2017 Year in Review

So, another year comes to a close and I'm really pleased I kept the blog as I can get some good stats on what I've done...

In 2017 I...
...saw 83 new films with my favourite being The Handmaiden and Baby Driver, both of which I saw twice. If The Prince Charles Cinema ever opened flats above the cinema I'd seriously consider living there as I visited the place 19 times including 2 overnight events and 5 double/triple bills. At just over 24 hours the Harry Potter marathon was the longest marathon I've attended to date.

...saw 75 live acts, including support and festival acts, which is an incredible number and I now want to try for 100 in 2018. Joe Goddard was the artist I saw the most with 5 appearances, Soulwax and DJ Yoda took second place with 3 appearances. I walked out of 2 gigs early; Tegan and Sara, whose latest album wasn't as good as their last and they pushed the feminist cause a bit too much this time around, and Dirty Vegas where I thought I was getting their old sound and we got their new, which was completely different and not something you could listen to.

...rode 64 new rollercoasters, which I'm also happy with. My love for rollercoasters has all but gone now but I still want to reach 2000 before I completely stop. This year I did reach 1900 but then discovered 2 had moved and ridden twice so I finish the year on 1898. I'm not currently planning to ride enough in 2018 so I think the hobby needs to run for a little while yet. Of those I did ride this year my favourite was probably Flying Dinosaur at Universal Studios Japan. My favourite park was Lagunasia, also in Japan, which I squeezed into the trip as an impulse visit. The ride selection was completely random and as a fan of quirky thing, that place ticked that box.

I am really pleased that I saw more live bands than rode rollercoasters; it's in that direction I'm headed now.

...visited 8 countries (11 if I include flight transfer locations): Macedonia, Kosovo, Croatia, Belarus and Kazakhstan were all new, UAE, USA and Japan were revisits. I transferred in Iceland, Russia and South Korea. My holidays were all great although I'm still recovering from the bite I got in Japan. I'll have that souvenir for a while yet :)

...ticked off 2 new US States, Wyoming and South Dakota. 8 to go!

...saw my 24th Cirque du Soleil show, Reflekt in Astana, Kazakhstan. As a one-off show it's a rare one to get and it wasn't bad at all. I also saw Amaluna for a third time at the start of the year.

So, all in all, a very solid year.