently only get the bag every other week).
The meals are fairly easy to prepare - really easy when Adam cooks, as he does most nights. It also means we are trying food and food combinations we would normally avoid - such as the meat/fruit combination. The duck and mango in our first week was an astounding eye (or tastebud) opener.

Best Book

This is the most disappointing category despite exceeding my goodreads challenge when I looked back at the books I had read over the year not one great story stood out. Sure there were some good ones, such as 'The Elegance of the Hedgehog' that had me sobbing at the end and 'The end of your life book club' which inspired many of the other books I read and encouraged reading generally. But great, no. So the award is shared by two work related books, which were inspiring, easy to read and full of practical tips and actions I can actually put in place thereby making the world a better place. This is not an exaggeration or a boast. If you or your mother/father/son/daughter/friend are a patient on the ward I work, you want it to be a better place and that is the buzz I get from work. Leading and developing a team of people to make a difference to every single patent who comes our way.

So the award is shared by: 
'Switch' and 'Zapp'. As corny as they sound and currently full of post it notes of ideas and on loan to others - spreading the word as it were.

Click for their website 
There is also a Zapp written specifically for healthcare - marvellous. 


Most Inspiring Moment.

While on the work vibe and before moving onto travel then. I got myself along to the APAC conference. The programme had appealed but I had no idea how inspiring and world opening this would be. Both of the books named above I read because of this conference. Take a look at these videos….


Then there was this man. A standing ovation at a healthcare conference..I kid you not. You must read his work whoever you are.

Glen Colquhoun


Travel moment of the year

I still remember the tingle and the excitement as I walked up towards the harbour and got my first glimpse of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge. It became a state the obvious time, when I kept repeating "Look, it's the Opera House" or "Look, it's the harbour bridge" and it didn't get boring once. We spent most of our time around the harbour and loved every single second of it. Thank you Sydney.








Activity of the year

A close one and I couldn't decide, so another shared award.

Curling, a side trip as part of the Otago Rail trail - more images on flickr 

The other award is for the Luge at Rotorua on my birthday this year but you'll have you to follow this link to the proof.

Photo of the year

I don't really like my photo being taken but this one isn't too bad, so this one has the award.
2013 was also the year I got a 'real' camera (thank you Adam) and the laptop (thank you Adam) so a good year. 

Achievement of the year

Another tough category, with three particular moments in the running.

  • 2013 was the year I wrote the most blog posts. The blog has been ticking over since 2008 and I was heading to these distance shore, it has evolved and I've learnt a few more tricks, but I still just witted on but not really sure who reads this. Heh. 
  • Dry July was something in 2012 I laughed at, thinking there was no way I could do that, and why would I. These thoughts plagued me all year, so when July was getting close I signed up for the challenge, raised over $700 and really impressed myself. 
  • Flickr was my first step in the wonderful world of the internet. I love it, I do. It has introduced me to some fantastic photographers and helped me learn what kind of photos I want to take. Flickr has an 'Explore' section. Really no idea how photos are selected for this but 2013 was the year that one of my photos made it. This gave me huge viewings and generally made me feel kind of chuffed. 


So there you go, my highlights I guess. You decide.

No comments:

LinkWithin

Related Posts with Thumbnails