Rest in Peace, 2019

Well, then.

2019 has been quite a year, in just about every possible way. I've completely let this blog lapse, but I really wanted to do a year-end post because I find them meaningful for me and my family (I've done one every year since 2010, and I intend one day to turn them into a booklet for my kids. Maybe when I have 20 years' worth!)

For us, this year is really best described with the word "intense". It has been a year of high highs and very low lows, in just about every aspect of life except schooling (more on that below). There have been remarkably few weeks that weren't memorable, for either great or terrible reasons. I guess at least we've known we're alive!

As is my usual wont, I think the easiest way to get a flavour for our year is to go through in categories. Even then, there will be stuff I leave out - some of it isn't mine to tell, and other things, honestly, will probably just get lost in the mix. To quote the great Inigo Montoya, "Let me explain ... no, there is too much. Let me sum up."

Living in the world

2019 has been a pretty dreadful year for a lot of people both in Australia and around the world. As I write this, on a cool, clear Melbourne day, half of the eastern seaboard of Australia is on fire, refugees are being demonised and tortured by our government, hate speech and hateful
actions are on a rampant rise, and things feel disastrous in a way that I can't remember feeling before.

The kids and I marched for climate change this year, and we all re-evaluated many things about the way we do life to look at where we can make our small stands, be it in volunteering or helping or protesting or writing or making changes to how we eat, create waste, and live.

As part of that, my eldest has moved to a pescatarian diet, and I am mostly joining her, and our whole family's meat consumption has moved to around 40% what it was in 2018. We might not be able to change the world, but we can change
ourselves, and the decisions we make.

Work, Study, Hobbies and Creativity

This has been a really, really good year for us under this heading. Indeed, I'd put it as 2019's Stand Out Category by far :-) With only one stormcloud (explained further under the Hard and Sad Things heading) and one "wish I could have found more time" caveat, everything else couldn't have been better.

My two teenagers both had a fantastic school year (in years 9 and 10 respectively), thriving both academically and personally. Both continued school debating, and my year 10's team made the finals. My year 9 was kept busy as one of the school's Social Justice Leaders, and was also the Class Captain.

Both participated in multiple other extracurricular activities and clubs through the school. Both also did work experience - the year 10 did an Astrophysics program at the University of Melbourne and loved it, while the year 9 volunteered weekly at the local library for 12 weeks as part of her Duke of Edinburgh award. My year 10 also volunteered for a term doing tutoring and mentoring for kids in need, which she really loved.

Both the teenagers also got to go to Japan for 2.5 weeks on a school immersion tour which included a homestay visit. They had the most amazing time, and we were so glad to be able to send them.

My youngest, who started Grade 5 at a new school this year, had the best year she has ever had at school, and I am so grateful and relieved. Her new school has welcomed her with open arms and she has made lovely friends and is finally able to relax, be herself, and really fly academically. I don't think I had realised what a weight had been on us all (but especially her) with the issues she was facing at her previous school, but it has been a joy to see that lifted.

In terms of work, I have had a very good year in most respects, while my husband, who has remained at his long-term job, has had a fairly steady one. I worked with five clients, on an interesting array of projects, and although there were times of overload and stress, overall, I managed my work and my energy much better than I have done in the past. Three of my five clients from this year have asked me to continue for 2020, and I have two new projects lined up. I do feel like I have really hit my stride with my business now,
and it is a good feeling.

An important thing that happened this year, too, is that I started volunteering at the Asylum Seeker Resource Centre. I donate 6-8 hours a week to my work there and I am finding it extremely rewarding, and it has genuinely helped shift my mindset from one of despairing about the state of the world to feeling like I am playing a part, however tiny, in being the change I want to see. Volunteering is my expression of love (for the world) and hope (for a better one), and I will keep going with it.


