Okay the promise I made in June to do some serious updating clearly came to naught, as promises often do. That’s life I guess. Or at least it seems to be my life and I am sure I’m not alone.

2012 was a funny ole year – a number of high points and a number of low points, not the least of which is an ongoing worry about employment. Now I am fortunate in that I do a job I actually enjoy (FE college lecturer for those who don’t know already) but the employment situation in FE just now is pretty much at an all-time low and those of who only have part-time temporary status are particularly badly hit. In short, I don’t know from one term block to the next how many hours work per week I will have – or indeed if I will have any at all. It’s a rather precarious existence and I find myself wondering if perhaps it’s time to look elsewhere. Difficulty is, as I’ve said I enjoy this line of work plus I think I might actually be not too bad at it. It would be a tough decision to take any old job and run the risk of hating every minute of it. Hey ho. decisions decisions. Maybe there’s a little corner or green somewhere just waiting to be rubbed…

Cycling features largely in my life just now and it never fails to amaze me how much better I feel about life in general after a good cycle ride. I wonder if my friend who got me interested in cycling will ever know just how much of a life transforming event it was and continues to be. I hope I’ve not let them down as I stumble my way through road rides, cyclocross rides and hopefully soon some track rides. I will never be Victoria Pendleton (though I reckon I am a WAY better dancer than she is) but I do want to be better than I currently am.

Which brings me to the new year’s ambitions. Not resolutions as that conjures up memories of impossible/unrealistic/ just plain daft targets that were abandoned within weeks. This year’s ambitions are to get better at road cycling and cyclocross and the measure will be my stats logs (of course there are stats logs – this is me we’re talkling about), participation in events and a few wee additional personal challenges such as making it up The Rake and then up to the Peel Tower in a not to ridiculously slow time. In fact, I’ll settle for just making it up in the one day. 😉 I have been asked to exhibit at a prestigious bonsai event in March, so that will spur me on to doing greater things with wee trees this year. I have got the collection to a manageable level by concentrating on the better trees and offloading the less good ones. All I need to do now is stop buying the darn things!

So, the new year brings a bit of anxiety job-wise but a few positives to be getting on with.

Not bad for someone who ended the year cycling about dressed as an elf.

Elf and safety gone mad