Speed blogging

A summary of shit I’ve been up to in the last seven months, presented in list form because I’m just too busy and important to write it any other way:

France trip (every bit as good and bad as I’d expected)
Good bits: meeting a new cousin. Hanging out with lots of old nuns. Helping out in the convent gardens. Speaking French and realising my accent had improved ten-fold. The kindness of French people generally. Seeing my aunt again (on her good days).
Bad bits: The length of the journey. Having luggage lost at Charles de Gaulle airport. Sharing a room with the Dowager Empress (mother), who is a somewhat voluble sleeper. Seeing my aunt again (on her bad days).

Getting a part-time office job
Good bits: scoring the job with no questions asked, despite CV saying “Feb 09 - present: being mental”. Having money that the Dreamboat didn’t give me. Meeting nice people.
Bad bits: crap money. The original ‘two days a week’ agreement going out the window after the first week, with work creeping up to full-time and totally taking over my life — hence, finishing up before Christmas. Which belongs in the ‘good bits’ section.

Casual work in radio (never say never)
Good bits: being back on air. Remembering how much I love it. Getting nice messages from listeners. Making more money. Only doing it occasionally, so no burn-out.
Bad bits: none yet.

Freelancing feature-writing work
Good bits: seeing the France story in print. Lots of ideas for other stories. Finding great talent to interview for two of them.
Bad bits: not enough time to pitch or write the damn things.

Medical matters
Good bits: lots of tests earlier in the year delivered up nothing more sinister than a hiatus hernia. Officially downgraded to “low risk” at the oncology clinic. Ongoing physio for damage caused by radiotherapy.
Bad bits: have pretty much given up hope that the damage will ever be fully/permanently repaired.

Yuletide etc
Good bits: spending first Xmas on our farm in NZ with wonderful family (nuclear and extended) and working our arses off for three weeks. Getting to know my 2-year-old neice and becoming her willing slave forever. Picking our own raspberries, strawberries and currants. Watching redcurrant jelly being made at the speed of light. Witnessing the construction of an exceptionally beautiful compost heap. (Yeah, you read that right.)
Bad bits: having to leave. Having to leave in order to return to Karratha. Having to leave in order to return to Karratha in summer. Having to leave in order to return to Karratha in summer and then immediately coming down with a bug.

2011 will be the year we leave Karratha (and Australia) to start a scary, wonderful new life on our farm in New Zealand. It will also mean the end of this blog… and the beginning of a new one. None of this will be happening for months yet, though, and I’ll try to step up the posts here in the meantime.

Happy New Year to anyone and everyone who still visits this site. I hope 2011 brings you plenty of the right sort of adventures. If not, come and visit us later in the year and we’ll happily acquaint you with the Zen of cow-shit shovelling.

Popularity: 78% [?]