happy new year!

[winterbadger]

I had a lovely new year's eve hanging out with my family (my sister, her partner, my niece A, and the twins), and it's been a very nice new year's day doing the same. I'll be back to see them in the morning before leaving tomorrow afternoon/evening to head home to the catboyz. A and I welcomed in the new year with the last drams from a bottle of Cuban rum a friend of hers had given her, chatting over NYEs past while the others slumbered upstairs (though the adults, and one of the toddlers, came back down a little after midnight, briefly).

I have some plans for how I'd like to make some changes in my life in 2010, but for the most part I'm not going to try to nail them down in resolutions. They are all things that will be done, or not done, without making big proclamations about them. One thing for sure, though. This is the year I go to the UK.

Even that has one proviso. I applied for a job last month; I don't think I'll get it, but if I do I'll feel obliged to stay in it for a year--it's a serious job of a sort I've not had before, and I'm not going to cut it short irresponsibly.

That will only delay me, though, not change my trajectory. If I finish the degree I'm working on now, so much the better; that will make moving easier. If not, I'll get a student visa and launch into one of several postgraduate plans I've been working on and see where that leads me.

It would be silly to pretend that I'm not a bit fearty about the idea of moving so far, of all the work that it's going to entail, of all the things that could go wrong. But if you don't at least try to reach your dreams, it's a sad, dull life you'll have.

For now I need to start decluttering myself, finish my classes (one group ending in March, the last batch ending in June), and start seeing what plans I can make ahead of time. I have enough saved up that, if I really needed to, I could live--not lavishly but not starvingly--for a year or so without touching my retirement funds. If I can earn some income during that time, so much the better--I'll be able to stay that much longer.

One way or another, though, UK, here I come! :-)

Comments

[ingenious76.livejournal.com]

AWESOME!!

Which part of Scotland? My brother lives in Edinburgh, so there would be another good reason to visit if you lived there!

[winterbadger]

To some extent it depends on how I end up getting there and what I plan to do once I arrive. My original idea back a couple of years ago was to work as a freelance editor (I have many years' experience as an in-house editor, and I've been working on UK contacts for a couple of years now). Recently I've been thinking about doing some postgraduate work (history, archaeology, and interpretation) that may lead to a second career or it may just be an opportunity to fulfill old dreams.

Freelancing I could do anywhere, thanks to the Internet, though a university nearby would be a great advantage. The course I'd been thinking I'd take from UHI, which does a lot of Internet-based distance learning--the archaeology courses are hands-on, though, and based in Orkney.

I'm very fond of Edinburgh and have some friends there (or nearby). I like Glasgow well enough too, and I like some of the other places I've been more briefly (Perth, Inverness). The area I dearly love is the west coast, but it may be a while before I can afford to settle there, and there are still parts of the country I've not properly seen.

It would be grand to see you! :-)

[zoefruitcake.livejournal.com]

I'll have to visit you when you are over here :0)

[winterbadger]

That would be super! :-) Of course I'd come visit friends south of the Rio Tweed, but having chums come to visit will make me feel like I've really arrived. :-)

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

Good luck with all your planned changes. Having followed your emigration efforts for years, I'll be very pleased to see you go this year (or next year, if you end up getting the new job). Happy new year!

[winterbadger]

Thanks! Yes, I rather think that given how long this has all taken, at the very least my readers will be glad to finally HEAR THE END OF IT! :-)

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

Or not so much the end as a new beginning. Have you considered a new LJ name and/or icon for once you move?

[winterbadger]

I imagine I may make some new icons (though I hate having to get rid of old ones). I don't think I'd change the name of the journal; I'm not a fan of change for change's sake.

[brithistorian.livejournal.com]

I would think this more as change to commemorate a new phase of your life, rather than change for change's sake. On the other hand, you've had this name for so long that I'd probably just end up mentally translating it back to winterbadger to remember who it is. (The only cases on my flist where I don't do that are where people have changed from an alias to their real names.)

[la-renardine.livejournal.com]

This is the best new year's post! A new, exciting chapter awaits...at long last! I can't wait to read the installments.

[winterbadger]

Thanks! And you'll have to come visit when I've settled.