This year was a bit all over the place in terms of Instagram photos as this was the year I figured out what Highlights were haha! So I have screenshot all of them, and I am hoping I can put them all in the right order.

January

Me: Don’t worry, there’s less selfies in the coming years! Also me: *first photos posted are selfies* lmao. But little did grumpy Alex know back then, as I sat on the floor of my parent’s kitchen, that I was about to embark on the best and most defining year of my life.

These photos were from a ‘day out’ to Liverpool on the 10th January. I giggle at this now, thinking back to when I lived so far from the city, I used to have to make a whole day of it. I ironically avoid the city now. Too busy. But, here I went to Wetherspoons and got an ice cream. In January.

These photos range from January 15th to January 20th. Yes, most of them are selfies, but one of them is a selfie with Petunia the Potato. The toothbrushes were something I bought for “my future house” as this was the time I was looking at apartments and I even wanted my toothbrushes to fit my monochrome design I had wanted for so long. The scratches were on my leg, I woke up to them one morning, from the ghost.

This was from when I got the new switch OLED in January 2022, moments before I realised I lost my first Animal Crossing New Horizons world lmao. Sad times.

The first photo was a sunrise I took from my bedroom window at my parents house on the morning of Australia Day… and as I am writing this I just realised this years Australia Day was… last week. I forgot. Though I have had the weight of the world on my shoulders this past month. The second photo was my Burger King meal when I went to Cheshire Oaks on January 28th. The third photo was from the same day, as well as the fourth photo where I did a Paperchase haul. RIP Paperchase.

These are all from when I was studying science in college back in 2019, I am planning on making a whole post about my college days at some point this year, so I won’t go too in depth here, but these were posted on my Instagram feed in 2022, so, here they are. The first picture were my very aesthetically pleasing folder and workbooks. The second picture was a diagram I drew and coloured hours before I had to go into hospital from a swollen gum lol. The last picture was something I wrote for English class where our word was “Trapped” – so no longer align with who I was then, but I still think it’s a decent piece of writing.

February

This was the only photo posted in February, ironically, another selfie. I post these more because I’m amazed to look back at home fast my hair grew. Anyway, onto March.

March

This month wasn’t much better, these were the only three photos on my feed, the first picture wasn’t even from this year, it was during Covid when I took my Polaroid camera on a hike, took a picture of a tree, then took a picture of the picture next to said tree. Picture two was a Morrisons breakfast! If you know, you know. Yummy. Picture three was my new mini iPad I bought for myself as a reward for getting my first vaccination. This was all for my Accomplishments Before Australia List- as this was the month I decided… this year, I was going to the other side of the planet.

This was the list, everything I had to accomplish before I could sit my butt on that plane. And I did them all. All the fears I overcame… only for them to come back in full swing a few years later, but, I will get better.

For the rest of the year, most of what I did, and subsequently posted about, were things related to the list in some way. One of the things on the list, was conquer my fear of water- I never managed to get in a pool or body of water until 2025… but a boat… I could do that. So for my birthday, me and mother went on the Mersey Ferry to Liverpool. Where we went for food, the last ice cream was from the ferry terminal lmao.

April

Not much happened in April, all I posted this month was a selfie and a picture of the new travel backpack I bought. This was the new backpack from Pakt. They released it during Covid time but no one was really buying travel backpacks in 2020 were they? Anyway, I promised I would buy it for myself if I got my first Covid vaccination, as I needed to get that before I’d be allowed to fly.

Throwback Posts

So occasionally on Instagram, I’d make posts for #throwbackthursday. Most from when I was a teen. I didn’t know where else to put them so I thought, since not much happened in April, I’ll put them here lol.

Ah yes, the hamsters. When I was a teenager I had four hamsters- two girls and two boys. Conie, the white one, was the only one who didn’t mind being held- hence why she’s in most of the photos. The two girls were called Conie and Brex, or their full names: Conservative and Brexit. And the two boys were called Bronx and Cuppa, or their full names: Bronchitis & Cup-Of-Tea. As he was the shade of the perfect brew.

Conie was a very anxious hamster and we were never sure why, I learnt later on, in my twenties that her cage was too small, but as the video below shows in one of the clips, she used to do this… pacing thing. We found out her sister, Brex, was bullying her so we had to put them in two seperate cages.

And here is a collection of selfies from when I was about 19. I miss how… healthy I looked. I don’t know what happened lol.

Finally this was a photo I have taken many times before (I’ll be making a post one day this year about going through all my photography) but this one I posted during throwback Thursday. I still need to get one in the snow, but once I do, I would have them this picture in all seasons.

May

This was the month I moved into my new apartment! So a lot of my posts this month were related to that.

The first photo was my favourite drink, I can’t remember where I was but it looks like Blackpool, but I do not remember going to Blackpool on the 1st of May. The second photo was a picture I took when I was walking the Roman Walls in Chester, I liked it because it looked like it was “whipped right out of Call The Midwife”. The third picture was the last photo I took in my parent’s garden while I still lived there. I remember captioning this photo with “will miss my garden”- and I do. I really do.

