Tag Archives | ReviewOfTheYear

Favourite Films from 2020

The pandemic scuppered One Film Per Week in 2020. It was on track until the 29th of February when I saw Pixar’s Onward in the cinema. It was the 11th film I’d seen in a cinema in 2020. Then I did a personal lockdown before it was official. I wasn’t back in the cinema until the 29th of August to see TENET. My final 20202 cinema trip was on the 14th of September to see The Broken Hearts Gallery. Making a total of 13 films seen in the cinema during 2020. Hopefully, vaccination will allow 2021 cinema-going to get back to normal.

From the 13 films seen I’ve picked a top 5 for the year. I think that these 5 would have been on, or very close to a top 10 list.

Little Women film poster
Little Women
Seberg Film poster
Seberg
Birds Of Prey film poster
Birds Of Prey
Emma film poster
Emma.
The Broken Hearts Gallery film poster
The Broken Hearts Gallery

2020 Walking Stats

I took 1,937,711 steps in 2020. This equated to 1,086 miles walked in total. Surprisingly these figures were very similar to the 2019 totals. The 2020 data is presented in chart and table forms below.

Steps Taken in 2020
Steps Taken in 2020
Miles Walked in 2020
Miles Walked in 2020
Steps and Miles walked in monthly table
Steps taken and miles walked per month

2019 Walking Stats

My Apple Watch and Activity app on iPhone tell me that I took 1,963,261 steps in 2019. This equated to 1,087 miles walked in total. I think I was hoping to hit 1,200 miles. Setting that target again for 2020. 

2019 Steps per month chart
Steps per month in 2019
2019 Miles walked per month chart
Miles walked per month in 2019
2019 Steps and miles walked data per month
Monthly data 2019

Favourite Tracks from 2019

Don't Wait Until Tomorrow album artwork
Bad Company - Yonaka
Live at Troxy cover artwork
Triangle Walks Live - Fever Ray
Away From The Tide EP artwork
Just Wanna Rock - Dea Matrona
Away From The Tide EP artwork
Nobody's Child - Dea Matrona
Supermoon single artwork
Supermoon - Charly Bliss
Where's My Tribe artwork
Where's My Tribe - Charlene Soraia
Mint album cover artwork
Trouble In Paradise - Alice Merton
Love + Fear Acoustic album artwork
Orange Trees (Acoustic) - Marina
Feels Like Love album artwork
Feels Like Love - Chrysta Bell
I Do single artwork
I Do - Wild Rivers

Click on the Apple Music section below to a playlist with these ten songs. Click Play to hear 30 second snippets of them if not subscripbed to Apple Music. 

Favourite Podcasts from 2019

Here are the podcasts that I enjoyed the most in 2019.

Sean Carroll's Mindscape Podcast Artwork
Sean Carroll's Mindscape
Curious Cases podcast artwork
The Curious Cases of Rutherford & Fry
No Such Thing As A Fish podcast artwork
No Such Thing As A Fish
Accidental Tech Podcast artwork
Accidental Tech Podcast
BBC Inside Science podcast artwork
BBC Inside Science
Chemistry in its Element podcast artwork
Chemistry in its Element
Song Exploder podcast artwork
Song Exploder

Favourite Tracks from 2018

Here are my 10 favourite new 2018 released tracks that I discovered. There is an Apple Music Playlist to listen to them here.

“Lonely


Ariana and the Rose – Lonely Star.

52 Hz track artwork


Chrysta Bell – 52 Hz.
 

“Always


Franz Ferdinand – Always Ascending.


Yonaka – Waves.
 


Yonaka – Fired Up.
 


Yonaka – Death By Love.
 


Manic St. Preachers & The Anchoress – Dylan & Caitlin.


Mackenzie Davis & Carrie Coon – Axemen.


KT Tunstall – Human Being.
 


Ina Wroldsen – Sea.
 

Favourite Podcasts from 2018

There are lots of good podcasts available. So many good ones it’s like a renaissance in radio, but for the digital age. Roger Taylor was quite prescient with his lyrics in Radio Gaga by Queen:

So stick around cos we might miss you
When we grow tired of all this visual

Quite. Although to be fair there is an explosion in video content as well with Netflix and others.

Here are the podcasts that I enjoyed the most in 2018:

Favourite Books from 2018

I only read 27 books in 2018 (got through 52 in 2017.) I’ll set a goal of 26 for 2019 and aim to read a book a fortnight. From the 27 I finished here are my favourites. I read all four of the books in the Fractured Europe Sequence but I’ve just listed the two most recent ones in the list below.

2017 Freelance Writing Statistics

I didn’t write as much this year as I did in 2016.

I only wrote 21 new articles in 2017. Compared to 50 in 2016. I edited or rewrote ten pieces in 2017. Compared to 16 in 2016. As a result, my income from writing was 14.9% before tax. It was 18.8% of my pre-tax income in 2016.

The plan is to get back to 2016 levels of output in the forthcoming year. There is a lot to do I hear. Happy days.