That Was The Year That Was
Happy New Year!! Hope everyone had a good Christmas, & a bit of time off over the festive season. So 2013 is here, 8 days in already. I had hoped to write over the break, but inspiration didn't strike alas. Having 10 days in a row off work for the first time in 12 months didn't inspire me to do too much in the the way of writing, even though I didn't do a lot over the break - more on that to come.
I got nothing specific to chat about today, just quickly to look at my highs & lows of 2012, my pretty unspectacular Xmas/New Year break, & a few things on the horizon in 2013! Only my 2nd full day of work here, things still fairly quiet - I guess a fair few of our suppliers still on their break - so lets do this now.
I look back on 2012 with mixed feelings - it was my 1st full year in the new job, & after a busy start to the year which involved settling in & organising the new office & completely getting my head round the job tasks, I settled in to a pretty good routine. A good group of people & modern facilities certainly helped. And before I knew it, the footy was back & I had a very big year, getting to over 50 games by my count if you include NAB Cup, VFL games & finals!! Adding in everything else socially, I kept busy for most of the year, while manging a couple of trips Harborside - including getting to the GWS Giants' 1st ever game for premiership points - a trip to Adelaide, this time last year, & a quick getaway to Cairns in October for a few nights.
On the flip side, we had a few family health issues which made you think twice about things. I felt I didn't quite achieve a few of the things I had hoped to - in financial terms mainly. Though I guess a new queen bed, a new MacBook, & a ticket to the AFL Grand final at the full retail rate will take the edge off your bank account in a hurry! Also, I sadly had to put a big black line through the names of some people who I either thought were my friends, but thought wrong (as I've spoken about before), or others I just continued to drift away from, as happens over time. I know that people coming & going from your life is perfectly normal part of life, but its always something that I personally find hard to do. Especially as I'm far from the best at replacing them with new friends & contacts.
So, to wrap it up, my highlight & lowlight of 2012: The highlight was definitely my 20 year high school reunion in March. I guess there's not much in-between with these things, either it really clicks, or you spend 90% of the night sitting in the corner sipping a drink, feeling very awkward & totally out of place. Luckily it was the former for me - the girls who organised the night picked a perfect spot to have it, & had things planned very well. Drinks, finger food, some old high school photos that had re-surfaced... all led to a very engaging night that I really really enjoyed. Great to catch up with so many familiar faces & catch up on 20 years worth of news. Head was spinning from so many memories & laughs & moments in time from some of the best years of your life! Especially as you know by now, I'm a bit socially awkward - but this night I mingled & chatted with almost everyone! Its amazing how some people looked exactly the same, & had barely changed, while others I honestly didn't recognise at first! The night went so well in fact, that there was serious discussion about making this an annual event! The next few months will determine whether that happens or not I guess, now that 9 months have since passed.
The lowlight is a bit more generic - that pathetic game of footy the Cats played in the elimination final at the MCG against the Freo dockers. Considering what was on the line that night, & as many predicted, 2012 would be Matthew Scarlett's last year in the game, that was just such a terrible effort that night to put it mildly - what a way to send off one of the greatest players to ever pull on the Blue & White hoops! :( I haven't been as angry as I was that night in a long, long time. My brother paid witness to that - come half time, he had re-located halfway down the aisle of seats, & i didn't blame him at all! I only need to track back to my tweets that night - I was seriously pissed off!!
Sorta ironic that both my highlight & lowlight of 2012 involved a Geelong-Fremantle game! Of course, the only other meeting between the teams last year was in Rd 1 on March 31st -the same night as my high school reunion!
Xmas/New Years
My Christmas itself was fine - just spent with the family at home (one advantage of being single - only 1 set of family you need to visit, haha) My niece & nephew were over round 8.30ish to drag me out of bed & go open the presents with everyone else! My brother & his partner came down for lunch which was really nice, & after the traditional afternoon snooze, I ducked up to my sister & brother in laws place (within walking distance) for an evening drink & to reflect on what we all got from "Santa"! Nothing spectacular, but very enjoyable notheless.
