Wendy and I took 2,343 photos

▲ 666 vs 2023 / ▲ 604 vs 2022

I didn’t anticipate this turning out to be the highest number on my 2024 list! Averaging more than six photos per day would have seemed insane only a few years ago – a roll of film wouldn’t last a week – and yet here we are. Wendy has been made an effort to take more photos in 2024, so that may have contributed to this remarkable increase.

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I walked 2,214 miles

▲ 35 vs 2023 / ▲ 212 vs 2022

I walked more in 2024 than the previous year, though the bulk was still attributable to walking to and from work. I regularly count my blessings for having the ability to do that: it’s possibly more important for my psychological health than for my legs’ health, in all honesty. It worked out at an average of about 14,400 steps per day.

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My car drove 1,524 miles

▼ 1,152 vs 2023 / ▼ 307 vs 2022

I didn’t drive much in 2024, with my figure nearly halved from 2023. In fact, it’s probably too little to reasonably justify owning a car. And yes, I feel very smug at having walked further than I drove in 2024.

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I sent 435 personal emails

▲ 52 vs 2023 / ▲ 54 vs 2022

Every year, I’m surprised by how high this number is. 2024’s figure was higher than ever. I don’t really know what I’m doing sending that many emails.

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I published 366 blog posts

▲ 1 vs 2023 / ▲ 293 vs 2022

In 2023, I set myself the goal of publishing something every day, as a sort of celebration of the twentieth anniversary of the first post on this blog. I met that goal and continued it into 2024, scoring one extra day as a result of the leap year. I haven’t yet made up my mind as to whether to continue into 2025.

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I took my blood pressure 310 times

▲ 180 vs 2023 / ▲ 150 vs 2022

Look, I know this seems excessive, but I have an excuse: I struggled a bit with my blood pressure in 2024 and had to increase my antihypertensive dose, so I’ve been trying to monitor it daily. I promise it’s not just obsessive.

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My tumble dryer completed 214 cycles

▲ 21 vs 2023 / ▲ 23 vs 2022

My sole reason for counting this is that the machine does it anyway: I don’t really know what it means. I do know that the final load of the year is currently waiting to be taken out of the dryer while I’m procrastinating by writing a blog post.

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I used public transport on 166 days

★ New count for 2024

I’m lucky to live somewhere with decent public transport. I used the bus on 85 days, the Metro on 81, the train on 24, a plane on 22, a ferry on 6, the London Underground on 5, a taxi on 3, a hired e-scooter on 3, and a tram and a coach on one day each. Those don’t sum to 166 because I often use multiple modes in a single day.

I would have guessed that I used the bus far more than the Metro, so I’m surprised by how similar those tallies appear to be.

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I used 97 single-use paper cups for hot drinks

▲ 9 vs 2023 / ▲ 62 vs 2022

Well, this is an unhappy trend: I surpassed my 2023 total despite regularly carrying my HuskeeCup. In 2023, I whinged that 52% of the times I’d used a paper cup it was because the seller had used one even though I was drinking in the venue. This makes me mad, but only applies to 40% of this year’s paper cup use, so I need to take some personal responsibility here. I’ll try harder in 2025.

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I used 75 stamps

▲ 2 vs 2023

People say that the art of sending letters is dead, yet I sent 75 things that Royal Mail classed as letters in 2024 by sticking on a stamp and placing them in a postbox. Almost all of those stamps have been ‘special edition’ ones to avoid the ugly barcodes. Wendy and I used 2022 Wallace and Gromit stamps for our Christmas cards this year, bought long before we realised that a new animation would be the BBC’s Christmas centrepiece this year.

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I swam 65 miles

▼ 26 vs 2023 / ▲ 4 vs 2022

Oof, this is down a lot for 2024. My only excuse is that my pool closed for a big chunk of the year after its mechanical moving bottom broke: but this probably also reflects some reluctance to move my own bottom. I still averaged more than a mile a week, though, which must surely be alright-ish?

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I placed 60 Deliveroo orders

▲ 33 vs 2023 / ▼ 62 vs 2022

This is quite a chunky increase… but surely roughly one Deliveroo per week isn’t too terrible in the grand scheme of things?

