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!
Glad that you’re enjoying Oxford and the New Job! It sounded like you were in dire need of a change…
I was in Portswood a few days ago, and while I still feel nostalgia for the place, comparing Soton/Portswood to Oxford, there’s frankly no comparison!
It’s good to see you blogging again – maybe a change in the way that you blog might be worth experimenting with? Perhaps shorter, more frequent posts? Since I use Twitter a lot now, and I’m used to writing small, frequent, messages, I’m going to try that approach to blogging in 2009… (and have as many tools to post to WordPress as possible kicking about). I keep writing tweets that really won’t fit into 140 characters, no matter how much I compress the words. Must turn them into blog posts…
All the best for 2009! May it be creative, but not quite so eventful…
I was in dire, DIRE need of a change. The silly thing is I didn’t realise it at the time.
Somehow I am not sure shorter and more frequent is for me. I’m finding Twitter is taking all my “oooh, this just happened” things. My blogging has always been a bit on the longer side…
Or perhaps I need to stop twittering so much and get back to writing the “oooh, this just happened” here.
And happy new year and all the best for 2009 to you too 🙂
Cas, I’m glad you’re enjoying your new start to life!
I read the post about the bad end to your day with heartfelt sorrow. I did intend to comment and completely forgot.
That you have now found your dream job, in a new city, you are moving on with your life, moving up in the world.
This can only be a good thing for 2009.
I hope 2009 is a brilliant year for you, especially in comparison to 2008!
Thank you jinx, and the same back to you 🙂
I like regular blog posts. I rarely follow you on Twitter because it feels way too much like stalking for comfort! 🙂
I didn’t think the stalker was the one meant to be feeling uncomfortable!
hair go bye bye? 🙁
Yes, the evil hairdresser attacked me. It’s actually about twice the length it was when she did it in November!
I want my hair back 🙁
Bloody hell, I just noticed that…
How much were you rustled to have that done?
Considering it’s twice the length now, how short was it when you first had it done?!
I will not be going back there, rest assured. Go in and ask for “just tidy up the back”, come out feeling shorn like a sheep! Oh, it was tidy, that’s all you could say for it.
Everyone said it really suited me, and I can kinda guess what they meant, but it was just so short I couldn’t play with it or do anything at all. This comment is going to make folks laugh, but I just didn’t feel feminine enough! I just felt so self conscious all the time.
It’s better now I can mess it out, but still, I think it is time to grow my hair long again. Not that it ever suited me long, but I like to keep trying (at least till I get bored and chop it all off).
Oh I disagree. I think the longer hair suited you very well! It looked… well… HOT to be honest.
Are you saying I don’t look hot now? Huh? Huh?
I only liked it long when I could be arsed to make it curly. Then it rocked.
Surly is right, you do suit long hair, in more ways than you sort short hair… however, that’s not to say you don’t look good with it how it is now.
I guess I’m just used to seeing you with long hair?
Whether Curly long or straight long… He’s right about looking hot!
Used to me with long hair? o_O It’s been short for way over a year!
But thank you for the compliment *blush*
I felt like we’d come full circle when I saw you in December. I’m sure it was that short when I first met you.
You’re right – the length is on a par I would say. Thinking back, I remember deciding round about this time of year (after another disasterous hair cut!) to grow it out.
I do so like to repeat the same mistakes, over and over!