Reflections 2019

And like that, here we are in a new year and a new decade.  Hard to believe another year has whizzed by but I am pleased to see the back of 2019.  Today I bring you a recap of the year

Last year started full of promise with a fun trip to Sydney.  We also visited Lorne and Port Fairy.  But the end of the year fizzled out with E and I separating.  There was so much change that I found it hard to keep up.  Though I am in the same house, I have had a new phone, a new fridge, new bank accounts, new NBN wifi network, and a new hard drive in my home computer. At work my team dwindled to me and my manager at the start of year.  I was sad when she left due to ill health but in her place came a new manager with her new team of lovely people.  I change my role, moved office twice and had a new computer at work.  It was a year of a lot of change.

Sylvia's home made slime collection!

With a 10 year old in the house, there is always change.  Sylvia became more independent and bloomed as a digital native.  After some swithering, I gave her my old phone so she now has a phone and an ipad.  She had one scooter die and one scooter go missing.  She cooked herself lots of eggs, made lots of slime, loved all things cats and, most of all, our cat Shadow.  She was a big fan of Kate Miller-Heidke.  Meanwhile our garden continued to grow, my bookclub continued, and I got into knitting for the first time in years.

There were many more changes in 2019.  The traditional elders of Uluru banned climbing the rock.  Jon Faine, who I have listened to for years, resigned from the ABC Melbourne morning program after 23 years.  I closed my landline account and now my only personal phone number is a mobile phone.  The local newsagency closed.  It was the place where we used to have a paper delivery account and I bought many birthday cards.  The bank branch at the University of Melbourne also closed.  I had my first adult bank account there and knew the staff well enough that I didn't need ID to withdraw cash if I forgot my purse.  Scott Morrison remained Prime Minister of Australia following our national elections.  And Boris Johnson became the UK Prime Minister.  Sadder yet was seeing the roof and main spire of the Notre Dame in Paris collapse in a fire.

Statistics
My statistics were down this year.  No surprise there.  I had less time and energy for blog posts.  I had less time and energy for sharing these posts.  I was more surprised that only a little over a half of posts (53%) had recipes.

91 blog posts
14 photos accepted on FoodGawker
9 cafe reviews linked to Zomato
440 likes on FaceBook

Where my blog was featured
I was surprised to find a few links to my blog online this year (or that is what the dates suggest in this digital world where dates don't matter to some people).  More links are to photos than posts!

• Tin and Thyme included my hedgehog in Choclette's 10 recipes to celebrate her 10th blog anniversary.
• Live Kindly included my vegan sushi stack in their Complete Guide to the Best Vegan Sushi.
• The Power to Persuade used my Peppertree Gate photo in their post on Racial and Gender Justice for Aboriginal Women in Prison.
• ABC Education used my Aboriginal street art photo in Bruce Pascoe's post on It's a Great Time to be Teaching about Indigenous Australian Languages (updated from 2016 but I was more aware of who Bruce Pascoe was this year after reading Dark Emu so was pleased at the connection).
• The Taste Atlas shared my Boston bun photo in their Top 4 Most Popular Oceanian Sweet Breads.
• Buzzfeed shared my hedgehog cake photo in a post on 19 Pinterest Cake Fails that are Just Begging to be Laughed at.  I was relieved to be on the pretty side of the cakes as I am no stranger to cake fail photos online.
• Melbourne Point used my Coburg Lake photo on their Coburg Lake page.
• Special mention to Allotment2Kitchen and VegHog for hosting the Eat Your Greens challenge that I loved participating in but is sadly now retired.  Another favourite challenge In My Kitchen continues and many thanks to Sherry for cheerfully keeping it going.

Most popular
As my stats took a tumble in the second half of the year, it is no surprise that the popular posts, according to my Blogger stats, were from earlier in the year.

Top 5 recipe posts
Twice baked potatoes and SpudFest 2019
Overnight sourdough bread rolls
We Bare Bear cupcakes for a birthday party
Charcoal overnight sourdough bread
Chickpea, potato and cauliflower curry

Top 5 eating out posts
The Tea Cosy tearooms, The Rocks, Sydney
Brighton Soul cafe and Brighton Beach
Are the vegan burgers better at Hungry Jacks?
Grounds of Alexandria, Sydney
Moo Gourmet Burgers and Manly Beach, Sydney

My best of 2019
This is a list of my favourites I have encountered this year rather than the best released this year:

Favourite kids film - Mary Poppins Returns and Frozen 2
Favourite adult film - Bohemian Rhapsody and Rocketman
Favourite Netflix movie - Pirate Radio (The Boat that Rocked)
Favourite family tv show - Gilmore Girls
Favourite adult tv show - Line of Duty
Favourite Australian novels - Boy Swallows Universe and Past the Shallows
Favourite foreign novels: the Goldfinch and the Night Circus
Favourite non fiction book - The Land before Avocado
Favourite album - Billy Joel's Songs in the Attic 
Favourite musician - Kate Miller-Heidke
Favourite new local eating out - Carringbush Hotel, Abbotsford

 
What we enjoyed eating in 2019
My cooking mojo was at low ebb this year.  There weren't heaps of recipes that really excited me, other than sourdough baking, but I did find some I really loved when I checked over the posts of 2019.  Here they are:

Savoury meals - Ghost salad, Cauliflower cheese pasties,  St Patrick's day green pizza, Creamy apricot and chickpea soup, Slow cooked smoky chickpeas with tacos, Chickpea tangine with quince, Purple sushi salad with tofu nuggets

Sweet baking - Cinnamon scroll scones, Irish Tea Cake, Carrot cake, Pinwheel pancakes with strawberries and cream cheese,

Fun baking: St Patrick's day shamrock cupcakes, We Bare Bear cupcakes, Halloween eyes in the dark cake,

Sourdough bread baking - Overnight sourdough bread rolls, Antipasto sourdough focaccia, Charcoal overnight sourdough bread, Overnight sourdough hot cross buns,  Overnight sourdough cranberry nut rolls, Roast potato and rosemary bread

Happy New Year
We had a quiet new year with vegan haggis in quesadillas.  Then on New Year's Day, Sylvia and I started the year with a visit to the beach.  There is much I would like to do more in 2020 that I haven't done enough in the past year: cooking, baking, blogging, craft, swimming, cycling and catching up with friends.  I have been catching up on sleep during the holidays and feeling a bit more energy so I hope to get more done this year.  I thank you for reading, commenting and supporting me this year.  Here's to more blog posts, good food, good company and good times in 2020!

End of a decade
The world has changed so rapidly over the past decade that it scares me.  Here are a few reflections on the decade that has just passed:

• Streaming has killed the Mainstream: the decade the broke popular culture - The Guardian, 28 December 2019
• 10 Years Ago, DNA Tests Were The Future Of Medicine. Now They’re A Social Network — And A Data Privacy Mess - BuzzFeed.News, 11 December 2019
• #travelgram: live tourist snaps have turned solo adventures into social occasions, The Conversation, 27 December 2019
• Top 10 climate moments of the past decade, The Climate Council (Australia), 12 December 2019.
• End of the decade: how the 2010s changed my life (Tinder, cryptocurrency, streaming services, gay marriage, MeToo), BBC News, 27 December 2019.

Here in Australia we are intensely conscious of the effects of climate change with so many terrible bushfires raging at the moment.  Fortunately in Melbourne we have not been affected, other than a little smoke haze and looking out for family and friends who might be in the line of fires.  But our community will be devasted for some time to come by these fires.  So I go into the New Year with all those affected in my thoughts.