In terms of hobbies, my husband has seriously ramped up his photography this year, and is producing genuine works of art now. My second girl's dance and sewing hobbies have gained pace, and she's also heavily into both robotics and chess, including competing in the State Chess Finals in December. My eldest has continued with jujitsu and clarinet, while my youngest has had a bit of a rest from structured activities but has expanded her interests in drawing and gardening.

I participated in January's Month of Poetry as usual, and loved it (also as usual!) I have continued to write poetry throughout the year, but less than I would have liked, and this has been a fallow year in terms of competitions and publication (I haven't submitted anything anywhere). There have been reasons for that, but it is a slight sadness all the same.

Health and Family 

On the whole, our health has been pretty good this year, barring a few colds here and there and a revolting family gastro that slammed us in August.

The dramatic improvement in my youngest's overall health after going gluten free following her Coeliac diagnosis has been very good to see. My Mum's health has been problematic at times, which has been worrying, but seems to be better at the moment; hoping it stays that way.

Mental health has been up and down, but mostly pretty stable, this year. Those of us with anxiety have had highly anxious spells, and those of us who tend towards depression have had very flat spells, but no one has stopped functioning at any point, so overall, I'll call that a win.

One family related thing has been our project to turn our double car brick garage into a study / hobbies room for the kids. Given the lack of bedroom space inside, this seemed like a good idea. We are almost there now - the storage shed built and loaded with all the old garage stuff, the garage doors replaced with walls, the slate floor cleaned and resealed, skylights installed, wiring repaired. Painting is the only thing left to do before we move in!

Holidays, Special Days and Events

This year has been so stuffed full of these that, honestly, dot points are the only way to go!

Mini-breaks: Three mini-breaks contributed to the good parts of this year being extremely good. In January, my husband and I had a night at the Langham and went to the theatre with friends. In July, we went with my parents and my brother and sister in law to Phillip Island for a long weekend in celebration of my Mum's 70th birthday.  And in November, I took my eldest to Adelaide for the Cup Day long weekend, which was extremely fun. (PSA: if you are ever touristing in Adelaide, I highly recommend doing the EcoCaddy pedicab city tour - one of the best tourist experiences I've ever had!)

Holidays: The teenagers went to Japan with school in April (meaning that they got to see cherry blossoms for two years in a row, the lucky ducks), while husband, youngest and myself had 10 days in Far North Queensland while they were away, split between a short stay on Fitzroy Island and a week in Port Douglas. Both were great!

As a family of five, we had 9 days away in September, mostly in the Blue Mountains and finishing with 2 nights in Sydney. That was also great.

Birthdays, Halloween and Christmas: Each kid's birthday was fun, as usual, but the big birthday events of 2019 were my husband's 50th in March and my Mum's 70th in May. It was great to see them both have such a lovely day. We did Halloween as always, and had a lovely Christmas Day at my parents' house.

Hosting exchange student: We hosted our third, and (for now) final, Japanese exchange student in July. It was, as in the past, a wonderful but exhausting almost 3 weeks for us all. We won't continue in 2020, as my eldest begins her VCE journey, but we'd like to do it again later when my youngest is at the right age.

Nerdcons: Once again, the nerd family nerded away, with visits to Supanova Melbourne, OzComicCon Melbourne and Sydney, Animaga, Madman Anime Festival, and both Box Hill and Geelong Japan Festivals.

I took my eldest to the Stargate Atlantis small con as well, which was quite a different (but fun) experience.

I think we need to just accept that this is who we are now!


The Rest: There have been too many to list, but little pops of colour like the Death Cab for Cutie concert (me and a friend); brunches, lunches and dinners with friends; days in the city and the countryside; and yes, even things like movies, books and TV shows (*primarily looking at you, Stranger Things Which We Literally Binged in 8 Straight Hours*) have added significantly to the pleasures of this year.

Hard and Sad Things

This is the heading under which I have to be somewhat vague, as some of the hard things also have ongoing issues associated with them. The hardest and saddest things, though, were the loss of two precious people in my life - our family friend Trish, who was one of my brother's carer's during his lifetime and like an auntie to me, and my dear friend Meralie, whose sudden passing in early December has shaken me so badly.

