31st December 2024 - Soon To Be New Year
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New Year is always a weird time. It marks the end of the weird period 
between Christmas and New Year, where time is infinite and yet short 
and meals are just whatever you can scrounge. It also marks the need 
to return to work and the start of when you should retrain your sleep 
pattern. Well, New Year tends to scupper that so I always return to 
work tired and confused. Thankfully this year, the second of January 
is a Thursday so not a lot is expected. I just have the niggly issue 
of a problem I caused and was unable to resolve before starting the 
Christmas break. 

Of course, New Year enables us to reflect. 2024 was a fairly good year 
personally. Financially, I felt able to afford to go away on holiday. 
That lead to trips to places I had wanted to go for some time - Berlin 
and Singapore. Both are interesting places and well worth a visit. 
Workwise, 2024 was mixed. I made a lot of progress with one of the 
projects I lead. Hopefully things go ahead commercially and we get the 
go ahead to start the hard part. The other project I lead is of pain. 
It is a mature state one which I did a lot of work on years ago and 
just keeps giving me political issues. Nothing technically 
problematic beyond a coating process issue. Just politics about 
drawing notes and other nonsense. 

Scoutwise, I managed to get my group to an international camp for the 
first time ever. I also got 5 through their Duke of Edinburgh silver 
awards and so their Chief Scout Platinum awards. Not bad going! I even 
managed to convince 3 to become leaders. Admittedly it is as they are 
the older ones in their school year and so hit 18 before their friends 
and this is a way to still take part. Hey, take the wins where you 
can. With my radio show, I managed another year with no repeats. 
Always nice to be able to do that. 

But what has gone wrong? Well plenty. I have been fairly pants at 
meditating when I should do. I have also not been great at dealing 
with stress or prioritising things. Mostly work related and then life 
issues getting in the way. I should take heed of when people ask if 
things are ok and use that as a reason to reflect. The stress has 
caused some of my evenings with Explorers to be fairly pants. I do 
need to try and plan better ahead of time. Mostly in the making stuff 
realm. I did try a different approach which adds focus and that helps. 
Mostly asking the Explorers to select a badge and see if I can work 
out a way of meeting the spirit of the badge without the Explorers 
being an expert in the activity with 20 years experience. 

My biggest achievement is that I have managed to see my niece without 
her crying. Daft but she cries and gets nervous around new people. 
After a while, she would warm up and play. However, this time, I 
managed to get her wanting to play with uncle 'tu. Yes, she struggles 
with her 's' still. Much to my Dad's dislike when he takes her to 
visit the near by horse and she proceeds to tell everyone that "Dadu 
go hor." She has reached that point where you can see her imagination 
comes out. She sings to herself, asks you to read to her and you can 
ask her about what she is thinking. She wants to tell you about what 
she has been doing. She is a lovely little muppet and one I am glad to 
know. 

What does 2025 hold? I have an Explorer Belt expedition to Spain and 
Gibraltar which I am running. I am also hoping to be buying a house 
and moving. Workwise, who knows. Hopefully less stress but... I 
suspect not. I have made some steps to show clear priority which 
should help. There is a vague desire to learn Forth. Almost as vague 
as when I looked at LISP and decided I couldn't get past the lack of 
definition. There are no holidays planned but I will probably try to 
get away somewhere in Europe. Perhaps Italy or Czechia or Croatia. 

Hopefully you have a great New Year!