2010 is finally nearly over for us all and I am pretty glad to see the ass end of it. It started off great with a 50 day tour of Vietnam and Thailand – I didn’t even take long service leave to achieve it (used annual leave). A couple of months paid leave is pretty sweet when you are spending it in beautiful surroundings eating great food, but for me it was also my first trip alone since I had left for England when I was 17.

Being alone allows you the freedom to make your own choices, but it also means you can’t share your triumphs and failures with anyone else. Jumping off a longtail boat at Phi Phi Island was one of my favourite memories, while lying curled on a bed in Udon Thani scared to make a phone call about a bus trip was one of my lows. But being alone doesn’t feel like being alone now with social networking. I had a twitter army there for me the time I vomited up my breakfast all over myself in Thailand before I had even left the harbour. They may not have been there to clean up the mess (that was left for me) but my twitter friends did help me see the humour in the situation.

Coming back to work after a holiday like that was extremely difficult (I had a tan to maintain for god’s sake!) but I put a good four months in before my next break. And a break it was – my leg. A Vespa ride to work mixed with a woman not looking resulted in me flying over her car superman style and landing on the tarmac. 2 weeks in hospital, 2 operations and 3 months at home to heal meant I got more time off, but it was definitely not fun this time. I became great friends with a pair of crutches and was thankful I had an ipad to keep me entertained with books, tv and comics. This time my support network was in the flesh, with lots of visitors in hospital and at home to help me feel loved and needed. I learnt what it was like to have a fear of basic things like stairs and getting out of bed – an unfamiliar feeling for someone who is usually too stupid to fear things. I was also stupid to think I’d get over it quickly – 5 months later and I still can’t walk properly or go down stairs.

Just before I had my accident, my granddad died and while I was in hospital my dog died (both of old age). Thinking bad things come in threes  I thought I was safe until my girlfriend of 14 years and I decided to break up in early November. A truly heartbreaking decision but we part on good terms and as good friends, sad that we couldn’t make it work. So now we have to deal with all the things that come with separating our lives – including the sale of our house. There are lots of things we both will miss about this home since we renovated it to make it ours but it is especially annoying that the breakup comes just as we finally put the new kitchen in with the dishwasher I’ve been pining for since we moved in over 10 years ago.

So as you can see, I’m pretty anxious to get rid of this year and focus on making the next one a good time. Tomorrow I’m going to try to ride a bicycle as my first order of the new year and I’m going to lose some of the weight I had to lug around on crutches. I know in the scheme of things my tale of woe is rather minor, but I’m used to having a good life and this year wasn’t one. Operation “regain my spark” starts tomorrow.

Happy New Year to You, may it be better than my year was in 2010. 🙂

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