I started the annual news majig mostly to take the piss out of self–congratulary annual recaps put out by those who didn’t know better. Unfortunately, over the years, it has slowly turned into what it was originally written to sark. Admittedly, my sarking was rather shite, but at least it was once there. Now, though, I have become my own caricature. Bah!
2025 is 2024 with knobs on. The fascists are moving the world closer and closer to mass war, as they have done many times in the past—although, to be fair to them, many fascist governments have impoverished their countries by other means, not war. I really don’t get why so many voters respond to being impoverished by giving more power to those who impoverished them, yet exactly that happens. Consider the UK, for example: severely damaged by Brexit, yet turkeys keep voting for Farage’s christmas. Will they ever realise they’re being conned? I guess history tells us the answer to that one: yes, but only when it’s far too late.
Personally speaking, there was a big change: I have officially retired. I only did so a couple of weeks ago, so I’ve not got in the swing of things yet. I will do! I deliberately bought a good amount of kit ready for retirement, since I don’t expect to have the money for such stuff once I’m living on a pension, as good as a quarter of a Luxembourg pension is. In other words, I expect the photography will go a bit potty. Furthermore, I have, over the decades, assembled a small library of poetry collections for my retirement. I intend to read them, bathe in them, converse with them, and hopefully post some reviews here on arts & ego. Mind you, I’ve not started yet: my excuse is that I’ve only been retired for a fortnight, and, as I said, it’s the photography that’s started doing the nuts thing. We will also do some travelling to various interesting places in Europe, but, again, we’ll be pensioners, so it won’t so much visiting Costa–effin–Packet as Aldi–by–Sea.
Travel is one reason I didn’t retire last year, even though I technically could have done. Family duty took us back to Texas—another niece got married! I wish both couples all the best. The same took us to China, so my wife could view her mother’s tomb. The USA has many good points, but, for me, China won the comparison: it was different and fascinating, and the food was much better. I enjoyed both trips immensely, although my bank balance didn’t. With that in mind, next year, we might splash out on a day trip to Bognor–on–Moselle.
Unsurprisingly, not many of my old Brit mates or extended family travel outside blighty. Before I left the place, I also felt that travel abroad was an immense task. Of course, it isn’t, it’s just a trip on a train, but until you do it, you don’t know so. Thus I had to visit them, and did so over summer. It was very good, and I seem to have come back with invitations to return.
In terms of poetry, I got a great deal out of the revived SoundEye in Cork, and am praying that there will be more. I wish I could contribute, but I’m out of touch and out of Ireland. Having said all that, my poetry hardly progressed this year. I also met, in Echternach, the Anglo–American poet Carrie Etter, as she toured the greater region.
On the other hand, the photography is slowly improving. I finally worked out, last year, how I could be comfortable with portraiture and that continues to develop. I had a shyness issue, but I found I could take portraits if I let the subjects present themselves as they wished, ensuring the surroundings added more to the image; hence my choice of jumble sales (and christmas markets) because the stuff being sold, and a seller’s chosen pose, says something about the seller. I have some technique problems, of course (for example, witness the partial over exposure here and here), which I shall have to address or ignore, but at least I am aware of them, and see a way through. I might seek a course.
So, 2025: pffft, the nth.