Posts Tagged ‘New year’s Eve’
Looking Forward
Posted on: January 4, 2016
- In: Dreams | Inspiration
- 36 Comments
2016 has started off well. We ate our twelve grapes at midnight for good luck, viewed fireworks from our terrace, and watched Bryan Adams bring in the New Year in London on television, while he played all my favourite songs. Then watched the amazing fireworks in London. It was a Spanish/English/Canadian New Year´s Eve for us.
12 grapes each to be eaten at midnight for good luck. A Spanish tradition
To learn more about this tradition read about it on Glamour Granny Travels http://www.glamourgrannytravels.com/2015/12/24/grapes-and-cava-a-spanish-new-years-eve-tradition/
On New Years day we went for lunch with my in-laws at a fabulous restaurant called La Herradura (The Horseshoe) where we enjoyed a delicious eight course meal and a Flamenco dance performance. A great start to the New Year.
La Herradura
Flamenco dancer
With my mother-in-law at La Herradura
New Year´s Lunch with the in-laws
Now it´s time for me to look forward and set goals for 2016.
1. Amanda on the Danube – The Sounds of Music successfully launched
2. Finish Amanda in New Mexico – The Ghost Hotel
3. Do more promoting of all the Amanda books and Pig on Trial
4. Connect with local schools and book stores
5. Continue to explore Spain, attend cultural events and write about them
6. Travel to Holland, France and England
7. Work hard at making new friends in Spain
8. Attend Pueblo Ingles with friends
9. Take time to read more
10. Practice Spanish
11. Keep learning more about writing
12. Enjoy my more relaxed life style
13. Look after my health by eating better and exercising more
14. Keep in touch with family and friends back home via social media and mail
15. Help other writers meet their goals
16. Be thankful for at least three things every day.
By writing these goals down and sharing them with you, my wonderful readers, I will be more committed to reach them.
Thank all of you for your encouragement and support over the years. I truly do appreciate it. May all your dreams come true in 2016!!
If you can dream it, you can do it! Walt Disney
I´ll leave you with two short videos of the flamenco show.
- In: Dreams
- 32 Comments
Happy New Year to all my readers. Thank you so much for your readership, likes, comments and most of all, your friendship. You have been so encouraging over the past year, I could not have done it without you.
We celebrated the New Year by attending a dinner party at a friend’s house. Flat Ruthie came with us and had a great time. She was the life of the party. She enjoyed the appetizers a lot!
As it is the end of another year, it is time to see how I did with the goals I set last year at this time. I posted them for all to see on my blog https://darlenefoster.wordpress.com/2012/01/03/a-new-year-a-new-list/
1.Finish writing Amanda in England-The Missing Novel for publication this summer by writing a chapter a week for the next three months.
Check. I finished the book and it was published in August!
2.Find ways to make more money with my writing by setting up readings, writing magazine articles and entering contests.
Check. I did do some readings and wrote magazine articles as well as entered contests. I would like to do more of this though.
3.Blog at least once a week and double my subscribers
Check. I wrote 72 posts this year and went from 30 to 130 subscribers!! I had 10,000 views from 107 different countries. I am very happy with this result.
4.Learn to manage my social networking by improving technical skills
Check. I have learned some new things about social networking but would like to learn more.
5.Reduce the clutter in my house, computer and mind
Fail. I have not only failed to reduce clutter I have added more.
6.Spend as much time with Mom as possible in person and on the phone
Check. I call Mom at least twice a week and went to visit her in Alberta three times in one year.
7.Find a reasonable cleaning service
Check. I had to break my ankle to get a cleaning service but I now have one.
8.Meet other authors to share knowledge and support
Check. I have become active in a couple of local writer’s groups and met some amazing authors, three of whom have become mentors. I have also met many wonderful authors through my blog and other social networking sites. It is all good!
9.Take a trip to Europe
Check. Had took trip of the lifetime which included in Spain, Germany, Austria and Hungary as well as scenes along the Danube River.
10.Take time to breathe
Check. I was forced to take time to breath as I recovered from my broken ankle.
All in all, I am very pleased with how I met my goals from last year. OK, now for 2013 goals:
1. Reduce the clutter. I will take a page from Lorna at Tea Room Delights where she has decided to get rid of one thing a day for the entire year, for a total of 365 things. This may help me get this done! Today I got rid of the old calendars.
2. Complete Amanda in Alberta-The Writing on the Stone and have it published before the end of the year.
3. Take a trip to Alberta to do research for Amanda in Alberta with my eleven year old grandson.
4.Ensure my foot returns to normal.
5.Continue to look for more outlets for my writing.
6. Write more travel articles.
7.Contact schools to do readings.
8. Consider working part-time in order to spend more time on my writing.
9. Take a nice holiday with Paul (without injuring myself)
10. Practice kindness with everyone I meet, no matter how my day is going.
We will open the book. Its pages are blank. We are going to put words on them ourselves. The book is called Opportunity and its first chapter is New Year’s Day.”
– Edith Lovejoy Pierce
I wish all of you a wonderful New Year with many accomplishments no matter how small. Just getting up in the morning or smiling at a stranger is considered an accomplishment in my book.
Darlene Foster's Blog 