We have also spent a lot of the year unwillingly embroiled in a legal matter, still not resolved, that caused (and will cause) a lot of angst and stress.

We also had an unpleasant and stressful experience with my eldest's extended Japanese study, which she did via an external organisation (not her school). She, her classmates, and we as a group of parents were treated horribly by the organisation and it was a highly stressful thing to deal with over an extended period of time.

Looking Forward

In most ways, we are seeing 2020 as a home-focused year. We're doing one short family holiday (6 days in Phillip Island in January) and a couple of mini-breaks for selected subsets of us (husband and I are doing 3 nights in Hobart in March for his birthday; I'm taking my middle kid to Sydney for 3 nights in July for a convention) but no long or expensive trips are planned. Instead, we have home renos to do, most notably our two bathrooms, which are years overdue for addressing, as well as some landscaping that needs doing.

Work-wise, I'm actively excited about two of my five projects, and comfortable with the others, which feels very positive as a way to start the new year. Another strong year in terms of earnings will position us well to do our renos and keep making inroads on the mortgage, which feels like a worthwhile thing. 

I'll be continuing to volunteer, write poetry, read books, try new recipes, spend time with those I love, and remember to tell them so. And I hope that, if nothing else, is something that the New Year might hold for us all.

Goodbye 2018, welcome 2019

I awoke from a 2-hour nap at 4pm, full of vivid, science-fiction-themed dreams. Partly this was something that just happened, but I won't deny that I strategised a bit to allow it to occur - I'm staying home this New Year's Eve, and I wanted a ballast against feeling besieged if there it lots of party noise in my street that prevents night sleep.

I'm now so rested that I'll certainly be good to see in the New Year regardless of noise, and can be
philosophical if I get no sleep at all, so that makes me feel good.

That slightly pointless little story is, as well as being a thing that happened, a relatively useful analogy for how this year has been for me as an individual, and my family at large.

We haven't magically discovered the capacity to change the world or our circumstances to suit ourselves, and we've had challenges aplenty in all areas of life.

But what we *have* gotten better at, and this is the real growth point of the year, is in finding ways to work with, instead of flailing painfully against, our lives, each other, and ourselves. Part of this has involved understanding ourselves, and each other, more fully.

Regarding the world at large, there is both too much to say and at the same time, nothing I can usefully add to the larger commentaries flooding out everywhere. Suffice it to say that while we live in interesting times globally (in the pejorative sense), we, as a family and a community, remain incredibly lucky and privileged.

Our 2018

As usual, I think the best way to try to summarise the year is in categories, and even then, I won't be including everything, or a lot of detail. In 12 months, with 5 active people, a huge amount happens! Here's a bit of a summary.

Work, Study, Hobbies and Creativity

For my elder two daughters, this has been a fantastic year at school. Completing years 8 and 9 respectively, they both excelled academically, and have also been able to pursue lots of extracurricular activities that they enjoy. 

My 15 year old plays clarinet in a band at school and will next year be doing VCE Japanese early because of her great results, while my 13 year old was in the top 10 academic achievers of her year level, was elected Social Justice Leader for 2019, and continues to be an active part of the school's photography and chess clubs.

Both girls also continued with debating, and both improved a lot this year, which thrilled my crusty old debating heart.

My 9 year old had a much more mixed year at school, for a few reasons, and we have decided in the end to move her to another school for year 5 next year. Academically, she is doing well, but we think the new environment will be a welcome circuit breaker for her. Fingers crossed!

My husband continued in the job he's now marked 15 years with, which is in itself a milestone. My freelance business grew again this year - starting the year with three ongoing clients, I've finished with five that I'll be carrying into 2019, including my Adelaide client. 

I've successfully travelled to Adelaide 8 times for work in 2018, which, combined with the flights undertaken for personal reasons (see Holidays below!) has seen me board a plane without melting down no less than 22 times, which in itself represents a massive personal triumph for me, given how much I dislike and fear air travel.

