In a lot of ways, 2007 has been a very long year – yet in others it seems to have raced past.
It’s been a year of many changes too – just before 2007, we moved to Norfolk, and now we’ve bought a place there too. So two moves in thirteen months, as well as doing the initial preparation on the new place (and continuing to do other work on it since moving in) and the work on the garden, and getting a mortgage for the first time, along with a whole bundle of bits that make me look a whole lot more grown-up than I did this time last year. Oh yeah, and three chickens.
Along the way, I’ve managed to stay in the same workplace all year, but also done a whole bundle of work for smaller clients, which has (in general) gone really well, with the exception of payment hassles from one client. But all told, a busy and fairly successful year, which will be the foundation for a lot of work in 2008. I’m going to be changing main workplaces in 2008 as well, but that’s something for another post.
During the year I’ve also bought my first car, and already added 15,000 miles to it – and there’s already a lot more driving planned for 2008, including a trip to Ireland in June, which reminds me, I must check my car insurance policy at some point and double-check the mileage on it, as well as the cover for non-UK driving. Still, that’s something for Jan 2nd, or sometime soon after.
It’s been a busy year, and I think 2008 will be busier – but hopefully a bit calmer at the same time. Lots of things to do, but the plan is definitely to have more leisure time (or at least time to get out and do other stuff) too, so let’s see how that goes. I’m vaguely optimistic…
We’ve spent the afternoon up at Wells-next-the-Sea, taking Hound out onto the beach, and doing lots of throwing of tennis balls for the idiot creature.
As with November 5th, we don’t yet know what the new place will be like for fireworks at midnight, so it’s best to exhaust Her Ladyship so she sleeps through whatever does happen. Last year we took her to Caister-on-sea, which was incredibly windy, but this year it was Wells.
She’s still active at the moment, but the plan is that she’ll pretty much collapse and sleep soon, and through the rest of the night.
Fingers crossed, anyway.
It occurred to me recently that I hadn’t written much about depression of late – and there’s been a number of reasons for that. Anyway, it seems as good a time as any to do it, what with 2008 being just round the corner and so on.
In a lot of ways, 2007 has been quite a tough year for me – there’s been a lot of work going on, but I’ve found myself prone to occasional deep bouts of blah, where all motivation and interest fall out the window. Some of it has been due to sheer workload throughout the year – in the last year we’ve bought a house, (and all the fun that entailed) done a load of work on it, moved in, continued working on it, worked in/on the garden, and made a whole bundle of alterations. (Of which there’ll be even more in 2008) At the same time, while I’ve stayed working for the same primary place all year (again, something that will change in ’08) I’ve also worked on a whole range of other sites and so on privately. So overall the workload has been pretty high.
But the thing that’s hit me the hardest, oddly enough, has been the weather. While we had a couple of decent months early in the year with lots of warmth and sunlight, the rest of the year really hasn’t lived up to the initial promise, and it seems to have been predominantly grey and grotty – which has a major effect on my levels of depression and so on. May/June in particular were tough, as I don’t think we had one decent day in that time, and it hit me seriously hard. The rest of the year has been a bit better, but not by much.
How can I tell? Because autumn and winter haven’t really had any noticeable effect on my levels of blah – they’re already way down, so the change is nowhere near as significant as it has been in other years.
There’ve been other bits along the way as well, but over all it’s just been a bit of a grind to get through this year. All I can do is hope that 2008 is at least slightly easier to get through, or at least that the weather’s better, and so I can deal with some of it via the power of sunlight.
While I’m fairly well-known now as someone who doesn’t like the Festering Season, Herself is rather more enthusiastic about the season, so we’ve had the decorated tree and so on while people have been here.
We bought the tree locally, and it has to be said that it was one of the worst trees I’ve ever seen or had – the needles started dropping pretty much immediately, and then didn’t stop. By today it was just about half bald.
Anyway, this weekend we’ve been taking the stuff down again, committing the tree to compostable waste (except for the trunk, which will be committed to the wood-burner at some point) and the decorations taken down. The cards will be shredded and probably composted (or used as firelighters, I haven’t decided yet) but that’s it, chez Lyle, the Festering Season is well and truly over.
And not a moment too soon.
Sometimes, Hound is truly bizarre.
Today, we’ve put up a new clock in the living room – Herself bought it a while back, but today’s when we got round to putting it up on the wall.
This evening, while lying on the sofa, Hound noticed the new addition, and started growling at it, then barking at it. She didn’t stop until I’d got up, taken the clock down, let her sniff it, and now all’s well.
But all in, it took her about ten minutes to notice the damn thing, once she was looking in that direction. Not bad, when it comes to an idiot hound, although when you take into account her borderline autism, I suppose it’s not overly surprising that she’s sensitive to changes in her environment.
Today I’ve had the headlamp unit on the car replaced, following Boxing Day’s collision.
The damage didn’t look that serious – only the sidelight had stopped working completely – but a couple of bits of the lighting surround and backing had broken too, so it ended up needing a complete new headlamp unit. Joy.
All told, £150 for the repair/replacement. It’s an extra expense I could’ve done without, but it’s still heaps better than it would’ve been if I’d collided full-on with the deer.
Sanity has returned to the house – guests have gone, the place is tidy again, and Hound is calm. She’s been fairly stressed with people around, not knowing what’s going on, so she’s been a barky pain in the arse since Saturday.
But now today she’s fast asleep (well, except when we get deliveries of either post, or parcels) and a lot quieter than she has been. She’s also eaten a whole bundle of food – again, with being stressed, she hasn’t eaten a lot all week without coughing it all back up again – and is generally back to being more settled.
So yes, all told, sanity has returned. For a while, anyway.
