Well hello dear things and welcome to 2009. I’ve already done resolutions post, so I won’t bore you with that here. I decided to do something different for the first Roast of this sparkly new year. Instead of sending y’all willy nilly off to the far corners of this here internet, I am going to take you on a journey through the last year as seen here on Bright Meadow.

So buckle up Dorothy, cause Kansas is going bye-bye…

The year started with me having to say goodbye. I then entered into a period of intense hatred of Motorola and all their devilish works. Sad after a week, by the end of the second week with the replacement Razr, I was ready to do something a lot more damaging than just sit on it! God the phone was awful. Makes me appreciate my shiny E71 all the more now

In 2008, you had to have been sitting under rather large rock to have avoided e-books. Even my mum has heard of the Sony Reader and asked if she should get one! So did I ever find my dream e-book reader? Yes. It’s called my E71. A very handy app called BooksInMyPhone. There is also MobiReader and I can even read word documents - very handy for the odd manuscript I don’t want to kill a tree by printing out.

I talked about moving to a new city and I actually did it! But boy was I wrong about Oxford! The reality is rather different, and I love it

2008 saw a LOT of health crap coming back to kick me in the stomach with huge hobnail boots. At least I have stopped loosing my voice so spectacularly!

I have thought long and hard over the year about what I want from Bright Meadow. Did I want to keep making the commitment to the blog? (There has been a time or three I thought I would jack it in) then I went and splashed out on a new design, and so many good things keep happening because of the blog, I just couldn’t let it go. One thing that I have noticed lately is a drop off in comments and I miss you guys! Time to follow my own advice I think.

Looking back, I seem to have spent an inordinate amount of time over the last year navel gazing. But then as we all decided that I am cool, clearly my mid-section deserves the odd glance now and then.

We all shared a lot, this year, and it turns out more than a few of you are as obsessed about notebooks as I am. (The collection has grown even more since then, I blush to admit)

Don’t believe me when I say things are happening to/because of Bright Meadow? I made it into the Guardian, didn’t I?

I still haven’t gotten a satisfactory answer to this you know: how the frack do you mass produce honey?!

I never really talked about my last job when I was doing it for a vast number of reasons, not least because it didn’t seem appropriate and I wanted to keep my personal life as separate from work as possible. As part of a team that helped support disadvantaged people, the job I was hired for was back office (admin etc). In practice I ended up doing a lot more to the point of being an unofficial support worker for the support workers. Not my bag at all, but I hadn’t realised how much it had affected me till this day, shortly before I left. That phone call was the one. The proverbial straw. Much though I miss the folks I worked with, I remember putting the phone down and saying “I can’t do this any more”. Within a month I had moved to Oxford and I haven’t looked back.

Which brings us to the BIG news of 2008: the job. My head is STILL whirling, three months later. God, has it only been three months?! It feels like so many more.

It’s always nice to find out that the career you’ve been dreaming of is actually what you want, isn’t it?

And so ends our little tour through the last twelve blogging months. I’m not sure if I want 2009 to be as eventful, or if I should be crossing my fingers for a quiet patch!

Looking back on 2008, I still find it hard to wrap my head around the changes that have happened in my life over the past year. I am living in a new city, with new people, working in an industry that is completely different to everything I have done before. And I am loving it. I am loving living my life.

So much has changed, but throughout it all though, there is a constant thread; the people around me. I find it a perpetual joy and a delight that, not only am I still getting closer to the “Southampton Lot” (as they’ve become known), but that I am finding new people, and also that I am picking up threads with people from back in the Liverpool days, and building it all into something new. Something stronger.

This means so much to me because when I look back on 2008, I am looking back at some deep lows along with the soaring highs, and it is those people who were firmly at my side through all of it. A cliche, yes, but you really do find out who your true friends are in the times of distress.

So for the endless cups of tea, the hugs, the shoulders to cry on. For the constant CV re-writes, the soothing noises pre job interviews, the commiseration’s and the celebrations. The finding me somewhere to stay, the taking me dancing, the showing me new places. Keeping me sane. Accepting me. Telling me I could do it, that I was worth it. Making me welcome. Giving me space. Keeping me laughing.

Most of all, just for being stubborn sods who refused to give up on me.

