Goodbye 2011

Through the window the light snow sits on the top of Jyvaskyla's city library. Glimpses of the lake can be seen through the building and the tower - water-tower? - over the hill opposite. It's -4 degrees today, and the sun, as it does at this time of year, has only peeked above the horizon, where it will glide for several hours before giving up the impossible task of rising high into the sky.

At this time of year, I'm filled with the usual cliches: how fast the year went, and so on. The highlights of the year, of course, were the movements for change: North Africa and the Middle East, the Occupy movement. One can only hope that these are the first signs of further changes and challenges to the status quo.

Personally, it's been a good year. I've done some good writing. I like the two pieces I wrote for Overland. The first on New Wave science fiction, the second on Torture Porn Films. There are several stories yet to see the light of day, but which soon will, I hope. Almost a new draft of Unwrapped Sky, which I've worked on for the last month, some reviews for the Age, Metro, elsewhere. The Uncertainty Principle was optioned by the wonderful folks at Lailaps Films and is in the process of being redrafted. A solid year, if unspectacular. I've become even more qualified as a hypnotherapist, having done an advanced diploma, which was a lot of fun. I kept working with the wonderful people at Overland magazine. There have been movies seen and books read.



Still, the best parts of the year have been the trips. The first across Europe, including Finland, Italy (including Naples and Pompeii; amazing), France, London. The second sees me entrenched with L in the Finnish winter, writing, watching movies, eating and eating. Christmas eve was spent leaving candles at L's ancestors' graves. After that, it was spent alternately in a sauna then standing semi-naked and barefoot in snow. Was that good? Impossible to say. I mean, uh, it was certainly consciousness-changing. That Rjurik was a different Rjurik to the one writing now, so who would I be to speak for him?

Sometimes I think that the best things in a year are the new ones.