Let’s review how I did on my 2015 New Year’s resolutions.
1. Read and see six Shakespeare plays.
Status: nearly passed.
I did five:
- As You Like It at Shakespeare’s Globe
- Timon of Athens at the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival
- The Merry Wives of Windsor at the Cambridge Shakespeare Festival
- Hamlet at National Theatre Live
- Measure For Measure at the Young Vic
Although I failed to reach the official target of six, I’m still pleased with the result. All the plays were immensely enjoyable to read, and the performances I saw were terrific. Combined with the six plays from 2014, my higher-level goal of rapidly improving my Shakespeare knowledge has been achieved.
I’m not going to repeat this as a formal resolution for 2016, but I will keep an eye out for productions of other plays I haven’t read yet, and try to bag a couple more at least.
2. Repair my ZX Spectrum and complete The Lords of Midnight.
Status: partly passed.
I successfully repaired the ZX Spectrum, with the help of a new keyboard membrane and instructions from Dataserve Retro, and a SPECTRA interface (a custom-built electronic circuit which converts the Speccy’s output to SCART) from the ZX Spectrum Resource Centre.
I haven’t yet fired up Lords of Midnight, but the second half of this resolution will carry over to 2016.
3. Crawl through the ventilation shafts of a large building.
Status: failed.
A total disappointment, this one. I wasn’t even close: I didn’t identify any suitable ventilation shafts or get intelligence on any promising buildings. To be honest, I didn’t put much effort in at all.