so i’ve been thinking about getting a few things done this year. i think it’s nice to start out the year being hopeful, aiming high. i don’t know where i got this notion that wanting to accomplish something was cliched and pretentious. Well, i guess that’s where i got myself, never accomplishing anything (well if that there isn’t a AHA moment, i don’t know what is).

so here’s my short bucket list of sorts for 2012:

- attend courses that will boost my medical knowledge (this one is on its way to completion. it’ll help me gain confidence at work.)

- do a writing course (i thought i might write again. for many years, i lost my voice. i think it was the fear of being judged for what i put out there, not being good enough, ‘why bother’, that really hindered me from doing it. i enjoy it, it gives me reason. You should never stop doing anything that gives you reason. I don’t know where the course itself will take me, but one of the other things imma do this year as well is to ‘just go with it’. A famous person once said, ‘you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only do it looking back’.

- ‘sommelier’. last night i had dinner with friends at Press Club in the city, it was someone’s birthday. we were attended to like queens. it was decadent. it was fun. it was 4 hours before i had to start work. And we had the degustation with matching wines. Fuck me that was good. The sommelier was Italian and painted such tasty descriptions of everything we had. Leather. Tobacco. Cherries. A good wine is like wearing the right perfume. I really appreciate a good wine and i’d like to speak more knowledgeably about it.

- photography. There’s this darkroom course i’m thinking of doing. I love the idea of physically creating a photograph. The tactile pleasure of it. I’d shoot my own film, with my dusty flea market SLRs and then each photo will be like a labour of love that i’d give as gifts or keep in my little album. I have a secret desire for my work to be serendipitously discovered as THE iconic image of our times. But a little local photo exhibit will do quite nicely as well for now. 

- bike riding. i’m in the process of acquiring my own bike. I’ve rented one for the month, to see if i’d like it. And I do! It’s so much more economical, it’s better for the environment and it’s fun! They say that Melbourne’s not like Amsterdam, it’s not a cycle friendly city. The ones who say that are usually motorists. 

January. It’s the start of something good.