2012 By the Numbers

There are so many ways to summarise a year, especially one as eventful as 2012 was. A post of my best photos of the year is upcoming, but I always find it interesting to look at some of the numbers from the year as well. Some are useful — number of miles flown, etc — and some I just find entertaining or feel like they really represented an important part of my year. Plus, it’s interesting to compare them to previous years — for instance, I visited a lot more countries last year but flew nearly 10,000 less miles. I consider that a win!

The sun sets as I fly from Brisbane to Cairns.

Flights: 27

Long haul flights: 9

If only all flights could be this luxurious...

Business class flights: 1 (Emirates upgraded me from Singapore to Dubai)

Flights cancelled because kicking the landing gear didn’t fix it: 1 (TAP Portugal from Madrid to Porto)

Miles flown: 49022mi (78435km)

Airports: 20 (London Heathrow, Stockholm Arlanda, Skellefteå, Singapore Changi, Perth, Brisbane, Christchurch, Sydney, Cairns, Dubai, Madrid, Porto, Brussels, Manchester, Humberside, Amsterdam, Barcelona, Gold Coast, Osaka, Sapporo New Chitose)

Countries: 8 (England, Sweden, Singapore, Australia, New Zealand, Portugal, Spain, Japan)

New countries: 4 (Sweden, Portugal, Spain, Japan)

And if all airports were as beautiful as Madrid T4...

Days away from home: 58

Beds slept in while traveling: 21

Broken legs: 1 fractured tibial plateau

Travel insurance claims stemming from broken leg: 0 because I didn’t get it treated til I got home

Number of weeks spent on crutches: 9. It sucked.

Number of months spent wearing a knee brace 24/7: 5

Cancelled trips: 1 (Australian Open, again)

Frequent flyer miles redeemed: 20,775 (on Virgin to Cairns)

Trips won to NZ: 1

Blog posts written in 9 days for my NZ trip: 24 (plus a few after the fact)

Things that made me realise how much I love NZ: Pretty much everything

The jacaranda trees of Brisbane showing that they can be beautiful even when they're not purple.

Instagram photos taken: 323

Photo books made out of NZ Instagram photos: 1

I took this photo hoping that the northern lights would appear. They did not.

Car issues: 0 (no one ran into me for a whole year!)

Days taken off work to travel: 33

Days work gives me off per year: 20

Dogsledding trips: 1

Jumps into the snow from a boiling hot sauna: 1

Night skies seen filled with the northern lights: 0. Means I have to go back, right?

Partial solar eclipses seen: 1

Times nearly mugged because I was taking photos: 1

Trips that involved four-wheel-driving through knee-deep puddles and driving through bushfires: 1

Number of times I did a Texas accent on live Australian radio: 1

Attempts at snowboarding: 1

Swimming with a sea turtle on Fitzroy Island.

Visits to my grandparents: 2 (which might make up for not going to Texas at all)

Blog conferences attended: 3 (Nuffnang Blogopolis, TBU Porto, and TBEX Girona)

Sea turtles snorkeled with: 1

Times playing tennis: 0 (I miss it)

Showing off my fashionable full-leg brace after breaking my leg.

New cameras: 1 (the Olympus OM-D, my new favourite travel camera)

Unfortunate dips in the toilet by a phone courtesy of my hopping on crutches: 1 (and surprisingly, it still worked afterwards — mostly)

New phones: 1 (an iPhone 5)

Citizenship applications approved: 1

Citizenships acquired: 0 (since the Brisbane City Council is so slow about doing citizenship ceremonies — but not long until Jan 26 now!)

Number of books read: 13 (poor effort, but I just didn’t seem to have time this year!)

(Rough) number of photos taken: 14,000

What numbers do you think would give a good indication of how your year went?

About Kristin
I'm Kristin, a Texan born to an American father and English mother. I've been living in Australia since 2008. My first plane flight was when I was three weeks old and I've been hooked ever since. I never feel quite right unless I have a plane ticket (to anywhere, whether it's Sydney or Sweden) booked in my name. You can also find me on Twitter and Facebook.
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