New year’s blogging (or “happy birthday, blog!”)

Hum, a season of resolutions and stock taking. Quite apart from “Courting Disaster” being one year old today. (Hurrah!)

So, indulge me.

New Year’s Eve 2002 I was drinking sparkling wine by, well, the bucket really, with my sister, Beth and Beth’s sister in the Purple Emerald on Flinder’s Lane in Melbourne. I’d been living in the World’s Most Liveable City™ for about three months. I was flirting with the idea of starting a blog.

New Year’s Eve 2003 I was entirely too sober in Singapore, standing with a Cambridge debating contingent as we realised most of us were, lamentably, not in the finals series. Fortunately, I’d smuggled my sister into the party, who provided sympathy, a little “it’s only a game” perspective, and beer - as well as the obvious thematic continuity.

Between those two events, well, it’s been a roller coaster. Melbourne was magnificent to me. I’ve never enjoyed a city so much, I’ve never enjoyed a job (working for a judge) so much. I made some great friends - especially through blogging. I applied for, and somehow succeeded in getting, a funded place in a graduate international law program in a major UK university, which (although occasionally stressing me out), I am loving.

On the other hand, I had some friendships I thought were firm go belly-up unexpectedly, both in Australia and England. In May, my plans to leave Melbourne for Cambridge also lead to some painful personal decisions. December, too, had some pretty drab moments on the self-confidence/“am I out of my depth?” front.

Other blessings, though, have been legion. Realising that I can move city, set myself up and make new friends (and have done so three times now) has given me much more self-confidence and I’ve learned to be much more outgoing, much more myself.

I’ve established a blog with a modest, but consistent readership. I’ve travelled. I’ve realised that I have very seldom failed at anything I’ve really wanted to achieve, which makes me amazingly lucky.

So, my resolutions, such as they are:

(1) I will trust that I am an effective budgeter and worry about money less.

(2) I will make more use of college film groups.

(3) I will go away somewhere at least one weekend in the coming term, and will take a proper five-day or week-long holiday somewhere (hopefully Barcelona, maybe Morrocco) in the term break. I will not worry that I should be writing-up my research paper around then.

(4) I will treat my course as a 9-5 office job. Okay, a 10-6 office job with a little work on Saturday. Starting today, dammit.

(5) I will finish Naylor if it kills me, or a few innocent bystanders.