With five projects to service, I am busy, often a bit too busy, but I've been free to really focus on paying down the mortgage and putting money away against leaner times (because those will come, they always do), and that makes me feel more secure. 

I've relied heavily on my terrific subcontractor this year, and will be again in 2019. And in a great bonus, three out of my five clients sent me expressions of satisfaction with my work that were made at their governing body's final meetings of the year, so that is always very satisfying.

Creatively, it has been a good year, with one major disappointment. I won a poetry prize in May (the Ada Cambridge Commended) and my poems, Saudade and After an Ocular Migraine, were published in an anthology, so that was nice. 

My 15 year old had three poems published in an anthology put together by her online poetry group, which was also great. 

My 13 year old's creativity was largely expressed physically / visually, with her burgeoning interest in cosplay and particularly cosplay dance. She is now in two separate cosplay dance groups, which she is loving.

My 9 year old discovered both writing creatively and music this year, and is keen to do more of both next year. She and I are currently writing a story together, which is great fun.

The only thing I'm disappointed about on this front is that I did not, in the end, manage to get my planned poetry collection published. I just did not have the time or headspace in the end, and wound up being scared off from self-publishing by the horror stories and complications that I heard about from others. I'd like to try again in 2019, but might limit myself to an ebook release.

Health, Family and Activity

The biggest health news of the year for us was my 9 year old's diagnosis in November with Coeliac Disease. We had suspected for some time that this might be the case, but found out for sure then. 

It is not the end of the world, especially with myself and the 13 year old already diagnosed, but it has definitely been a transitional adjustment period.

My 15 year old has stuck with jujitsu all year and is really enjoying it, and will continue it into 2019. Both 9 and 13 year olds did weekly ice skating, but both have decided to not continue with it next year. The 13 year old will substitute dance (with her groups), while the 9 year old is probably going to return to weekly swimming.

We had, on the whole, a healthy year, with the odd cold or tummy bug here and there, but other than the lead-up to 9 year old's Coeliac diagnosis, no really sustained periods of ill health for anyone.

The saddest news of the year was my mother-in-law's death, aged 81, in March, which occurred the day before mine and my husband's 20th wedding anniversary. March was therefore a month of extremely mixed, and intense, emotions.

Holidays, Special Days and Keynote Events

What a year it was under this heading! If I started going into detail about everything, I'd never stop, so let's go dot points.

- We went on holidays as a family twice: to Japan in April, and to Sea Lake in September. Both were, in very different ways, terrific. Japan was honestly one of the best experiences of my life to date.

- We hosted an exchange student from Japan in July, which was marvellous.

- My 15 year old daughter went on a science trip to the USA, including a 5-day visit to NASA Space Camp, with a group of STEM kids in October. To say she loved it would be an epic understatement.

- We did the birthday thing - a party at home for youngest in February, we went with a group to Box Hill JapanFest for the middle kid in May, and the 15 year old got exactly what she wanted by being given the house to herself for an entire day in August to have friends over to hang out.

- My Dad's 70th in November was a blast.

- We did the convention thing in spades this year, mostly for the kids. As usual, we worked at OzComicCon in June, and also attended Japanese Summer Festival (February), JapanFest Box Hill (May), Animaga (August), and Madman Anime (November).

- Mother's Day and Father's Day were celebrated.

- We kind of skipped Easter this year, as we were in Japan, but Halloween and Christmas both got the full treatment.

- We went to some concerts and shows - stand outs were Roger Waters, which husband and I saw as our 20th anniversary thing, and for eldest kid, Evanescence.

Looking forward

The year ahead looks promising, if a little daunting, at this stage. Work and school will remain busy, and integrating my youngest into her new school  will no doubt have its challenges.

 My elder two are off to Japan again in April, this time for 2.5 weeks with a school group, while husband, youngest and myself are off to Far North Queensland for 12 days while they are overseas.

