Wow, I just read the last post from April 2008 and thought it was worth following that up 20 months later.

2008/2009 were pretty busy years and I think 2010 will be much the same.

I wrote about my company being acquired in early 2008 and my anticipation of what that meant for me. What’s changed? A lot and nothing. We moved to a giant office designed for 30+ people then promptly entered the GFC and a bunch of people were made redundant. So there are about 10 of us floating around up there, but now hiring! Things are looking up! I was hoping that the expansion of the company into broader consulting would translate into broader work opportunities for me, but none have materialised so far. But I can blame that on the GFC, there just wasn’t enough work in the other areas and my business stream was the safest place to be. 2010 maybe. Almost 2 years later we are finally getting all the IT systems integrated. Wooo! Ok, boring! What is this? A diary for me, or a blog post for you?

We went through a really sad time in the family in late 2008 when my sister in law got progressively sick and passed away from melanoma aged 26, leaving behind my brother and 2 young kids. It broke my heart to see them go through that, and it still breaks my heart to think of it. But humans are surprisingly resiliant and it seems like everyone is taking life’s challenges in their stride. It certainly made me step back and realise what is important in life. And to get serious about skin checks  and sun protection! Everyone has to look after themselves – that’s an order!

Also late 2008 Alex and I finally bought ourselves a house! After almost 12 months looking we resolved one weekend to buy a house.  We did a bit of haggling, straining our brains and finally settled on a private sale town house. It was a big decision because we could see the economy collapsing around us. All doom and gloom that house prices were going to tumble etc etc. I”m not really sure why we did it, but it seemed like a good idea at the time. We managed to not get made redundant, and so far all signs are that it was a good little investment at a time when hardly anyone was buying. It was a cosmetic renovation job, so we called in the builders (the last owner had left sufficient evidence of why not to try to do your own renovations unless you know what you are doing!), ripped out the kitchen, painted the place up and have been progressively furnishing it with all our favourite things. Upstairs still needs doing (bathroom, and windows replaced) but it’s very comfortable and we love it! Location location – train, trams, buses, chadstone, ride to work if I’m feeling keen. Learning a few lessons though about body corporate life! Ahoy! On the committee this year, wish me luck!

In October we headed to India for Alex’s sister’s wedding! That was amazing and deserves its own little blog post, another day.

Oh, I’ve also been studying my Masters of Environment and Planning. I’m a third of the way through now. I’ve just realised that it’s another 4 years at the rate I’m going…arg…I’m really enjoying it though and I’ve had some awesome lecturers. It’s good to study something you are passionate about! Keeps me busy though!

So we’ve just had Christmas and New Year. We went up to Canberra to meet the new nephew, over to Pebbly Beach for a night, up to Sydney for a wedding for two nights then out to the Blue Mountains for a quiet new years, then back down the Hume! We had a great trip, but it’s pretty exhausting finishing with a 12.5 hour drive home! New Years day scrambling around the Grand Canyon in Blackheath was awesome though, well worth the drive!

Well that’s me done for now. I’m going to try to blog more so I can give you more interesting news rather than these christmas letter type one sentence updates. Pretty uninspriring!

Wishing everyone a happy new year! 2010 will be a good one, I can feel it in my bones….or is that arthritis? Cheers!