Here's wishing you all a wonderful 2013!
I think I made this card for new year 2009, as the world economy was in a complete mess after the 2008 bank crisis etc, then I didn't post it as I thought it would come across as a bit too pessimistic for a new year card. And yet I also think the photo rather beatiful, perhaps implying that even in the darkest of times there is always a lighter horizon and rescue ahead for those who choose it - or how every cloud has a sliver lining. Or perhaps that's reading way too much into a photo (which is one I snapped at Stavern harbour, Norway).
For my own part the future looks very far from bleak, I've just been too busy and preoccupied to blog much as of late.
2012 has in many ways been a turbulent and trying year for me, but it has also held wonderful professional opportunies - including joining the editorial board of a small publishing house, and learning so many invaluable things in the process, and starting a new job working with online development, social media and science communication at The Norwegian University of Life Sciences (more on that job here, in Norwegian) Oh, and working with some wonderful stories and book projects and moving out of a house I only realised after moving out made me ill to live in (due to major dampness issues I now suspect).
So everything is set for 2013 becoming a much better year for me than 2012.
Maybe, and I really hope it will be the case, I'll even find more time to blog in 2013. It's not that I've lost interest in blogging or the issues I blog about, it's just that life has been too demanding, I write for 3-4 different blogs and earned most of my living writing until September - and I've found myself becoming a much more passive consumer of social media this year than previously. I've still used social media a lot, but I've found myself listening more than sharing or participating actively in 2012.
In either case, I hope 2013 will be a stellar year for us all - and perhaps even for blogging:
When I moved into my current place, I found the walls charred with mould. (The previous occupant's furniture had concealed it all.) Water leaking through from bathroom was the biggest contributor, and that's been stopped. But it's taken a couple of years for the walls to dry out.
Anyway, I'm glad you've found healthier accommodation. I'm really glad you found stable employment. I hope life won't be quite so demanding in 2013. And I love the photo. Happy new year!
Posted by: a_spod | January 01, 2013 at 11:36 PM
Happy new year! Hope you finally resolve that issue with hmrc soon, and that the outcome is all in your favour - what a nightmare.
That dampness / mold issue you describe sounds pretty grim, I don't think I could've lived with it - though I did encounter some pretty bad issues like that when I lived in the UK. In the first flat I rented in the UK, together with friends as I was 19 or so and just starting Uni, we could walk into the kitchen in the morning and had to dry the kitchen table as it became wet overnight, and we couldn't light the gas stove - the match would go out. But the landlady & landord said "oh no, it's not dampness, it's just condensation" :-)
In the last flat I lived in in the UK, this was in 2004, we opened the livingroom wardrobe after living their for a month and discovered the winter clothes were overgrown with white and green stuff - mold. When we tried to get out of the rental contract based on this, the landlord sent a retired MI5 agent around to our flat with the message it was no way we'd get out of the contract (tho he did offer me to ghost the book about his life;-) ) and a (dear) lawyer friend told me "tenants in this country has all sorts of rights, but acting on them ruins their lives".
The tales I live to tell :-) The flat I moved out of in August was a different story. No obvious mold, and it was ever so charming 300 yr old house, but it was very Gaimanesque: When it rained or was damp outside all these creepy-crawlies came creeping out from the walls or falling down from the ceiling, including lots of flying ants. It's only moving away from that place I realised how much my stuff, especially clothes and books, now smelled of mold.
May I never have such an experience again, and I do hope your current place have dried out properly as living in such a damp place can hardly be healthy.
In either case, I hope 2013 will be a wonderful, light and easy year - can do with one of those now, and I bet I'm not the only one :-)
Posted by: Kristine | January 02, 2013 at 10:23 PM
Happy New Year! :)
Posted by: Becky | January 05, 2013 at 03:18 PM