We're also going to Sydney in September for 10-12 days as a driving holiday, which will incorporate Sydney OzComicCon.

I have a 5-year plan now for my business (well, 4.5 from now - it is a plan from July 2018 - June 2023). I am hoping this will be a period of modest growth, or at least no decline.

I have decided that my goal I am setting myself is to be in a position to close down my business in December 2035, when I will be 62 years old.

My husband is 4 years older than me, so in the most ideal of worlds, we'd retire together at that time (he'll be 66). If we are very careful and very strategic, we should be able to do this. Then, I see myself putting more and more effort and energy into both poetry and volunteering. We shall see!

So, as the year draws to a close, I hope that 2019 holds good things for each and every one of my friends, acquaintances, colleagues and neighbours. No doubt it will be a mixed bag, because that is what life is - but let it be a time where light reaches into dark corners too. That is a small hope, but it is what I wish, for me, for you, and for all of us.

Year Three in Business

My third anniversary in business as a freelance policy, strategy and governance consultant will arrive in a couple of weeks' time, so I thought now might be a good opportunity to review The Year That Was and think about the year to come.

As always, let's start with stats. This year, I have:

- Worked for 6 clients - 4 universities, 1 state government agency, and 1 SME. The balance of the work has been roughly 50% University A, 25% University B, 15% state government, and 10% University C and D and the SME together. One of the university projects came online very late in the year (May), and another was very small, while the SME was a one-shot, which is why C and D and SME together were only a small contribution to the total.

- Had 12 weeks completely off - a week apiece in the July and September school holidays, 3 weeks over summer, a week apiece of project pause time in August, September and November respectively, and 4 weeks in April (the entire month) when we travelled to Japan.

- Worked an average of 4 days a week in the 40 weeks I worked (this was unevenly deployed, with a few 10-day-no-break stretches and some weeks with only a couple of working days in them).

- Attended client sites for meetings an average of 1 day a week except in my Monster Quarter, where it was usually 2 days a week.

- Did 3 business trips to Adelaide for a client there who I've been working with since November.

- Had a very uneven spread of work across the year, with Monster Quarter 2 (Sept-Dec) carrying 35% of the overall year's work while Quarter 4 (Apr-June) carried only 15% (this was largely due to the 4 week break in April and a billing cycle that has pushed some payments forward into next financial year). Quarters 1 and 3 carried 22% and 28% respectively.

- Again made use of subcontract labour to deal with overflow work. I have one very reliable subbie now who definitely helps me manage the fluctuations of the workload, and others I can call upon in desperate times, although that is not as successful generally as they don't have the depth of understanding of my work areas.

- Earned 85% of my earnings from 2016-17 (so a drop of 15%). My goal that I set last year was to have a drop of 10% (I knew that losing April, which is usually one of the most lucrative months of the year, meant I would not match, let alone exceed, last year's total), so I did not quite meet this goal, largely due to a quiet stretch in August-September that I hadn't anticipated. Still, my earnings were more than adequate for our needs, and given that I worked 3 less weeks, I can't really complain.

In non-statistical terms, it has been, on balance, a good year, with moments of being less stellar (but what job or work arrangement doesn't have that?) Learning how to effectively service an interstate client has been interesting and rewarding, and all the projects have had their challenging but also engrossing elements. I have had times of great fatigue, but because I work primarily from home, I have been able to calibrate around my health and energy in a way I wouldn't have been able to do in an office environment, so I count myself very fortunate in that regard.

Looking at my goals that I set last year, I did not too badly. My goals were:

- Get within 10% of 2016-17 earnings: As stated earlier, I didn't quite do this, with a 15% drop, but I went close.

- Take 10 weeks off: I actually had 12, but 2 of them weren't by choice!

- Try to expand my client base: I did this, picking up two new university clients with big projects (including my Adelaide client). I now have three large university clients and two more ad hoc / smaller universities, as well as one government agency and one SME. So that goal has worked out well.

