2011: The Beginning
It’s already nearly half-way through February. Does that shock you? A lot has happened in my year so far, but I don’t think I was quite prepared for the fact that it is truly well underway. This is essentially my first week back at work for the year after being away for 2 weeks (I did work 3 weeks in January, but it certainly doesn’t feel like it counts). The two weeks were a fairly intensive sprint of family time, and family time and more family time. I have a lot of family, so it takes quite a bit of time and energy to really spend quality time with everyone, or as many people as possible. It was really refreshing though, not in a physical sense because I am certainly tired, but in a re-centering sense. I feel as if I have been able to reconnect with family and re-centre the value of family in my life – which is quite invigorating.
While the family time away had the most impact, there are a couple of other things that I’ve been doing that have helped as well. Nearing the end of 2010, I decided that I wanted to make a few changes in my life, or tick off a few of the things that I keep saying I want to do and yet haven’t done. The first was to apply to put in two pieces of art into an art competition – I didn’t really care whether I would win or not, it is more that I have wanted to do something of this kind for a while. The other big decision I made was to enroll back into Uni. Which I have done – into a graduate course in applied statistics. I have wanted to move out of the IT field for a while. My interest in it becomes less and less as the years move on, so this is one step towards moving out of the field. I’m pretty excited.
I also have a number of other plans for the year which I hope will work out, but I guess we’ll just have to wait and see.
Art work
I had wanted to have some pictures of my art work to upload here, but every time I’m on here I don’t have my camera with me, or the pictures on file, so it will have to be next time. But I have a couple up my sleeve – I completed a set of three that I mentioned in a post …in November? So long ago. And I have also finished 1 of 4 that I will be working on in my spare time – so hopefully I’ll post these as I go, or somesuch like that. I can’t actually put them up on the wall as I don’t have permission from the landlady to do so – but I probably should ask, so that they can be somewhat useful.
Nearing the end of 2009
I can’t really believe it (can you?). It’s nearly the end of 2009 – its amazing really, it wasn’t that long ago that I was writing my first posts of the year – specifically around my Plans for 2009 after returning from Europe. Okay so I haven’t really kept to the plan that I set out then but I have in a couple of areas – and I’m pretty stoked with that!
1a) Financial Responsibility – I’m still learning it, there is no way that a year attempting to save money got me into habits for the rest of my life, but I have saved money, and while it’s a small start
1b) Health-wise Responsibility – This was one of the areas that didn’t see much progression. While I did buy an exercise bike, I have not gotten into a rhythm of riding it. I haven’t improved my eating habits, in fact I think I’ve regressed. But I have no problems going to the doctor, dentist and optometrist to get some assistance. I even got contacts at the beginning of the year – I now realise that contacts are more fiddly than they are worth (e.g. a lens popping out of your eye while you’re sitting down is not going to increase your confidence in them).
2) Energy/Positivity – I feel like I’ve been pretty positive this year, for the most part, maybe a little, sometimes. LOL. Maybe not the greatest of endorsements for success in this area, but I guess learning to laugh at life’s little foibles is just as good as feeling buoyant, and maybe a better long term skill.
3) Relaxing – This is pretty important to me, I find I need to take the time to relax for a part of the day in order to appropriately regroup before coming back the next day – especially when I’m locked into something – that might be work (Mon-Fri) or locked into organising music for a Sunday morning at Church.
4) Gardening – I have no idea if I would want to pursue this as a career. But, I have had heaps of fun setting up a garden and growing different herbs and vegies. I’m currently growing pumpkins, spring onions, tomatoes, chilli, basil, parsley (curly & flat leaf), lavender, mint, oregano, and rosemary. I also keep a compost – and am attempting to get the grass to grow during our lovely drought conditions. It’s fun, uses some energy, and gets me outside in the warmth and sun! So I’m loving it (and I’m really loving the rain we’ve been having lately – it has been awesome!),
5) Art – I had decided to discard this item from my list earlier in the year, but recently I have gotten out the paints and have done one and a half paintings (the Face painting I mentioned in a previous post, is getting there but not yet complete). So its not yet dead – it probably helped going to an art gallery or two, they tend to inspire me to paint better than anything else.
6) Reading Non-Fiction – LOL – To be honest I have been fairly successfully in this endeavour to read a number of non-fiction books. I have started reading 5 or 6 books, the problem is that I haven’t finished any of them! But I plan to during my holidays so it should be alright still. 
7) Go away/Explore Victoria – I should have, I haven’t, but I still hope to. It’s not a lost endeavour, I am taking a nice chunk of leave soon and most will be spent at home, so I should have plenty of time to go away for a couple of nights here and there.
Hopefully I’ll be able to post some photos of all of the above soon.
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