Plans for 2009

I’m going to keep this one short. First of all, a quick revisit of what my plans were for 2008 and how I’ve done:

* move back up to Edinburgh (by mid-2008 the latest)
* sell Italy-house (by autumn 2008 )
* get a cat
* start MA in Translation (Sept 08 )
* buy a 52″ or bigger high-end HD TV

I’ve done 1., 3., and sort of 5. (I got a new HD-ready TV, though not 52″ !!).

The reason I didn’t, or only half-heartedly, tried selling the Italy house is that I found out you have to pay capital gains tax if you sell it under 5 years of ownership. That means I can reasonably aim to sell it in autumn 09, as from some time in October I will have owned it for 5 years.

The reason I didn’t start the MA in Translation was that I simply didn’t see the point any more. I now work 9-5 Monday-Friday and have no ambition to become a freelancer/teleworker in the near future, which made the MA redundant. Plus I was way too busy!

Now the plans for 2009:

• Sell the Italy house, taking advantage of the weak pound and strong Euro as the world is in recession hehehe (October onwards i.e. past the 5-year-date)
• Cranking up the frugality (I’ll be posting about that in bits and bobs and share my ideas)
• Keeping on the straight and narrow (no cigarettes, not too much drink) –> I don’t have to *go* on the straight and narrow, but I have to stay on it for a bit and iterate it

Hm.. I don’t have many *concrete* plans it seems, other than the Italy house. The rest is more to keep my overall positive attitude and, I suppose, ‘spread the love’!

The older I get, the more love I feel. Not for every Tom, Dick, and Harry. But for those few that count. I’ll continue to nurture that all the way in 2009 😀

Plans for 2008

I just read my post from 31st Dec 2006, to see what I could write about on this last day of the year.

However, all I wrote last year was that we’re going to a party, that I will wear black leather (hehe), and what a great year 2006 was.

I think this time round I don’t need to tell everyone what a great year 2007 was – it was pretty sweet, but also unsettling. The main thing, especially in the second half of 2007, was not having a home and staying with either BF or a friend, which has given my life a degree of insecurity, a ‘living out of suitcases’ – feel. At 34, I really don’t need or want that.

I don’t want to think about the old year too much. I’m much more interested in the future, and excited and curious about what 2008 will bring. I have great plans such as selling my house in Italy, buying a huge fuck-off HD TV (= superficial), maybe getting a cat, and starting another degree (MA in Translation – my place was postponed to 2008). The latter might not happen, if budget cuts are going ahead which means postgraduate students may have to fork out as much as overseas students for their courses.

What I will do, however, is write down a list of goals that I can then revisit on NYE 2008, to discuss what I have and haven’t achieved. This list is as follows (in no particular order):

• move back up to Edinburgh (by mid-2008 the latest)
• sell Italy-house (by autumn 2008 )
• get a cat
• start MA in Translation (Sept 08 )
• buy a 52″ or bigger high-end HD TV

and that’s it!

Until the next year,

lenina