For 2018-19, I am in the unusual position of having the first 9 months already sewn up with work. All three of my big university projects will roll on until at least March 2019, with one of them definitely continuing through til June and one other probably doing so. This means that my income projection is a bit more predictable than it usually is, and also that I am relieved of the burden of seeking further work - a part of freelancing I do not overly enjoy. While I could squeeze in other things - and will no doubt try, if the opportunity offers! - I am not in the position of *having* to find more work until at least March next year, and that's really quite nice.

I'll also be taking a more routine / structured approach to my work weeks, with one fixed day a week on campus for one client, further trips to Adelaide for another, and a more systematic allocation of days between the three big client projects, which I hope will both help manage the heavy workload and also help me with the code-switching I have to do between the projects and their different styles. I anticipate some weekend work will be needed in overlapping peak times, but I am trying to keep that to a real minimum.

My goals for 2018-19 in business are:

1. Exceed 2017-18 income by 20%. This effectively means doing 5% better than my best year so far (2016-17) and given my locked-in work, it should be more than achievable, given that I will not be absenting myself for one of the most lucrative periods of the year!

2. Take 6-7 weeks off. I will, as is my wont, take a week apiece in the July, September and Easter school holidays, and I'll take the Christmas and NY weeks over summer. I'll have to see how things are sitting, but if I can, I'll make that summer break 3 weeks instead of 2 (but given the projects' timelines, that may not be feasible). I'd also love to take another week, maybe configured as a couple of 2-3 day stretches, at some point in the back half of this year, while the kids are at school, to give me a chance to do a few time-hungry personal / life admin tasks I have been putting off, and catch up with friends I rarely see.

3. Plan work strategy for the next 5 years. I'll be 45 years old in a couple of weeks. At the moment, freelancing is working well for me, but I need to put some serious thought into whether this how I want to continue to work in the second half of my 40s, and if so, what my business plan might be for sustainable work attraction, delivery and future savings. I do have a tendency to roll on without thinking further ahead than the next 6 months work-wise, which can be an advantage in that it reduces stress of worrying about unknown unknowns, but isn't the best approach when you are trying to work out how to have a productive mid-life in preparation for a hopefully modest-but-not-impoverished old age.

We won't be taking any big trips in this coming financial year - we've got a nice little 5-day mini-break in the Mallee lined up for September, and will probably do a few days or a week somewhere local next Easter hols too - so that does make work planning easier in a lot of ways. We are, however, thinking of doing an overseas trip in 2019-2020, possibly to either Hawaii or New Zealand, so next year's planning will look a little different! But for now, onwards and upwards into the new financial year.

The old year is (almost) dead. Long live the New

2017 will be over in less than 16 hours. It has been a monstrous year in many ways and for many people - but also a year of bringing sunlight into dark places, and letting it do its painful but necessary disinfecting work.

2017 at large

It's been Year 1 of Trump, which has impacted the whole world, although nowhere more severely, of course, than the US itself. It's been the year of Weinstein and the undercutting of the
whole house of cards (double entendre intended) around Hollywood and its systemic sexual and other abuses of the young, the female, and the powerless.

Sparked by that, it's been the year of #metoo ... and for millions upon millions across the world, that has opened up the places we got hurt, and it has not been an easy experience.

In New Zealand, a Labour government took office, signalling a shifting tide there, while erstwhile human rights hero Aung San Suu Kyi, the Burmese hero, has been shown to have feet of clay, with her government's systemic and brutal persecution of the Rohingya people in Myanmar.

It's been a year of crisis across the world - every year has its crises, but that does not make 2017's any less painful. Refugee rates continue to rise, and the ability and willingness of rich safe countries to handle refugee intake has been further abraded. Famine is biting hard, again.

In Australia, it has been a fairly ridiculous year politically, with the keynote being the dual citizenship crisis that has sucked in over a dozen federal parliamentarians to date (I mean. HONESTLY). Socialised medicine remains under threat, and the NDIS is a debacle. International corporations pay no taxes, and welfare recipients are demonised and squeezed to the bone.

