The Year Zero

It’s been a busy year. It’s been a year of change, too.

Huge change on the job front. After 5.5 years in the same company, I took the plunge and left, joining a very large professional services firm in the City. I hated it. Hated pretty much all aspects of it. It represented everything I don’t like in a company – too greedy, too exploitative of its staff, too little importance placed on well-being, morale, etc. And don’t get me started on the people… most of them were lobotomised clones, really, the most dreary, officious, internally competitive (in the negative sense), second-rate kind of people you could have the misfortune to work with.

After 3.5 very unhappy months, I left and had three weeks off. I was very lucky. An ex-colleague I hadn’t heard from in over a year made contact out of the blue (the day I was resigning from the aforementioned company – now that is fate) – and to cut a long story short – I was offered a job at his place. A very high level international consultancy. Extremely bright, decent, friendly, warm, welcoming people. Masses of perks – more than I’ve ever had in any job. Most importantly – the role itself is very good (though demanding, is certainly pushing me). I sit in the consultant group (in terms of role-equivalent) and there is huge scope. There is also, given more time and a modicum of luck – the international aspect as the company has offices around the world. This of course now figures highly in my master plan. Having said all of the above, I am on an initial 6 month contract which finishes in April.

I’ve been at my new place just two months but it feels like much much longer. But in a good way. It takes time to get to know people but they’ve been very friendly. Loads my age, too. And they’re decent sorts. Not the binge drinking set, but very sociable, cosmopolitan and quite international. I go out once or twice a week with work and am loving it. Very easy place to be yourself, to casually reference boyfriends rather than girlfriends, etc. It’s incredibly grown up.

On the personal front it’s been a difficult year. Much of it is beyond the scope of this blog. Intense relationships ended as I froze certain people out of my life in a way that, retrospectively, seems quite cruel. There is still much that is unresolved. Perhaps early next year I can salvage some of what once was. I do have a propensity to throw the baby out with the bathwater and I think I’ve done that this year.

On the more direct relationship front – there were a few STRs (is that what they’re called? Short term relationships) but ones that didn’t go very far. Mr Right was certainly not found this year. I did sign up to online dating though haven’t made much progress with the profile and photo yet. I must do that. I need to actually DO IT rather than talk about having to do it, too.

It was a year of travel. I left the UK six times, in date order: East Africa, Amsterdam, Prague, Rome, Stockholm and Egypt. In total I spent perhaps 4-5 weeks outside the UK. They were all a bit too short though. They represented a combination of family visits, work trips and city breaks. It’s good to get off this island as often as possible.

On the flat front, I had a lovely handyman do some serious upgrading of my flat and he did a great job. We became friends too. Which is nice. I have had a serious damp problem, however, which is still to be resolved. Too complex to go into but the managing agent is on the case and early next month it should finally be remedied (if not, party wall agreements will come to the fore and we’ll (it’s not just me) be reading the riot act to the freeholder).

In summary – I can’t really say it was a bad year or a good year. Quite a bit happened. The ups and downs in my working life dominated much of the year. I certainly had an insane number of interviews this year, too.

I hope 2009 is full of opportunities – primarily in the sphere of ‘people’ and in all senses of the word.

Happy New Year!