Good riddance 2010, welcome 2011!

What a crappy year 2010 has been for me, probably the worst in all of my 30 years on planet earth. I am delighted to be slamming the door on it and determined after tonight not to look back.

2010 has marked the third continuous year of economic difficulties for the Piglet household as our businesses struggled to survive in a very difficult market and we had to take the decision to move on, both in our enterprises and by selling our home in order to downsize.

2010 has also been an emotional rollercoaster for me, full of emotional highs and lows which have alternated between into the cloud happiness and literally touching rock bottom. It has been a very difficult year emotionally and also medically and has been one that leaves me in tears as soon as I think about everything that has happened. Never before have I been so marked by a years worth of events, yes there has been happiness and sadness before, but never at the levels experienced this year.

Today, the last day of the year, has brought me the last possible piece of professional bad news possible, offering closure on an incredibly disappointing year and at the same time setting me free professionally.

I don’t have any new years resolutions for 2011 other than to live life to the maximum and to allow myself to make what I can of the year with Mr Piglet, in our new home (when we get one) and with our new baby (when she arrives). I am determined that 2011 will offer us plenty of opportunity and I’m going to work very, very hard in creating the happiness that was missing from a rather lackluster 2010 so to break the pattern of crappiness.

So, here’s to 2011! May it bring you all plenty of good health, happiness and prosperity!

The last New Years Eve I felt happy was 2006/2007 on holiday in the Bahamas

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The joys of starring in one’s own Pacman/La Rentrée game

So, back to school, back to work, back to getting on with your life now that the relaxed, do nothing, don’t bother months of July and August are rapidly becoming nothing more than faint memory – it’s “La Rentrée”.

La Rentrée is like a second start to the year in France. It not only marks the start of a new school term but more like a start of a new year for all. A new year that runs between September and December of course.

La Rentrée was a non event for me because I was in Lyon all throughout August and spent most of my time moaning how my local butcher, hairdresser, tabac, boulangerie, traiteur, market and you name it were all closed. Oh, how I now wish I had cherished those moments of peace and quiet and free car parking now that the craziness of city life has taken over again.

Never was there such a reminder as to what hell living in a city can be as this Monday. A simple trip to the garage and back to pick up my car. When we dropped it off before La Rentrée, a round trip took a maximum of 40 minutes. This was to reach the other side of Lyon, driving through the city centre and back.

Not to be this Monday. No, it took no less than 2 hours and 30 minutes to complete the drive there and back. This was certainly not helped by the fact that the education workers were striking and had decided to march right through the centre of Lyon, exactly the same route that we were trying to take!

Each time we turned into a street we were greeted by the barricade of police blocking the street so that those who were on strike could march their way through. As we weaved our way desperately around the city, swinging a left turn here and a right turn there we gained speed on the procession but lost lots of time on the clock. It was rather like starring in our very own PacMan arcade game; desperately trying to escape the demonstrations and reach our destination before they did.

When we did finally reach the garage I was dumbfolded to see that the protestors had arrived before us. Upon closer inspection it didn’t look like they were protesting at all, they had a marching band, a singer and seemed in very good spirit, not upset about anything at all! Maybe they were extra pleased as they’d beaten us there?

On a side note, I didn’t realize that this was not the main strike and that there was a national strike on Tuesday. I doubt those that protested on Tuesday were in such high spirits mind, it absolutely peed down with rain all day long…

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Happy New Year!

At last, 2009 has come to an end and we can now look forward to what the New Year has to offer… A bit sad really as the last few weeks of 2009 were fantastic but all good things come to an end and I couldn’t stay on holiday for the rest of my life although it is very tempting!

Hopefully 2010 will be a good and the economic situation will continue to improve and my life will be less bumpy than it has been during the last two years and I’ll be able to book another sailing holiday soon…

Just two New Year’s Resolutions this year:

1. Separate work and personal life as much as possible. Not easy as work from home and have demanding job!
2. Enjoy last months of being 29 and don’t get stressed by thought of turning 30 (not going to be easy as got all emotional yesterday when heard Lily Allen’s song 22…)

Better than my usual endless list of resolutions that I forget as soon as I have written them.

I am also looking forward to detoxing as I have eaten so much Foie Gras over the last four days that I can feel all that fat setting in my tummy and the spare tyre starting to inflate.

Hubby calculated that we had eaten Foie Gras at least once at each meal (except breakfast) over the past 4 days and that on two occasions we had Foie Gras three times at one meal (aperiftif, starter and main).  After all the fresh fish and vegetables we had eaten on holiday our body systems are in shock and will probably take the next 11 months to recover!

If I can’t be somewhere warm I’d like to spend next New Year’s either skiing but if there’s no snow like this year then I’d like to be in London:

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