Australia continues to imprison refugees in offshore jails for the non-crime of seeking asylum, and that situation grows ever more desperate, and our country's shame ever more profound, with every month that passes.

In Victoria, we've got a lot of new infrastructure projects bubbling along, a progressive government that's doing pretty well on most fronts but has shown recent signs of being rather worryingly willing to bed down with big corporates, and is facing a perceived law and order problem that might unseat it if it can't change the narrative around this.

There was one overwhelmingly good thing, at a national level, in 2017 too. The marriage equality postal survey was a terrible and wastefully cruel thing to put the community through, but we got through it and now marriage equality is law - this is a victory to be celebrated.

Our 2017

For us, as a family, 2017 was a year of contrasts and mixed outcomes. It was not the easiest or happiest year we have ever had, but we did rise to most of the challenges and we got through it. It's been such a jam-packed year that it's hard to know where to start, so I am going to use the tried-and-true category analysis method.

Work, Study, Hobbies and Creativity

This was a good year under this heading. My secondborn made a successful transition to high school, while my youngest had her best year yet at school in Grade 3, coming along in leaps and bounds in all areas. 

My eldest had a great Year 8, and took up inter-school debating, at which she excelled, and continued her clarinet studies to good effect. 

Both the elder two started writing more
creatively this year, and are producing some wonderful stuff. The secondborn was rewarded for her efforts with both the Community Award and the English Award for year 7, while the eldest received the Social Justice Award, reflecting her commitment to and engagement with the school's social justice program.

My freelance business continued to expand, and I worked on a lot of different projects for four different clients over the course of the year, including a new client in Adelaide. Juggling the workload wasn't always a cakewalk, but using subcontractors certainly helped. With booked work, my business is set to continue apace until at least mid-2018, which is an encouraging thing.

I also did more this year creatively than I have been able to in the past two years, which was very encouraging. I wrote a lot of poetry and had one piece published for actual money, which was very nice. I did January's Month of Poetry and got one poem down every day. I also wrote three short stories that I liked, and had an ultimately unsuccessful go at NaNoWriMo (but even the attempt was
worthwhile). 

The biggest creative achievement of the year for me, though, will actually come to fruition in 2018 - I am almost finished compiling, editing and writing all content for my planned poetry collection, She Said: Women of Story, which will be released in June 2018. It comprises 31 poems currently (I'm hoping to add in one more!), all focusing on the female characters in various stories - Torah, mythology, and fairytales. 

Health and Activity

Our health has been generally good this year. I have had a couple of scares - an imaging error in August suggested that I had a major heart defect (I don't!) and there were another couple of things that caused angst - but on the whole, the chronic conditions were pretty well managed and we did not get any serious acute events barring a few nasty colds. It was a nil-anaesthetic year for me, which, given the frequency with which I have to have minor procedures done to manage my various bits and bobs, was a good outcome.

My mental health has also been reasonable this year, although I have had flares of anxiety to deal with. I think this is just par for the course when you have an anxiety disorder, but it did not stop me doing anything I needed or wanted to do in 2017, so I'm calling that a win.

In terms of activities, I started personal training this year and I think it has helped, although I still struggle with the time and money commitment. I am going to try to transition to self-directed exercise in 2018.

My second born took up ice skating as her sport and has embraced it wildly, progressing extremely fast. My eldest took up jujitsu and is diligently attending her classes and passing all her belts. The youngest returned to gymnastics and continued with her swimming lessons, while my husband increased his cycling and continued his power walking.

Holidays, Birthdays, Special Days and Keynote Events

Holidays

We had three family holidays in 2017. In January we went to Warrnambool for 9 days, which was extremely relaxing. In July we visited with friends on the Mornington Peninsula for a few days and explored Cape Schanck and the Sculpture Park at McClelland. 

In September / October we went to Sydney and had a massively active week of walking everywhere, including the Eastern Beaches Cliffside Walk and all over the city itself, culminating in helping our friends at Sydney OzComicCon. 

