That was the year that was....

And so I'm here again. New Years Eve.

Last time I was here on this blog writing about New Years Eve it was 31st December 2012, and I was looking back on a year that didn't appear to have too much going for it. Career-wise I was drifting, doing two zero-hour contract jobs that meant my weekly income could fluctuate wildly and that weren't going to satisfy me intellectually in the long-term. On the personal front, whilst 2012 saw my relationship with my other half definitely move forward out of the rut that it had been in for the best part of 8 years (I'd always known it was that long, but there's something about it being actually written down that makes it much more starker and unacceptable), the movement was that small that I was the only person that would have been able to register it.

To that end I laid down a few targets (I shied away from the word resolution for the simple fact that I wanted to give myself every chance of accomplishing them) for 2013. Here's how I got on....

Target one was to blog more, and I gave myself the specific target of updating the blog at least once a week. A simple glance upwards at the menu listing the number of blogs that I actually published over the last 12 months will be enough to tell you that, although I did publish blog posts over the last twelve months, I came absolutely nowhere near to that stated target. I even revised my target in June to the equivalent of one post every fortnight, which, if I had followed it through, would have meant making at least 15 posts to this blog during the second half of the year.

Ahem.

In my defence, just as I posted in June, this has partly been to do with being overwhelmed with work, certainly over the last two months anyway, and partly to do with writing blog posts that are far too long and complicated, leaving me with at least half a dozen uncompleted blog posts that have no relevance to the world today. So I think the official verdict on this target is: must do better. A lot better.

Target two was to work on the career, having by the end of the year formed a clear idea of where I am going, planned how I am going to get there and be putting it into action. Like target one, this is probably best summed up by saying must do better. I am still working two jobs, on zero-hours contracts, but the jobs (or, to be more precise, one of them) have at least changed and my hours are much more predictable, even if my work-life balance has gone completely out of kilter in the process. In the process I have ruled out the back-up career as a viable alternative, purely for reasons related to the sake of my sanity, so that's progress of sorts isn't it? Anyway, if I get any time to myself then this is what will be my priority for next year.

Target three was to sort my relationship out. This is where the real progress in my life has been made this year. His nibs and myself have spent so much more time together: we have not only met up with each other so much more frequently but we've gone away for weekends on a regular basis and have even had our first proper holiday. The verdict for this part of 2013 is definitely a positive one: we've made real progress in the relationship. The logistical problems caused by living in two different parts of the country are still there, and realistically we can't go much further as a couple without resolving them (which fundamentally means me moving to be with him as he is tied to his geographical location because of work), but as a couple we definitely end 2013 in much better shape than we began it in.


So, overall, 2013 leaves me better off than it found me in, but in some aspects of my life, not by much. Will 2014 finally be the year I get my sh*t together? Watch this space.....

So long, farewell, auf wiedersehn, goodbye...

....to 2012 anyway.

Another calendar year is over and done with and what have I got to show for it?

On the surface, probably not much. I'm sure if you were to ask my friends how my life differs from how it stood on 1 January 2012, I'm sure that pretty much all of them would say that it doesn't. After all, I'm still not employed in any sort of job that could reasonably described as a career/vocation that could last me the rest of my life. Nor has my long-term long-distance relationship changed as far as can be reasonably discerned: we're still living 300 miles apart and we've still not met each other's parents, let alone entered into any other more significant relationship milestones.

Yet when I review the last year, and especially the last six months, I think there are grounds for cautious optimism. Whilst my job situation is far from ideal, I think that the last six months has given me a good basis from which to make a final concerted effort at working in the field that I ultimately want to work in, but with the knowledge that there is a viable alternative as a back-up. And whilst the relationship might look like nothing's changed, in the last six months plenty has. First and foremost, we're now seeing other on a regular basis, averaging once every 3 weeks. And whilst that might not seem a lot, given that over the previous eight years of the relationship we saw each other once every 3 months, it's a vast improvement.

So, for the first time in 4 or so years, I can say goodbye to this year knowing that the last twelve months haven't just been about treading water or heading backwards. As to what I want from 2013? Well that's another blogpost...