Between Christmas and New Year, I spent a little time thinking about 2020 and what I wanted to focus on or do more of. The list included things like reading, going to the theatre, environment and nature, and then both ‘new things’ and curiosity. In retrospect, these two things are linked, but I wrote them down separately and jotted down different ideas beside them. Together they’ve merged into an intention of Trying something new at least once a week.

Try Something New - an introduction

I want to remain flexible about the size of that ‘something new’. It could be anything from visiting a new city, taking a class in something different, eating somewhere new, or choosing a different option at a regular eatery. As long as it is a fresh combination, it counts. The idea isn’t necessarily to discover whole new hobbies, the idea is to expand my day to day life. To notice more. This goes hand in hand with one of the books Richard bought me for Christmas - The Art of Noticing: Rediscover what really matters to you - which has playful exercises to aid in this as well.

Choir is having the term off, which also helps. There is nothing regular outside of work scheduled in my calendar. Which opens up opportunities to try different things too. So far, I’ve:
- booked to attend a bookbinding course in March
- booked onto a block printing course in April
- joined a book club which specialises in shorter books (which in theory means that it doesn’t dominate my reading)

Update - 17 January 2020

I’d initially thought that an exhibition couldn’t be counted as a “Try something new” activity unless it was in a space I’d not visited before. Today (the 17th) I was at an exhibition and recognised that seeing and experiencing art is precisely what my “Try something new” project is all about. The intention, as it has evolved over the past few weeks, is to broaden my horizons, to widen my perspective, to take in new ideas, and experiences. Be they large or small. What better way to do that than via art.

Week 0.5

This (partial) week my ‘something new’ options have been the following:
- playing ‘Buy, burn or steal’ - an idea from The Art of Noticing - with Richard at the Olafur Eilasson exhibition at the Tate Modern
- trying Peroni Libera - the alcohol free beer from Peroni
- choosing the ‘Hallouminati’ burrito rather than my usual fish choice at Carlito Burrito when I met a friend for lunch there on Friday

I’m not sure how often I’ll blog about my ‘something new’ activities, but I thought that this post should be a half-week to introduce it and to outline the first few ‘something new’s that I’ve tried.

For other Try Something New posts, and the explanation of this project/intention, visit this page.