The three holidays were all very different from each other, but all were great in their own ways. 2018 is going to be a cat of another colour under this heading - see below!

Events

Events were not quite as big a feature in 2017 as they were last year, but there were still some. We helped our friends at both Melbourne (July) and Sydney (September) ComicCons, and that was fun, if exhausting. My husband took the elder two girls to the Madman Anime Convention in November.

I went to one day of Continuum, the science fiction writer's con, in June. I went to the Pop-Up Globe with my friend in October to see As You Like It, which was hilarious. While we were in Sydney in late September, we went to see the Sherlock Holmes International Exhibition, which was terrific. And perhaps most excitingly, I took my eldest as her birthday present to the Stargate 20th Anniversary Con in November, which we both enjoyed hugely.

We celebrated Halloween as usual, although in a more subdued mode than in past years as it fell on a weeknight this year. Christmas was, as always, Christmassy ... we baked a metric tonne of cookies, ate a great deal of food, exchanged gifts and celebrated with family.

2018 is likely to feature more in this category, with ComicCons and Anime Fest again plus tickets already procured for the Roger Waters concert in February (husband and I), the Evanescence concert in February (eldest and one parent), and the Dan and Phil shown in August (I am taking the elder kids and their friend).

Birthdays and Key Events

Birthdays were, as always, a feature. My youngest had a swimming party at the local pool in February, complete with Piplup (water Pokemon) cake. My secondborn had an ice skating, Star Observation Wheel and sleepover party in May. I hosted a How to Host a Murder dinner party in June to mark Turning Very Old Indeed. And my eldest, who turned 14 in August, opted for a dinner out at the local fancy hotel with several friends, complete with Star Trek comm badge cake.

Probably the most exciting and lovely "event" of the year, though, was our hosting of a Japanese exchange student for two weeks in July / August. It was such a positive and enriching experience for us all, and we are so looking forward to seeing her again in April.

Looking Ahead

2018 is a year that holds both promises and challenges for us.

I think it's fair to say that the focal point of at least the first half of the year is going to be our long-awaited, obsessively planned, and greatly desired three-week trip to Japan in April.

We have already sunk a lot of money and effort in this trip, and there is more to come, but I am hoping it will reward all our investment. My elder two daughters are learning Japanese and all three are heavily into Japanese manga and anime culture, so I feel like it is the right place for us to be visiting for their first overseas trip. (Going in April also means we should get to see cherry blossoms, which is a massive drawcard for me!) We'll be catching up with our exchange student while we're there are well, which will be lovely.

In terms of other holidays, I am semi-planning - perhaps better say "hoping"- to take the three kids to Brisbane in the July school holidays for a few days to escape the winter and stay with a dear friend and her family who relocated there last year. Other than that, I doubt we will venture far from home for vacationing purposes, although I will be nipping back and forth to Adelaide for work throughout the year.

School and work commitments will continue without much projected change at this point,
although the nature of my work is such that I can't predict what the year overall will bring in a work sense.

Everyone is keeping on with their hobbies and activities at this stage, which means the shape of our weeks should not be radically different (at least not in the first half of the year - things often shift after a couple of terms).

A hotspot in the year for me will be the release and launch of my first poetry book, She Said: Women of Story, in June. I am hoping to have a small launch event for the book.

I'm also committed to Month of Poetry (starting tomorrow!) and have resolved to submit at least one poem every month of the year for either publication or to a competition. In 2017 I submitted only three times - twice to publications and once to a competition - and one poem was bought and published, so that is a 1/3 strike rate that gives me encouragement to continue to try.

We have some familial and interpersonal challenges to address in 2018; the mechanics of life are one thing, and fairly well-oiled for us now, but the emotional underpinnings are something else again, and I will not pretend that the road ahead is going to be smooth and easy.

I know, though, that we will all do what we need to, so that we have the best chance of having a happy, healthy, and forward-facing year in 2018.