So it was a year last weekend since I left work at the University of Leeds and things are going well. Not rolling-around-in-piles-of-money-and-giggling well (at least not all the time – but we’ve had our moments) but steady well (aka ‘enough for me to be able to afford the trip to Lindisfarne’ well).

John’s joined me in the crazy world of self-employment and he seems to be enjoying it too – he’s got a steady stream of consultancy work as well as doing development for our future projects. In fact, the former is delaying the latter at the moment but no biggee.

Highlights of the year:

  • Those “woo! I don’t have to go to work tomorrow” moments that happened regularly for the first nine months or so.
  • Recycle This getting mentions in the national press and on the international green blogging scene
  • Fametastic getting all its references in various international celebrity media.
  • Fametastic‘s relaunch at Christmas so now I don’t feel as embarrassed about the design anymore.
  • The success of the new Shop@Geekz shirt designs and how happy John and I were when the stickers arrived (we were blown over by the awesomeocity of them). We’ve got more designs in the works – maybe even in time for Lugradio Live in July.
  • I actually started writing again for the first time in a long time. I’ve written 30,000 words of something – then admittedly hit a wall but I’ve picked it up again now.
  • The fact I bought a spider plant for £1 this time last year and I now have 14 spider plants and have given some more away – free plants make me happy!
  • My green hoodie. I bought it for not very much money late last year and worn it (along with a scarf) as my winter coat and the greenness of it make me smile constantly. I not particularly fond of having a purchase make me happy but meh, it does.
  • And on a related note, how little money I’ve spent now that I don’t feel the need to buy cheer-up books or clothes on the way home from work.
  • Or practically limitless snackery and elaborate lunches I had to buy (and eat) to get me through the day at work – I only realised a couple of months ago how much I relied on that sort of thing to break up the day. I haven’t lost the weight I gained in the last year of work (because of the lack of walking to bus stops these days) but I’ve cut back my daily intake a lot and it’s a lot healthier now too.
  • It’s hard to put into words but I guess the feeling that I’m starting to take charge of my own life. In some ways, I’m still a bit “wherever the current takes me” – and I think that’s healthy because fighting your way upstream isn’t always a good move – but aside from that, I just feel a lot more in control and that’s making me feel a lot more comfortable in myself.
  • John’s hair. The artist formerly known as Mr ShavedHead’s hair is now about 2inches long and while I don’t know if it’s a proper highlight, it certainly is high. And wide. And scruffy. Gianni christened it the “Urban Teddy Bear” look.
  • The constant support of the cats. I now feel cruel that I heartlessly abandoned them for eight hours a day before last May. I think they’ve forgiven me though. :)

I was going to do a parallel “lowlights of the year” but I don’t really want to focus on the negative. There have been a few stressful moments (but nothing too major), I’m still not as organised as I perhaps need to be and John & I are still the world’s finest procrastinators but these things will sort themselves out in time. Hopefully.

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