Hands Full of Glitter and Tofu : 2011 Day 365: It's the end of the year as we know it and I feel fine...

I know it's a refrain so common it's cliche before the first person has thought to utter it but I cannot believe this year is over. It's like someone slipped January a heady 12 month cocktail of party drugs and it's been partying ever since right through the other 11 months like December 31 is a million years away.

Only it wasn't. It's now and it's arrived with such speed and ferocity I think I have whiplash and an astonishingly bad ability to remember what happened when. I do know that I changed jobs and that was very good, and that I had my guy permanently in Sydney for six months of the year which was beyond wonderful, especially as the relationship goes from strength to strength. I can recall week night dinners with good friends, countless great movies, albums and books, and the sheer joy of blogging about them all, and watching my other blog, SparklyPrettyBriiiight go from strength to creative strength.

And of course I know I inched closer to getting my book ready for publication after attending a course on Kindle publishing at my now employer, the Sydney Writers' Centre, a course which inspired me to pursue the things I love in life like writing. I plan to publish the book next year and make all my creative dreams come true. Well, mostly.

So on balance, workplace sociopaths aside (in my old job I hasten to add), it's been a Very Good Year, and it's given me an awesome foundation to build on for what I fully expect will be an amazing 2012.

Naturally, like any blogger worth my salt (or caramel cheesecake which let's face it is infinitely more precious) I have a list of things I want to do and so here's with as much fanfare, glitter, and overblown expectation as this gay boy can muster is my Top Ten 10 Things I Want to Do in 2012:

1. Yes the novel must be published, and it must be so successful Harry Potter will weep. No, seriously, getting published will do and everything after that is gravy (or cheesecake topping).

2. Get back to exercising properly. I know this is a hoary old chestnut, trotted out on New Year's Eve by everyone from the Queen of England to a villager in Nepal but I mean it and if you have seen my ferocious determination in action, you will know I will stick to it. Plus I feel so much better when I am active and I like how that feels.

3. Read more books. I love books I really do. But finding time to read between rushing to and from work, blogging, watching a million different TV shows and listening to music has been a challenge, one I can't shirk from any longer. After all, I now have a Kobo e-reader so I have physical and e-books mocking me inability to read them!

4. Get rid of the pointless stuff in my life that consumes air but produces nothing. Hopefully that will make way for important stuff like more time with guy, reading and yes, chilling.

5. Stress less. I know my natural state of being is worry first, relax second but I need to remember that few things are as fearsome in reality as they appear in my easily panicked mind.

6. Tidy my room and get everything organised. I know it's not necessarily a life or death issue but the more organised I am, the happier I am. I feel like I am (delusionally) in control of my existence.

7. Go back to Canada. I miss my friend Sandra most of all, but I also miss the warmth and friendliness of Canadians, Robson Street in Vancouver and salmon. I don't care if I have to live on gruel for muchof the year if it means time in that wonderful country.

8. Make my blogs as professional as they can be. Now I am working on professional blogs at work, I can see what's possible and I am hungry to make the blogs look as good as the writing, hopefully, is.

9. Think about eating cheesecakes, and not actually eat them anywhere near as much.

10. Go and see Coldplay in concert. Yes, the latest album is a tad disappointing but I still want to see them in concert. I mean they are fabulous and who wouldn't want to see them?!

So that's it people! It will be an amazing year and I can't wait to see what it holds. I don't think you have to be insanely optimistic to expect good things - just be excited that your world can get better. I know it will and it's a belief that is in evidence long before midnight.

Happy New Year everyone!