Posted: Fri 9 January, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, D4D™, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Work-related |
This first complete week of the year has been both good and bad.
Up until yesterday, it didn’t feel all that great, particularly with the dose of Ick I’ve had for most of the week. I hadn’t got done a lot of the work I wanted to complete, and there was a bundle of organisational stuff that still needed doing this month. Which was all fairly bad, and not exactly contributing to the “start as I mean to go on” intentions I’d begun the week with.
Then yesterday I started sorting out the organisation stuff – chasing up a couple of things that’d been annoying me and hanging over the Christmas break – with positive results, as well as sorting out things like the car’s MOT, and a couple of other bits that needed doing.
There’s also been a dollop of good news today that means life is going to be chaotic – but profitable – over the next three months. I’ll write more about that over the weekend, I think, but it’s all good.
So while the first bit of the week was shit, it’s ended on a pretty good note. So all told, I’m currently pretty optimistic for 2015…
Posted: Thu 1 January, 2015 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, 2015/16, Business, Creativity, D4D™, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Old(er), Getting Organised, Photography, Resolutions, Sociable, Thoughts, Travel, Weigh Less, Work-related, Write More, Writing |
As regular readers know, I don’t really do New Year’s Resolutions. It’s partly my knee-jerk response to the whole “Everyone else is doing it” ethos, which means I won’t. But also New Year is just an arbitrary day for making plans – and I tend to do it from birthday to birthday, for no better reason than that it’s an easy day to remember as a start/finish date.
Anyway, with that said I do have plans for 2015. Sometimes plans work better on a calendar year instead of birthday-to-birthday – although there’s also a couple of ideas and plans this time that would also work better to a fiscal year, April to March. But for the sake of argument I’ll stick (for now) to my usual resolution/plan structure, while also acknowledging the whole 2015 thing.
What I won’t do is go into reams of details – I know what I want to do, and I’ve got most of it written down in to-do lists and the like – but it can all be summed up in four key points, which can be summarised as:
- Create More – includes writing, photography, and web-based work/business plans
- Do More – includes activities, day trips, longer weekends, and perhaps even a holiday or two.
- Save More – working to rebuild finances, build up some backup savings, and restore the credit score.
- Weigh Less – the goal is to lose another two stone in 2015, which is what I also lost in 2014. So it’s feasible.
And that’s “it”. Obviously there’s details, sub-plans and sub-goals in there as well, but they’re the key points. They’ll do me for now.
I’m hoping that 2015 will continue in the positive direction that started in the last quarter of 2014. I’m quite sure there’ll be some hiccoughs and roadbumps along the way – that’s realism rather than cynicism, my life is never a truly smooth process – but with any luck at all it’ll be a positive year, and lots will get done.
And if not, if things go wrong, then I’ll just do what I can, and keep on in the same way as I had to with 2014.
But I do hope that 2015 is positive and constructive. That’s the intention, at least. But we’ll see.
Posted: Wed 31 December, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2013/14, 2014/15, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Health, Reading, Seeing Films, Thoughts, Work-related, Writing |
(With apologies to Aaron Sorkin for nicking/appropriating a title he’s used in every series he’s written)
2014 hasn’t been an easy year, with some real ups and downs. Some of the downs have been pretty bloody down, and back in August/September was about as low as I’ve been in a long time, with the finances right back to Ground Zero. The last couple of months of the year have been a massive improvement, a real resurgence that’s left things on a very positive note, and that’s nothing but good.
But man alive, there’s been a lot going on.
Work
I’ve had two spectacularly bad jobs – both permanent roles – this year, the second of which took three months to escape from, cost me a buggerload of money (the owner decided to arbitrarily cut my offered salary by £10K, a drop of just under a thousand a month, with no warning or notification) and affected me a lot more than I’d ever have acknowledged. In small ways it’s still ongoing – I’ve invoiced the dickhead for the money he screwed me for, and my New Year’s present to him will be a claim through Small Claims Court (well, now Money Claim Online, but who’s counting?) so that should be fun.
I’ve also had three contracts (plus one that over-ran into the start of 2014) with two being OK and one being less so. That one was an easy life, which was more about being a bum on a seat “in case anything happened”, rather than actually doing stuff. Easy, but not my kind of thing, as has been written about elsewhere.
The final contract of the year – which flows into the start of 2015 – has been the catalyst for getting things on a more positive footing. It’s been work that suits me, as well as being one where I’m able to work from home for the majority of the time, which also suits me.
Finances
As per the work notes, the London job cost me a lot of money, with the savings I’d made up ’til then getting used for keeping things afloat while I still believed that The Dickhead would actually pay what was owed. Even while everything was down at lowest possible, I still got through – no borrowings, no late payments etc. So it’s not as bad as it could’ve been, and yet again showed how far I’ve actually come – but it’s still annoying to have been knocked back after a year of being successful on it all.
I’m back on the up now, things in credit and so on. I still need to build up the funds again, but that’s happening, and will continue to do so through into 2015.
