Who knows what 2023 will bring! #ramble

It is nearly Christmas and so I got a duck out of the freezer this morning to have for my Christmas dinner! The year is coming to an end too. It was a year of recovering from the pandemic and of a new Prime Minister every 5 minutes! Fortunately, Boris finally run out of luck but we got the disastrous Lizard Liz in his place and then came the Kwarteng catastrophe. We survived but it did cost me money.

I survived the big freeze too despite the price I pay for natural gas soaring. Now I’m just trying to keep warm and I might start thinking about the future. I sold my BP shares following that disastrous mini-budget and I regretted that today. The share price is going up again now, but I’m not convinced it will continue to do so because the oil price is falling. I did buy a few shares in Beazley and that was a good decision, similarly having a punt on GSK might turn out to be a good move.

I’ve only taken a few decent photos this year. Many of those were of Eddy the Elf. I did have a family get-together at the weekend and did a portrait shot of my great niece who I was meeting for the first time. That was a good photo, shot wide open at 1/200 of a second using the pop-up flash. My family have asked for another family get-together in the summer. I’ll have to get some more charcoal for the barbecue!

Even though inflation is high, I haven’t been spending that much cash. I’m habitually frugal and thrifty! We’re just past the solstice and so we still have short days for a while. It’s ten past three and because it’s getting dark I’m toying with the idea of an early glass of wine. My mind wanders these days.

I decided it was too early for wine but not too early for a bar of chocolate. I often put things off. If I need to change my car, I think the one I have will last a bit longer. I delay buying new clothes too. It saves money. Buying my camera was a big purchase for me and I took a while to decide. I got a big discount in the end and that decided me! Buying my car was an even bigger decision but again I got a good deal!

I’ve been pondering buying a solar panel recently. Making my own electricity appeals to me and I like experimenting. I might light up my garden with solar power and experiment at the same time!

I don’t have a great deal of money but I made a few quid buying shares after the 2008 crash and again shares were cheap during the pandemic. When the pound crashed in September, I made a few quid from that. I seem to have a few readers who are crypto enthusiasts now. I did flirt with crypto for a while by buying XRP (Ripple) and made a few quid when I sold. I think the crypto bubble is deflating now though. People are short of money as inflation devalues their cash and so they are selling their crypto.

I’ve also been doing a bit of editing this week for my friend. She has a business translating, editing and creating documents. Fortunately, my constantly wandering mind can spot errors in documents quite easily. I think I have quite a good eye for photography and art too.

I’ll ponder from now to the new year what I’m going to do in 2023. I have recently stopped being an active admin of a local history group to become an active admin of a similar group. I think I’ll continue with that. I found it boring and now I’m interested and motivated again. I have to find a new style of photography to undertake because I have mobility issues now.

I bought a ticket for the Euromillions lottery for tonight so who knows what 2023 will bring!

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