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I read and reviewed 42 books

▼ 4 vs 2023 / ▼ 24 vs 2022

I read less than usual in 2023 and felt it. In 2024, I read still fewer books, but I really didn’t felt it. I think this is partly because I read longer books than usual, so the overall time I’ve spent reading has probably reduced less than the headline number implies.

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I drove a car on 40 days

★ New count for 2024

Previously, I’ve counted the number of day my car has been driven: 79 in 2023 and 73 in 2022. I had a car insurance gadget that did the counting, you see. For 2024, I just counted the number of days that I drove any car. I drove exactly two cars, mine and Wendy’s, and clearly not very much. It may well have worked out cheaper to hire a car for 40 days than the cost of the insurance and maintenance of my own car.

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I took 28 flights

▲ 17 vs 2023 / ▲ 11 vs 2022

Last year, I said this might creep up again, but that I couldn’t ever see myself getting up to the 29 flights I took in 2019… flygskam is real. I didn’t do such a good job of re-routing myself onto ground transportation in 2024, and I’m afraid to admit that I’ve already got four flights booked for 2025. There are no good excuses.

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I borrowed 28 library books

▲ 1 vs 2023 / ▼ 7 vs 2022

I think this works out to a pretty good proportion of the books I read. Thanks as always to Newcastle City Library and the London Library, from where I borrow from most frequently, though there are at least five other libraries that I occasionally borrow from. I’m very fortunate to be so well-supplied.

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I made 27 personal phone calls

▼ 5 vs 2023 / ▼ 23 vs 2022

As previously, I only counted actual telephone calls in this total, whereas most of my personal ‘calls’ are via FaceTime or WhatsApp. It feels to me like the traditional phone call is becoming a thing of the past, so I’m not surprised to see that this number is continuing to shrink year-on-year.

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I was driven in a car on 27 days

★ New count for 2024

I’d rather be a passenger than a driver, and I managed that on 27 days in 2024. I decided to count this as I thought that only presenting the number of days on which I drove gave a misleading impression of the extent to which I’m still reliant on cars.

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I spent 20 nights in hotels

▼ 16 vs 2023 / ▼ 7 vs 2022

I’ve was away in hotels for fewer nights than usual in 2024, both for leisure and work purposes. Despite the dramatic decline, I hadn’t really noticed. I think I’ve probably spent more nights staying with relatives in 2024 than previous years, but that’s not something I currently count.

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I placed 16 Amazon orders

▼ 124 vs 2023 / ▼ 210 vs 2022

This time in 2023, I resolved to give Amazon less of my business: their ethical practices were, as Mary Muffet from The Heart’s Invisible Furies would say, ‘not my standard at all’. It’s taken me a couple of years to almost edge them out of my life. The main advantage has been to feel like I’m supporting a lot of smaller, more worthy businesses. The main disadvantage has been my mum’s complaints about me not renewing Amazon Prime: she used to use my subscription for her own deliveries.

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I visited 5 countries

▼ 1 vs 2022 / ⧓ No change vs 2022

As previously, I’m counting the UK in this total. None of the visited countries were new to me again in 2024, which is a shame, and none of them were Italy, which is almost a bigger shame.

In previous conversations, Wendy has said that I ought only to count countries in which I’ve overnighted, in which case this year’s total is actually four. My rule, though, is that I can count countries in which I’ve dined while both stationary and not in an airport (a meal on moving transport doesn’t count).

You can take your pick.

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I wore 5 new pairs of shoes

▲ 2 vs 2023 / ▼ 1 vs 2022

One of them was a Christmas present from Wendy, and therefore a remarkably late addition to this count.

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I made 4 blood donations

⧓ No change vs 2023 / ⧓ No change vs 2022

Because I donate every twelve weeks, it’s sometimes possible to squeeze five donations into a calendar year if the dates align… but they didn’t in 2024.

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I cycled 0 miles

⧓ No change vs 2023 / ⧓ No change vs 2022

I’m no cyclist: I don’t own a bike and haven’t borrowed one since 2021. I have, however, ridden 3.8 miles on hired e-scooters this year, which was a bit of a novelty.