2014…in review

So anyways, it’s New Years Eve…that means there’s a shiny new year just around the corner.

I wrote the post below in my astro blog last night…it’s about closing out the old year…I’ve updated it a little to make it relevant here too…

We were talking in the office today (yes, I am working through the summer holidays) about how I’m so much better at the starting thing than the finishing thing- and how I’m seriously crap at the business as usual, boring middle bit thing. It’s who I am. It’s why I like what I do at the moment. It’s why I’ll eventually get sick of that. It’s why I’m finding the final edit of Baby, It’s You (my novel) so hard going…because it really is the finish of that process.

It’s also why I’m forcing myself to properly close this year off- because there’s a whole shiny new one just a day or so away. So, to the looking back thing.

There was so much that was great about 2014. So much. I’ve been writing about it month by month…man, I’m disciplined! If you’re interested, the link to all of them is here. Don’t get carried away by my completion rate- I’m still missing Y and Z in my A-Z of me series.

I (deliberately) challenged myself physically, mentally and emotionally doing The Routeburn Track in February, and seriously gave my fear of letting go a decent whack when I zip lined just a few days later.

I accepted a serious corporate (and personal) challenge when I went back into partition land in March, and I made the decision in September to self-publish my first novel in May 2015. Astro titles will follow (under my own name), but fiction is my heart- and somehow it feels like a huge risk of that organ. I’m blogging that over at my alter ego- Tracey Hamill. Feel free to drop in.

The hardest thing I did all year, though, was say goodbye when my baby girl (who’s a heap taller than me- it wouldn’t be hard) hopped on a plane to Hong Kong and China on a trip I didn’t arrange and had absolutely no control over. Yes, I cried buckets when she got home- full of photos and stories and a new maturity.

There’s a lot that I’m happy to leave in 2014, but I’m not in the business of regrets, so we won’t go there. There was random shit happening all around. There was some tragedy too close for comfort, and a near miss that I’ll be grateful for until the end of my days…but we won’t go there either. All of it served as a wake-up, a reminder, and, dare I say it, a lesson… reminders and lessons that I hope I’m smart enough not to ignore.

As for this blog? Well, there was a hiatus for a bit as the afore-mentioned smelly, brown stuff was hitting the fan, but thanks to all of you who’ve followed me, and read my often chaotic rambling words over this past year. There was over 14,000 of you. That’s seriously humbling.

What did you come over to look at?

Mostly old stuff- it appears that you like posts about salads and walking…and Bali and chocolate. My top viewed posts:

Roasted beet and rocket salad

Watsons Bay to North Bondi Coastal Walk

Brighton Beach to St Kilda Coast Walk

Sayur Urab- Balinese Mixed Vegetable Salad

Bali Chocolate

Thank you to everyone who read, liked, commented and followed my posts. I wish you all the very best that 2015 has to offer…