I usually go to the cricket at the MCG on Boxing Day, but I have to admit on being totally uninterested with Sri Lanka being the opponents this year. Plus the prices seemed higher, too. Just not worth it - I popped up to the big smoke, did a bit of shopping, then found a good pub with a nice beer garden to watch the cricket on the big screen. Could think of worse ways to spend Boxing Day!
Rest of the break was mainly R & R. I got down to to Torquay for a couple of days (love the new Geelong Ring Road, makes it a lot easier) when it wasn't too hot & too crowded, & just basically took it easy. Was nice just to forget about the usual grind & not have to worry about going to bed at a reasonable hour & wake up to a darn alarm every morning!
Even New Years Eve was low key this time. I'd pretty much decided last new year's that I was just over the whole big party scene for New Years anyway.. A BBQ at home with family was more enticing, complete with drinks on the patio courtesy of the esky filled with cold ones on ice, with some tunes from the radio counting down till midnight. Was in bed not long after 1am! Also, it was back to work on January 2nd, so not really worth doing anything too huge.
2013?
So we had a quiet roll in to the new year at work, too. Was just a skeleton staff last 3 normal working days after New Years last week, with a short work day too - wasn't complaining! I'm not really a big one for New Years resolutions - was actually asked this at a End Of The Word/Xmas Party I was at just before Xmas - and I think the world just turns too quickly to set too many goals these days. Just look at these terrible bushfires in Tassie right now - sure the people who have had their lives disrupted the last few days had goals they were aiming for. Things just change too quickly in the modern world for mine.That being said, I was looking medium term at another overseas trip. for the last year or 2, I'd envisioned going to the UK in June-July 2013 & catching some of the Ashes Test matches. But you have to face facts sometimes: its realistically not something I'm going to be able to afford. Not at the moment anyway, I know things can change. Anyway, I have to admit I'm not as sold on going as much anymore, seeing that the next set of Ashes Test matches will be just a few months later on, back here in Australia. It sort of de-values those matches in England a little for me. Next time we tour will be 2015 I think, so that may be a better long-term goal? We'll see. In the meantime, seeing I came back on Jan 2nd, & have a few days of leave still owing. (only problem with the new job was having to take almost 2 weeks of leave just 7 weeks into the job owing the re-location of the office over Xmas/New Years 2011) I'm thinking of settling for a few night sessions of the tennis, & taking a week in late Jan/early Feb instead while the weather is still good but after the school holidays are over & taking off somewhere. Right now that somewhere is... Fiji! :) But keep it under your hats, haven't booked yet, or even put my annual leave in either, though I'm not anticipating an issue at a quiet point of the retail year. Stay tuned, come next post I should have the details, whoo-hoo!!
One Thing to go On...
So NYE was the final trading day for Dimmeys Richmond - where I began my 14 year career with the company in October 1997. Early 1998 through to early 1999 when i was working at Richmond is what I would rate my most enjoyable time with Dimmeys - it was before the cutbacks, staffing issues, mismanagement, etc. I could do a whole post on my time at dimmeys, so I won't go into details now. But when I walked past it on the weekend for the 1st time since it closed, I kinda expected to feel something - sadness, nostalgia, memories of the best times I had there..... but I felt nothing at all. Good in a way that I've fully moved on, sad that I had a lot of friendships & good times there, that seem to have been permanently scarred by more recent memories & how I was treated in subsequent years. Not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing? In a more general sense, its certainly a loss for the area - so now the building just becomes another supermarket with some upmarket apartments on Level 1? Hmmmmmmm... At least the tower & wall along Green St has been Heritage listed & can't be touched. Still a sad occasion, especially for the staff still working there. Hope my old big boss has enough heart to find a role for them at another the stores..
