Two-faced

In the spirit of the god for which January is named, what follows takes a brief look at what the past year held for me and what 2005 may have in store...

2004 turned out to be quite a momentous year, all in all. Buying our first house, getting a car and relearning to drive were all fairly major milestones in my life. Then, of course, there's the decision we made to start a family at which point our lives started to develop in a completely new direction. This year, of course, will always be the year our first child was born and that alone makes 2005 a pretty big year before we're much more than a quarter of the way through it. Everything else that we've got planned pales into insignificance besides that one moment.

Physically, I have had more time off work for sickness in the last twelve months than I think I ever have had before and I finished the year still feeling out of sorts. Hopefully, this year will see me get to the bottom of this general malaise and work my way towards recovery. Of course, given the sleepless nights due to us over the spring and summer, that may be a hope too far.

From a professional point of view the last few years have all been good and it's unlikely that I'll find 2005 to be any different, though in many ways it will be harder. The year may even bring a return to study and exams as I begin to work towards a professional qualification. Then there's the new role that I'm taking on, which will require me to master a whole set of skills that I've never encountered before; changing nappies without throwing up, singing lullabies and understanding a language made up of nonsensical sounds. That will certainly be the hardest thing I have to do this year.

And what about Clear Blue Skies? Well, I'm afraid the baby is set to dominate my thoughts for much of this year, just as it has done for the last few months, but I hope 2005 will see a return to the sort of stuff I was writing and organising early last year. That would make it a good year, indeed.