I think to sum up 2023 is that… I am exhausted.

There’s certainly been a lot of good times, and I’ll come on to some of them and won’t play things down. But, I’ve been battling on a few fronts for so long and being in a position where I’ve not wanted to “miss out” but still feel I’ve not done nearly what I’d like to do.

Usually when I do end of year posts I do a highs/lows and looking forward to the following year.

However, it’s difficult to specifically pin point ‘lows’ so, I guess I’ll just reflect.

I think firstly I had my whole ’42 things to do for 42′ (since I turned 42 this year!)

I achieved 3 or 4 depending on how you look at things, so under 10% But again I might need to revisit to kinda see how to make things happen.

One of the main things this year has been trying to move house. At time of writing a move is imminent but the work is far from over.
For anyone who kinda knows, I live in a small flat I’ve far since outgrown which has a number of things going wrong with that has been one nightmare to the next.
The place we’re moving to is bigger, but it’s certainly important to declutter – and – oh, one of the rooms in the house still has a lot of stuff to get out of it.
So we will still be moving things in waves before we can even think of putting this flat up for sale, and assessing what needs to be done, what we should do, and what we’ll accept a reduction for someone else to do.

This does mean this year has been VERY EXPENSIVE as we’ve been paying for work for the new house, while paying for this one and will still have two properties to pay for for an undetermined time when we move.

So, yes, we’re exhausted.

But on a plus. Obviously I’m keeping kink up via filming for my store and this year was the first time I was in front of the camera for 100 clips in a calendar year. There’s also a whole bunch of stuff I’m not in but have use of because it was effectively my shoot.
So lots of content. But it goes so quick.

To give an idea of some of the breakdown, so it was 100 clips with 15 Dommes. A lot of old friends (Foxtress, Miss Wildfire, Miss Jessica, Cate McQueen etc etc etc) and some new faces (Mel Fire, Echo Evangelista, Rachie, Master Xena, Mxtress Ava, Goth Delilah)
This was also over 14 shoots, so about one per month. In kinda reality some of these were cases of “ok, in London, let’s film with folk over 2 days AND go to a gig/event in the middle” which is always exhausting.
There was 5 months where I only did one shoot.

On the plus, my backlog should keep me going up til around June.

Filming took me to glamour spots like… well… London and Glasgow…. oh and the PSU – that was a fun, if not hectic day!

Again, I feel, not enough done locally and something I want to put right, could definitely do with some more local faces to shoot with.

I have talked about doing some form of ‘creators day’ in 2024, and there is a creators event I’m going to in January so I’ll take from that how theirs worked and how it can translate into something workable here.

It doesn’t necessarily need to be as big as some of the creators events that are around the country.
But, something where some of the local creators I know (and some I don’t) and maybe anyone wanting to travel can come together and get a lot of hot content on a good deal.

I’m still feeling a little distant locally, but did manage to get back to DCPM, and have made a couple of munch visits to munches other-than-Sunderland (which we obviously run) which has been great!
I will hopefully get out a bit more, but deciding I don’t do enough – after quitting a project which was taking from me more than it gave me, I decided to use the new found extra time to buy a season ticket for Newcastle United Women – who of course play on a Sunday!

But, it is me forcing myself to do something fun (I mean, last game had 14 goals) and is definitely a benefit.

As well as a few local events, did pop into some not-local events, including two awards events.
No prizes to take home, for a change, ha, but fun nights between them – especially seeing and spending time with folk I maybe speak to online but don’t always get to be in the same room as.

To 2024…?

I know the first part at least is going to be juggling a lot of house stuff.
While it’s great, also, that I’ve clips til June – because of the way my mind and planning works I’ll want more sooner rather than later (oh, hello content day I’m attending) and the usual that it’d be nice to shoot again with folk I have previously, and new ones in the future

It would be nice to get a little bit more involved back in the local community, but some things are more viable than others.
It’d be nice to get some play going again that isn’t ‘work’ (even if I have had a lot of fun on camera).