To all of you, I know I don’t ever say it enough, but I love you, and I wouldn’t be able to sit here and write this with a smile on my face, looking forward to what the future brings, if it wasn’t for each and everyone of you. So I am going to make just one resolution for 2009 and every year from now on: I am going to embrace every opportunity that comes my way. I am going to do my best to be the person you all see when you look at me. And I am going to be there for you in the same way you have been there for me.

That’s it. Happy New Year everyone

Well, winter is finally here and Christmas is round the corner. How do I know this? Because I spent the weekend on the boat, meandering down the canal, drinking mulled wine, and trying to avoid frostbite. Up till now I have been denying the season, and have managed to do so successfully because I don’t have a TV and have avoided the usual hideous adverts and jingles. It’s just not Christmas-time because I haven’t seen the Coca Cola advert! I do have a habit of Scrooging my way through the festive season, but for some reason, Oxford is bringing out the jolly in me. What with the carol concerts, Santa runs, dates, decorations and parties, I’m busy pretty much every day up till the big day itself, and even my bah-humbug-ing is more a token effort than heartfelt.

Which is nice, but not generally condusive to finding time to blog and write Sunday Roasts and things like that. So rather than leave you all panting in expectation of the next post which never seems to come, I am going to bid you a fond adieu till 2009 rolls round.

Have a lovely festive season everybody

(And I still haven’t done the sodding Christmas shopping!)

It is a sure sign that a girl has reached the end of her tether when she signs up for a dating site. Yes, this is me admitting that I have signed up for a dating site. Looking at it one way, the internet has played a significant role in most aspects of my life so far, why not this one as well?

And yes, to reassure everyone, I will be careful.

Now, the tricky bit.

The photo, oh dear and fluffy lord, the photo! Now, my photostream to the contrary, I actually hate having my picture taken and rarely feel that photo captures me. My favourite picture is still the tea one which graces this blog and is my avatar all round the web. I like it for several reasons, not least because 1) it shows me drinking tea, which is kind of my default position and 2) the mug hides my face (also something of a default - if I can hide behind a scarf or something, I will!) But is it really a good shot to have on a dating site?

And then there is the blurb profile. You’d think I would be good at writing a brief bit about me, selling myself, captivating people. I am not. I stink at it, not least because I have never been concise in my life! My style is rambling, intimate, relying on twists of language to snag attention and promote humour.

You’ve got to describe yourself and your perfect match in 200 to 4000 words, and give yourself a “headline” of no more than 140 words. Reading their guidance isn’t much help. It just confuses me and makes it even harder to start!

• DO make it work with your username and photo
• DO make those first few words count
• DO show your personality—not tell
• DO grab attention
• DO say who you’re looking for
• DO invite a response
• DON’T use clichés
• Start off with a bang
• Be specific
• What makes you tick?
• Give people a reason to email you
• Keep your eye on the target
• Tease a little

*ARG!*

*Hides under the covers with her cup of tea*

Because on top of actually having to write the damned thing, there’s then the pressure of waiting for it to work its magic. What if no one likes me? What if no one wants to date me?

*sob*

Then I realised, I have been writing Bright Meadow for years now, and you lot have always been with me, reading and commenting as the mood takes you. I have got to know some of you really well, whilst others I just get an inkling of your presence from stray comments and reader-stats. I love you all. There has to be something about my words and personality that keeps you coming back, so who better to help me write this profile?

I am being stone-cold serious about this: write me a profile. Make it funny. Make it serious. I don’t care. Add them to this post in comments, or, if you’re feeling shy, email them to cas.brightmeadow[@]gmail.com

The best one will get some small token of my estimation (I’m thinking along the lines of iTunes vouchers, or a Flickr pro account or something comparable) and, who knows, will be guest of honour at my not-wedding to the White Knight your profile enchanted

I am intrigued as to what y’all come up with. How much of me has come across in this blog over the years…

A certain sense of ennui is filling my bones this Sunday evening. I have just dispatched Brother Dearest and Kitten back to London after their lovely, if brief, visit, and am curled under a blanket in my room, staring out at the sleet and dark sky. It’s not a roast day somehow. It is a curl up with a mug of soup, a good book, and some movie trailers kind of a day.

2012 - colour me intrigued

The Wrestler

The Matrix Runs on Windows (thanks to Moose for this link!)

Work tomorrow. Yippee!