From the 10th-15th May I went on my first trip alone… to a hotel 20 minutes away from where I live. This was a part of my Accomplishments Before Australia list to get over my fear of hotels and going out for food alone. The first two photos were my hotel room, the second one was me in the lift on my way to watch a late showing of Downton Abbey and the fourth picture was my Tango Ice Blast and my movie ticket! The fifth picture was the escalator on the way back to my hotel after the movie.

These photos are from the same trip- the first photo was the outfit I wore when I went on a day excursion to Southport, the second picture was my McDonald’s meal while I was there, and the third picture was my favourite bridge that I hadn’t taken a picture of in 7 years, it reminded me of better times.

These were the last two photos taken in May, I got these mootops (reusable milk bottle tops) for my new house, and then when I came home from viewing my new apartment, I found the plant in the sink at my parents house lol and I was like “yup! Time to leave!” Haha.

The first picture here is of the first little jars I got for my sugar and hot chocolate, and pictures two and three are of my box of eco friendly toilet paper- one of the rolls that inspired the wall art on my bathroom wall. And then the last picture for June is… my home. The day I moved in on May 24th!

June

Most of June was taken up with moving into my new place, as well as building the first bits of my furniture which I’ll make a compilation of.

Ah yes, starting the month off with a selfie. As well as the first cooked meal I taught myself to make! And, obviously, the first aesthetically pleasing picture from my new kitchen cupboards.

Two selfies as well as a photo of the meal I had at Harvester, curtesy of my mum as she wanted to take me for a “goodbye meal”… I got little custom made stickers for my body wash and shampoo dispenser… I have the picture of the day I got them I think. I have always loved sunsets but this year I spent a lot of time watching them, thinking about the world, and all my possibilities.

Some of the things I bought for my apartment in early June! I still have pretty much all of these things! I mean, if it’s not broken, don’t fix it and all that jazz.

This photo was taken the 3rd June by my mum on a whim, as a response to my dad’s text asking how we were getting in building my new bed. My mum sent this as a reply saying “she’s doing it all by herself” and I find that so deeply poetic. I used this photo as a reference- now on the day I moved in every year (May 24th) I take a photo of me in the same spot! On each year I’ll post the current year’s photo and the previous years under it in descending order.

Above is a compilation video of me building my first drawers and tables for my bedroom! It was so much easier to build things in my empty living room haha!

And to end June, we have two selfies where I look… so happy. And another sunset. Maybe one day I will see that kind of beauty in the world again.

August

There was nothing from July… which is weird, but we will carry on. By this month, my first trip to Aus was booked, and I had lived alone for 3 months!

These were some of the first photos I took from outside the windows of my apartment building. Not from my apartment specifically, but from one of my neighbours who has a much better view than I do. Still to this day I look out at my town on the cusp of a city and I’m like “woah. I’m doing this life thing” even today.

Photos one and four were taken on my first trip to my new local park! It was the park that inspired Central Park in New York. You’d have thought it would have been the other way around, but nope. Picture two was of some wild flowers at a train station i used to go to all the time and the third picture was a meal I had in Chester that looked a million times better than it tasted.

The last four photos from August! Picture one is when I got a full set of ripples and it was so aesthetically pleasing. Picture two was a meal I had in the town where my sister lives and the third photo was the usual sunset, obviously. And a swing selfie, too.

September

I stopped posting on Instagram for the rest of year after this month, so this is the final month! My new goal is to try and get this one, 2023, 2024 and 2025 all done before the end of March this year. I don’t know.

I remember I didn’t do much for the first half of September, so most of these posts will be things I posted to my Instagram in September as I was trying to free up space on my old iPhone with terrible storage- but I can’t remember specifically when a lot of these photos were taken. This, however, was the sunset over Blackpool.

The first and fifth picture were again, my favourite pizza ever. RIP Pizza Hut, I miss you. The ice cream was from Liverpool, the tango ice blast was from Blackpool (I’m guessing on the same trip that I took the above sunset photos?) and any British person will recognise the place in the fourth picture from the plates alone- wetherspoons!

This was my first concert I ever went to! And I did it all by myself the night before I was flying for the first time, all by myself! I had never seen so many people in my life, and considering my very socially anxious, I loved it! (It was George Ezra, for anyone wondering)

These two pictures were taken in the same place- one with the front camera and one with the back. I was bored one day in September waiting for the bus from my home town back home haha!

Ah, the final two photos! These were from Australia but I don’t think they ever made it onto my blog posts- I saw them floating around my instagram and that first picture specifically is so aesthetically pleasing. I’m currently making photo books about my trips and that picture is going on the back cover… maybe.

Thank you for reading! See y’all in 2023. Ooo, I feel like a time traveller.