Creative / Writing
This year’s writing and so on hasn’t been great – because of everything else going on, it just hasn’t happened as much as I wanted it to.
Writing-wise, I have done some stuff. I’ve entered some small pieces to some competitions, although without any decent results. However, at least it’s been about getting things done and submitted – which is more than I managed in 2013.
Photography’s been a lot slacker. Along the way I’ve got out of the habit of carrying a camera all the time, and it’s proving harder to get back into doing it. I love the SLR I’ve got, but it’s a pain in the chuff for most of the time.
The daytrips of late have been partly about taking photos again as well, although they’ve all ‘only’ been taken on the iPhone, but at least I’ve been taking photos again, and they’ve been pretty decent.
Summary
So while 2014’s been a ropy old year in many ways, it’s ending up with a lot of promise, and lot of optimism for 2015. Whether that will be justified or not, who knows? But I’m going to give it my best.
And really, what more can anyone ask than that?
Posted: Fri 26 December, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, Domestic, Driving, Finances, Getting Organised, Public Transport, Travel, Writing |
Currently, I’m in a dilemma about a bit of travelling I’m doing in April. (See, told you I was feeling all organised)
Come the end of the next contract in mid-April, I’m treating myself to a weekend up in Edinburgh. It’s not a proper ‘holiday’ as such – but it’s a break, and it’s something I want to do. I haven’t been up there since the days pre-D4D™ and I want to go back.
The dilemma is about the method of travel. Looking on Google Maps, it’s about a six hour drive – on a good day, with no jams etc. A Friday afternoon/evening is not going to be a good day. So I’ve also looked at train times/costs – and they actually pretty much balance out.
The full journey will be pretty much two refills of the fuel tank, which’ll be around the £65 mark each time. The train, looking at current prices, will be £120. It’s close enough in price to make no real difference – even less so when I also factor in car-park costs – and the timing is much the same for a direct run.
I haven’t done a long train journey in ages – really not since doing the regular run between Manchester and Bracknell – so it’s pretty tempting. Plus it’ll give me the opportunity to look out the window and appreciate the views without the hassles of driving – and perhaps even the chance to write more.
It’s just that whole “Paying the train company to do it”. I don’t know why it’s an issue in my head, but it is. I’ll figure it out and make a decision, it’s just annoying at the moment.
Posted: Wed 24 December, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: D4D™, Domestic, Driving, Finances |
Looking back over the years at D4D™, I’ve just realised that it’s now five years since that accident I had while driving in Norfolk.
That means that – assuming I don’t do anything dumb in the meantime – my premiums should drop significantly next time I go through the car insurance renewal.
It’s also quite surprising to see how much has happened – and how much has changed – in that five years.
Doesn’t time fly when you’re having fun…
Posted: Fri 19 December, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, Change, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Thoughts, Work-related |
Thinking about things, I’m actually really quite contented as we come to the end of this year. No bad thing, considering that this year has been – variable, to say the very least.
But here at the end of the year, things have been going well, and it’s looking positive for the start of next year.
I don’t know quite why it’s all clicked into place over the last six weeks, but it has. I’ve suddenly decided to start going out, and spent time doing so. It’s a bit random still, but that’s fine. Even more interestingly, I’ve started making some plans for the new year, including addressing a couple of the things that freak me out. (Of which more later/another day)
I suspect a lot of this is all due to feeling a lot more sorted, with finances, work and so on being really pretty organised. It’s not perfect yet – the finances in particular still need some more work to get them to where I’d like them to be – but it’s a far far more positive outcome than the year-end situation I thought I’d be in six months ago.
I don’t know what 2015 will hold – but I’m aiming for it to be a good year, and a much better one than the majority of this year has been.
Posted: Sat 6 December, 2014 | Author: Lyle | Filed under: 2014/15, Cynicism, Domestic, Finances, Five Year Plan (now Ten), Getting Organised, Interviews, Thoughts, Work-related |
Every so often, you have a day where you feel like everything’s actually pretty good, pretty organised, pretty nailed down.
For me, today’s been one of those days – and indeed, a lot of this week has felt like that. Of course, some cynicism says that this is just the precursor to a failure of epic proportions, but for now I’ll take the little victories.
It’s been a week where things have felt sorted and settled – I’ve been able to get things done on/for the house that’ve been waiting ages to be done, I’ve started organising things for January when the current contract (currently) expires (and I’ve even got a phone interview on Monday for something else straight afterwards, as well as another one already showing interest) and the finances are pretty much stowed away too.
And along the way, I’ve somehow also managed to now sort out all but one thing for the Festering Season – and that one outstanding one is just a case of not having even the slightest inkling of what to do/get. I’m not actually sure how that’s happened, but I’m not going to complain. Hell, I’ve even managed to organise and decide upon a couple of birthday things for people for next year, which is downright shocking.
Today’s been more of the same. The next week or so is pretty busy what with one thing and another, so I’ve been organising some bits of life around that, and that’s all working out nicely too.
All told, it’s just been a positive day – indeed, a pretty positive week – and yes, I feel that’s worth noting after some of the shit that’s occurred this year.