Sam Downing

Here’s what my pile of books to read looked like in October, and here’s what it looks like now:

(This post filed under “boring posts”.)

I never really feel as if I’ve achieved much in any given year. 2009 is not an exception: these last 12 months have been enjoyable, but they also feel rather uneventful. Though that isn’t quite true. Here’s a list of stuff I’ve achieved in 2009:

I did a triathlon. My first one! I plan to do a second in 2010.

I completed the City 2 Surf. An epic (so-called) fun run from Sydney’s CBD (the “city”) to Bondi Beach (the “surf”). It is 14 kilometres, or 8.6 miles. My knees weren’t the same for days afterwards.

I moved house. From the west side of Sydney (the inner west, my inner snob wants to clarify) to the east. I consider this an achievement because we moved all our furniture ourselves. Tip: do not do this.

I travelled overseas for work. In 2008 I went on my very first business trip, but it was “merely” interstate. But in 2009 I jetted all the way to Los Angeles. For work!

And…

I finished My Book. I consider this the big one, given that I started writing (what has become the “final” version of) the thing in about 2005. While I’m still revising it, it’s complete from A to Z, in a polished enough form that I have been able to present it to other readers. This makes me Happy.

Of course, it’s the end of the 00s (notice how I used numbers there, so as to cleverly avoid using a daggy name like the Noughties, which I’ve never liked, or the Aughts, which never really caught on¹), though since a list of my personal achievements in the last 10 years would pretty much encompass all the important growing up experiences, it seems pointess to post it here.

And some things I hope to achieve in 2010:

Find an agent. A good one, I hope! (“Land a book deal” is also something I hope to achieve in 2010, though I’m focusing on short-term goals for the moment.)

Get a tattoo. Just a l’il one. I’ve been insisting for years that I’m going to get a tattoo, so I should probably get around to doing it. After all, who doesn’t want permanent ink painfully inserted into their skin?

Look like this. Likelihood of achieving this goal: not very likely. (At least I’m realistic.)

1. We’re calling the next decade the Teenies, right? [↩]