Well it’s New Year’s Eve, so it’s time for me to have a few thoughts and ideas for 2010.

As always, there’s a number of ideas and plans coming together at the moment, but whether they’ll all come into fruition or not is something only time will tell. But for now this is the list of what’s in my head, and we’ll see what happens. I’m trying to keep it down to four or five categories, just to simplify things a bit.

• Photography : I really want to make some progress on the photography side of things, work towards selling some bits if possible. I’ve got some contracted work to do for the charity I worked with a while back, and from there see what progresses.
• Writing : Again, I want to get to the point of having some stuff actually done and finished. I planned to do this in ‘09, but that hasn’t worked out. There’s a few bits that have been started, but I need to finish at least a couple of them and work that way.
• Work : I’ve made the commitment to stay in the current job throughout 2010 – allbeit with the “unless everything turns to shit as a result” proviso – which will keep the bills being paid and me in general work. But I still want to get some of the outstanding projects and ideas into some version of reality.
• Social Life : Over the last couple of years (really since moving to Norfolk) I’ve been utterly shit on the social side of things. So I plan to spend some time getting back in touch with friends around the place, and seeing them etc.
• Money : For me, 2009 wasn’t a good year financially, and want to spend 2010 getting back into a place that I’m happy with. Currently I’m not happy with the situation for debt, and I want to get a significant dollop of all that paid off if at all possible.

And that’s it. There’ll be more detail over time, I’m sure – and there’s also stuff on the domestic side – but that’s the rough plan. It’ll do for now.

So, ten months after starting the course – three terms of ten weeks each, plus breaks for half-term and between terms – I’ve now passed my NCFE Level 2 Photography certificate.

I’ve written about the course on odd occasions over the last year, and it’s been a pretty good course all told. I wouldn’t say I’ve learned masses, but that wasn’t necessarily my goal for the course  – it was more about getting more motivation for going out and taking photos, which was more what I needed – and in that way, it’s been pretty successful.

There’s a fair number of the final portfolio images in this set on my Flickr pages although I haven’t added all of them yet.

All told, I’m pleased to have successfully completed the course, and to have built up the portfolio project, and it’s another thing to add to the CV. All the people on the course have decided we’ll continue to meet up on a regular basis, and keep our motivation going in that way, creating in effect our own photography club, so we’ll see how that goes.

And for further further education? I don’t know yet – Norfolk’s Adult Education has apparently been hit hard by budget cuts, so there are nowhere near as many courses for 2009/10,  and even more annoyingly it looks like the NCFE have also stopped doing the Level 3 certificate completely. So we’ll just have to see what I decide to do on that score.

For now, I’m going to enjoy a summer off, and take some time to think about what comes next.

As I’ve written before, one of my plans for this year is to get some more writing done. I’m working on it, and there’s still a lot of the year to go, so we’ll see how things work out.

However, I’ve also been thinking about getting some impetus towards year-end, where I can both learn a bit more about my preferred writing areas, and (hopefully) get some feedback on ideas that I’ll have written – or at the bare minimum, have outlined and started – by that time.

In that light, and because I’ve known about them for years, I’ve signed up for a course through the Arvon Foundation, which I’m already really looking forward to.

It’s a cost of nearly £600 for the week, but that includes all food, board etc., but I think it’ll be an interesting departure, and something cool to do. Who knows, if it works out well, I might even go on more of them in 2010…

So following on from yesterday’s list of plans vs. achievements and so on, this is likely the list for 2008/9. It’s not quite as intense as last year’s one, for a number of reasons. Also, I’m sure that by the end of the 12 months, there’ll be other stuff that needs to be added to it, so it’s more flexible as well.

But here goes. (And in no particular order)

1. Sort out the mortgage renewal along with Herself (March/April)
2. Write and Launch the two main site ideas that are in my head at the moment, and see if they can make any money
3. Promote one of the other sites I’ve done, which has a big dollop of potential
4. Complete the NCFE Photography qualification/course
5. Redesign my photography site
6. Promote the photography and site more
7. Write at least one more big piece to get it out of my head at last
8. Possibly redesign D4D™ a bit – I know, I’ve been talking about it now for years
   Oh yeah, and…
9. Lose some weight, as my plans for doing so in 2008 have emphatically failed – primarily due to zero motivation to do so, but also due to life over-riding gym etc.

In one month’s time, my birthday will be here again, and this year (, Matthew,) I’m going to be 37. That means I need to write out the next progress document for that Five Year Plan, and how things are going.

Looking back over that category, and the plans for the last year (and I admit, I haven’t checked over that list on enough occasions) I look to have actually done OK.

I’ll have the full progress document ready for 5th November though.

About the time this gets published, I’ll be at the gym for the induction guff and first session.

I’m actually looking forward to it – I know that over the last year I’ve put on weight again, so I do want to start working it off again. The gym itself is brand new, and only opened on Sept 1, so it’ll be interesting to see how it’s all come together. (we saw it before it opened, while everything was still getting ready and put together)

Obviously I’m not looking forward to the actual bit where they do the weighing and measuring of my current self, but even that will at least give me some motivation towards losing it again.

I shall post all/any/none of the depressing figures on here later or tomorrow, depending on how I feel about them…