Surely it can't be 2011 already?!!

[i_autumnheart]

I never did manage to get used to writing 2010. Bother.

Oh well, time for a recap, because it's always nice to see where I've been before turning around and diving into the confusion of another year.


In 2010, and in no particular order, I:

• Delivered two versions of a new environmental simulation program for my day job. On time, no less, though the fact that the client apparently didn't look at it until a month after the final delivery date rather took the shine of that particular achievement. The project has been quite well received - the development team made a bunch of presentations on the science and demoed the software at a national conference, and we've had quite a lot of followup interest. Unfortunately, in true public service fashion, none of that interest includes funding to continue the development work, so the project's future is a bit up in the air right now. We shall see what develops.
  
  
• Saw quite a lot of koalas - or possibly the same koala lots of times, it's a bit hard to tell. I shifted offices in my building so I had a window seat on the upstairs floor, which looks right into a garden containing several big trees. It's fairly common to catch movement out of the corner of my eye and see a koala heading one way or another along a treetrunk.
  
  
• Learned to dance. I started taking latin dance classes in late 2019 with a couple of friends from work, and I continued that all year. I've been learning salsa and zouk, with a couple of forays into cha cha cha and bachata. I currently like zouk the best, but they're all fun, and I've done a fair bit of social dancing. Those of you who know me in real life will be completely unsurprised to find that I found learning to follow a lead to be the most difficult bit, closely followed by attempting to dance in high-heeled shoes! I plan to continue taking classes this year, and am debating whether to pick up argentine tango.
  
  
• Learned (well, started to learn) to ride. I did the horse-crazy tween thing many years ago, and had a few lessons then, but couldn't continue due to the increasing reluctance of my parents to drive me an hour each way to class. I can completely sympathise with that *now*, of course, but it was an occasion of Much Drama at the time. Anyway, a new friend at work this year (a visiting post-doc from Finland) is just as horse crazy now as I was at 13, and her enthusiasm was contagious :). The stable I am riding at is only 20 min away this time, and I can drive myself there, so it's all working out quite well. I've been riding weekly for 8 months now, and am having a lot of fun. It doesn't come anywhere near as easily to me as the dancing does (I still get sore legs!) but I'm having fun, and I haven't broken myself yet.
  
  
• Read an awful lot of books, pretty much none of which had any claim to being great literature, though most were enjoyable. This list doesn't include blog posts, Facebook (I tried not to succumb, but failed miserable) or fanfic, which means the total time spent reading is *truly* scary. I do rather wonder how many more useful things I could have done if I could just cut back on my reading time a little. The chances of success aren't high enough for me to be willing to make that an actual resolution, though!
  
  
• Calligraphed and illuminated a bunch of SCA award scroll blanks, but did no original work. I'd like to do more originals this year - I've already got a couple of very overdue assignments in my stash.
  
  
• Completely failed to complete either of the on-the-side programming projects I set up for myself. I'm not happy about that, as people are waiting on both of them, but work and everything else just completely ate my enthusiasm for spending more time at the computer from about Easter onward. I shall do better.
  
  
• Was very bad at cleaning the house. When so many other things hadn't been done, there was no hope for the vacuuming. I did manage to keep the laundry and the dirty dishes under control, though, so it could have been worse.
  
  
• Increased my potplant collection by propagating things, rather than buying new plants from the nursery. This years successes have been frangipani cuttings and orchids from Mum and Dad's place; rosemary, cuttings from the blue ginger in the garden here; an unidentified purple-flowering thing from my neighbour's garden, and seeds from the ponciana tree at the office. Failures were cuttings from my rosebushes and pumpkins. I did get 50 bazillion pumpkin seedlings when I dumped a whole pumpkin's worth of seeds in a spare pot, but none of them have survived. I rather suspect they don't like pots.
  
  
• Acquired an iPad - a gift/reward/bribe combo from my work. It was very nice of them to think of it, but I was a bit taken aback at the time, as I don't do the Apple fangirl thing, and iTunes annoys me no end. It's quite shiny, though, and I use it a lot for the casual browsing away from my desk (and reading eBooks in bed) that I would otherwise cart the laptop around for. It's a wee bit heavy to be a brilliant eBook reader, but it does the job.
  
  
• Acquired a new niece - my brother's second daughter, born in late September. I suspect she will be just as cute as her older sister and slightly older cousins when she gets past the scarily-breakable-new-baby stage.
  
  
• Had a scare when my Dad was diagnosed with bowel cancer, and more of a one when they operated and discovered it was a lot more advanced than had showed up on his scans. Thankfully he's recovered well from surgery, and the chemotherapy is working, so his prognosis is fairly good. Getting him to rest has apparently been the hardest thing - he'd only just retired and is a bit peeved about all the planned trips and projects that have had to be put off. Mum did not have a good 2010 with all of that, but we all have hope that 2011 will be better.
  
  

In 2011, I plan to continue with the working and the dancing and the riding. I will move house - I have to move offices into the city next month, so will move house as well, since a shorter commute unfortunately wins over scenery. I need a new car, but am being stupidly reluctant to part with my old banger, so have been procrastinating. That needs to change. I plan to play more SCA, since I've missed that, and to see, or at least do a better job of staying in touch with my friends in other cities. That's probably enough for one year. I'd like to add on all the usual things like loosing weight and exercising more and getting better at getting up in the mornings, but none of those have ever worked before, so I shall leave them to chance rather than accord them actual resolution status.

Here's to a better 2011!