Well, on a personal level, 2007 was a good year in that I did a couple of things on the 'to-do' list and managed to pay off all our outstanding debts, namely our student loans. Anything we have to our names now is all profit and can go towards putting something large down towards a house. Cath's dad told us, at the time of me proposing to his daughter, that my savings could buy a very nice bicycle, but now, we could buy... a very nice motorbike.
So we won't get carried away with where we are, but it's good to have that weight off the shoulders - especially when you consider the credit problems in Ireland and the UK. The ststs come out every now n again saying how many billions the country's credit card debt is - and it is frightening. Cath says most of her friends are regularly maxing out their credit cards and only managing to pay off the minimum monthly payment, which means that they're just wasting money basically.
We hardly ever use our credit cards... and when I do, for something on the net, Cath will normally give me a bollocking for it!
I also just achieved my aim of reading 24 books in a year, sending Cath and Emma off to do some shopping so I could read number 24 in peace and I have set myself the same goal for next year. I told someone this and they were like, 'No way... 52! That's crazy!' I heard Cath's mom is reading 52 a year - now THAT'S crazy!
2007 was tough in that Cath and I lived apart for a lot of it, but it wasn't really that bad. I travelled up on the train or bus each weekend and often got Sunday as my day off for the week so I'd head up on Saturday morn to get there with her still in bed and wave her off for work on Monday morning before heading back to Cork for work later that night. It was kinda cool.
Now that Cath's in Cork with me, we hardly ever see our relatives or Dublin friends anymore which is sad, cos we had made some really good ones - especially a few with an 'international flavour'.
Hopefully a few will come down and stay with us in 2008 and or, invite us to stay with them (hint, hint). Next year will see us be Godparents to Gabs and Stewart's child - Tomas (Gabs n Stew are our SA / Swazi buddies who live in Dublin) - and will see us attend the wedding of my buddy Dave (who I worked with at EI) and Sinead. So already there are a few trips planned.
Apart from heading up to Dublin, we'll also be heading around Europe a few times hopefully, with trips to, I don't know, maybe Norway, Portugal, Croatia, etc - basically places that aren't too crazy with the tourist sheep. We also have to go across and see Emma in the UK and I have a bunch of sports events I want to go to.
Last year we went to three continents - Europe, Africa and Asia and the plan is still to have visited them all by the time we head back to SA. But we're taking a break from long trips in 08 to save a bit more and see a bit of Europe. We're lucky to live in Ireland cos there really is a lot to see here.
We've already seen:
The Ring of Kerry (Kerry)
The Cliffs of Moher (Clare)
The Burren (Clare)
Glendalough (Wicklow)
Connemara (Galway?)
and visited a bunch of other counties, including Waterford this past year.
This coming year we'd really like to go to 'the North' - Northern Ireland and see the Giants causeway and Antrim, etc.
I also landed a pretty good job this past year, and have notched up a year's experience in it, which won't hurt my job prospects when I head back to SA. It's a pretty cool job really, despite people moaning about pay, etc. In truth, I'm bloody happy in it, it would be almost perfect if the hours were a tad different.
AIMS / RESOLUTIONS FOR 2008:
(I'll put them up here so you can give me a hard time if I break them)
- read 24 books this year
- give up beer
- continue to drink less coke but now also all fizzy drinks
- drink only 3 cups of tea a day
- write more for the paper- buy less books
- learn to dance without sticking out bum
- lose Brad the boep (we named him when he got so big he got his own postal code)
- visit 3 new countries (at least)
- go to Northern Ireland- take Cath to Wimbledon (tennis)
- attend a Grand Prix - Spa in Belguim?
- go to Roland Garos (French Open tennis)
- watch SA beat England at cricket (in England)
- watch SA beat someone at rugby (anywhere)
-add to this list as I remember things
It's pretty tough to come up suggestions when you're already so damn brilliant though.
- be more modest
I hope you have a great 2008 yourself and hope any New Year's resoltions you may have made are completed with ease.
God bless
-a-
No comments:
Post a Comment