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2022 was a more or less normal year until June, when my daughter and son were both kicked out of the shared house they were renting with friends in London.
My daughter and partner work remotely, and were in a position to buy a small house here in the Fens where the property prices are lower, so June was spent moving boxes and cleaning the rented place to try to make sure they got their deposit back. The new house has a problem where one of the walls is slowly falling off, but again, that made it cheaper. They've booked the builders to come and pin it back on, and scaffolding is up. Inside, they've started decorating in a kind of dark academia style. She is very happy to be back where she grew up, and I'm happy to have her only 20 minutes drive away. So that was a big positive of the year.
My son bought a narrowboat, with the aim to live on it and cruise around London while he continued his job which required him to go physically into an office in London. This was also a cheap fixer-upper project boat, and unfortunately it has not gone as well. Nothing on it worked, and he barely got it into the boatyard to have the hull repaired before the engine broke down, and long story short it's been in the boatyard since September, leaving him homeless.
He's been staying with his sister, but his car broke down due to the long commute, and now he's lost his job as well. So for him it's been over six months of disappointment and misery. And that means it's been over six months of sympathetic disappointment and concern for me too.
My number one concern for 2023, therefore, is that it needs to be the year when we get the boat functional and help him find a job he can do while on it.
I suppose it's not hugely helpful for me to have my number one goal for the year be something to do with someone else's life. The therapist might have something to say about that. But it's hard not to worry about your children even when they are all grown up and having their own mid-twenties disasters.
With that all in mind, my aims for 2023 are
1. Help my son get settled.
2. More practice with the signwriting, possibly starting up a little business doing sign writing and canal art.
3. Find some form of strengthening exercise that I can do with the hernia.
4. Finish podficcing Last of our kind and maybe do Derillarch's Jiang Yanli/Jin Guangyao series, and some more favourites after that if I'm still into the Untamed by then.
5. Maybe start writing again?
My daughter and partner work remotely, and were in a position to buy a small house here in the Fens where the property prices are lower, so June was spent moving boxes and cleaning the rented place to try to make sure they got their deposit back. The new house has a problem where one of the walls is slowly falling off, but again, that made it cheaper. They've booked the builders to come and pin it back on, and scaffolding is up. Inside, they've started decorating in a kind of dark academia style. She is very happy to be back where she grew up, and I'm happy to have her only 20 minutes drive away. So that was a big positive of the year.
My son bought a narrowboat, with the aim to live on it and cruise around London while he continued his job which required him to go physically into an office in London. This was also a cheap fixer-upper project boat, and unfortunately it has not gone as well. Nothing on it worked, and he barely got it into the boatyard to have the hull repaired before the engine broke down, and long story short it's been in the boatyard since September, leaving him homeless.
He's been staying with his sister, but his car broke down due to the long commute, and now he's lost his job as well. So for him it's been over six months of disappointment and misery. And that means it's been over six months of sympathetic disappointment and concern for me too.
My number one concern for 2023, therefore, is that it needs to be the year when we get the boat functional and help him find a job he can do while on it.
I suppose it's not hugely helpful for me to have my number one goal for the year be something to do with someone else's life. The therapist might have something to say about that. But it's hard not to worry about your children even when they are all grown up and having their own mid-twenties disasters.
With that all in mind, my aims for 2023 are
1. Help my son get settled.
2. More practice with the signwriting, possibly starting up a little business doing sign writing and canal art.
3. Find some form of strengthening exercise that I can do with the hernia.
4. Finish podficcing Last of our kind and maybe do Derillarch's Jiang Yanli/Jin Guangyao series, and some more favourites after that if I'm still into the Untamed by then.
5. Maybe start writing again?
no subject
Date: 2023-01-01 04:01 pm (UTC)From:I don't think I commented earlier but your signwriting stuff is so cool.
Good luck with more fan creating and with the physical and mental health as well!
no subject
Date: 2023-01-01 06:29 pm (UTC)From:I'm really glad you like the signwriting stuff! I'm not great at it, but I think I will only get better if I use it for something every day, and making stuff for Etsy seems like a way of giving me motivation to practice :)
Thank you! I hope you have a great new year :)
no subject
Date: 2023-01-01 09:59 pm (UTC)From:Good luck with the sign writing! That's a massively cool craft. I've loved the examples you've posted of your work so far.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-02 08:41 pm (UTC)From:Oh how kind of you to say that you like my sign writing so far :) I feel fairly confident about it, but then I look at someone else's and suddenly I'm like 'I really can't do this!' In that way I think it's a bit like writing, where you despair of your own stuff as soon as you read that of others.
no subject
Date: 2023-01-02 10:08 pm (UTC)From:But I'm so sorry for your son, and that cascading period of lousy things happening. While I understand what you mean about making your goals about helping someone else... I'm glad that he has you still caring about him and wanting to help.
I hope that signwriting continues to go well! As well as podficcing and hopefully writing!
no subject
Date: 2023-01-02 10:25 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 06:26 pm (UTC)From:I can totally understand that you want that problem to be solved so that you don't have to worry about him anymore. I'm sure it would take priority for many, many people with children, that's just how it is! Of course you'd worry about your child even though he's all grown up!
Ohh trying to set up some business with the signwriting sounds interesting!
no subject
Date: 2023-01-03 10:53 pm (UTC)From:no subject
Date: 2023-01-04 01:01 am (UTC)From: