Posted by You know you are going to have a good day when you fit into your size 10 skinny shorts for the first time in a long time, and then find 10 bucks in the pocket. Well, I do anyway. And it is with this good mood that I sit down to write my 2017 Christmas blog!
I’ve had a busy and challenging year, and yet, I feel that I have come out on top.
At the end of July I left a nearly twenty year career in regulation, twelve spent in the Australian Public Service, to start my own consultancy. I took a chance, adapted some old skills to some new circumstances, and while things were a bit slow for the first few months, I’m getting busier and busier.
Now I’ve never been afraid of being busy, as those who know me will know, but for now I feel I have found a realistic balance between work, getting some vitamin D and being creative.
Speaking of being creative, I finally regained some inspiration to start sewing again. Of course, this was assisted by a rather generous birthday gift of a new sewing machine. I took myself off to the CAE here in Melbourne for a refresher course and before too long a pile of patterns and fabric has started to threaten impeding on the space for my knitting wool stash.
Of course, I’ve kept up with my knitting and did much of that while catching up with Netflix in the early months as I learnt that there is a world outside of the public service! And, in some moments of desperation when I thought I might never find work again, I managed to knit about a dozen beanies and scarves to put up for sale. Lol. They are still sitting on the cabinet in the apartment waiting for me to do something with them. All different colours and styles. PM me if you think you might like one (I know wrong time of year).
I remember wanting to be a writer from an early age. Indeed, I was only eight years old when I submitted my first manuscript (unsuccessfully) to a publisher. This year has brought a renewed interest in writing and although blogs on this site have slowed down as I have got busy with ‘real’ work, I am grateful to have re-learned the skill of putting pen to a blank sheet of paper. It’s a skill that gets lost as your career moves up the chain, where you become a proof reader, editor and approver. I hope to spend some time in 2018 getting my act together to write a book on Robert Ward’s The Crucible. Honestly, it isn’t that big a job as I have all the material either in my PhD thesis or in the chapters that didn’t make the cut. But then we all know how much I loved to procrastinate when it came to THAT thesis…
This has also been a year where I get control of my health again. After two weight loss surgeries this year, one to remove a Lapband and another for a sleeve gastrectomy, I am well and feeling back in control – as well as being $10 richer as of this morning (I’ve been trying to work out all day when I would have last worn these shorts and why there was money in the pocket)! As I have previously blogged, this is a lifelong issue for me but I am committed to doing what I need to.
And while I’m not as fast a swimmer as I was a couple of years ago, I continue to enjoy the freedom that a 1500 metre swim gives me every day. Complete me time. Well, actually, planning time. I spend much of the ‘journey’ thinking over my day ahead and figuring out solutions to many a complex problem.
And while some may think that food should be my enemy, it has remained something of a friend. I continue to love making things from scratch and pondering how much money I’m saving not having to buy commercial yoghurt or gluten free bread. It’s the small things some times J
So I end this blog having just taken a batch of gingerbread men out of the oven, as I look out to the beautiful Barooga sky. It’s Christmas time. Time to take a break. Time to take a drink. Time to be silly. And time to be merry. Have a good one!
Julia
PS The picture with this blog is of one of my beautiful chihuahuas, Rory. Rory is a rescue dog who has been with us for 2 and a half years. This year Rory had manners training and is (very) slowly learning to like other people as much as he loves Darryl, me and his brother Teddy.
Dr Julia Cornwell McKean 