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2016: The Closing Ceremony

So this is the last post of the year. Can you see me enthusiastically waving 2016 on its way?

As I do every year, I take the time (and the words) to send the old year on it’s way before setting new goals – and as next year is another Saturn year for me, goals are absolutely necessary. I covered most of this over on and anyways, but if you’re not inclined to click over to there, buckle in…I give you the closing ceremony:

The Word…

My word of the year was “epic” and it was “awesome.” It was this meme.

It absolutely was an epic year – epic shit was faced and epic shit was achieved. I was, if not a force of the awesome, certainly on the side of awesome.

Blogging…

I had serious issues balancing blogging against my writing goals, my full-time job, my family, and all the other dramas that 2016 threw up. Despite posting a lot less this year (around 130 posts vs 182 last year), the number of you that viewed those posts increased by almost 70,000 to almost 400,000. For that, I’m humbled. Somehow Jo Tracey Astrology has ended up at no. 31 on the top 100 astrology blogs…

As for my other sites? As at yesterday the numbers were:

Still on the blog, where did you all come from? Overwhelmingly, it would seem, from the US.

And what did you come here to read?

Yeah, I’m seeing some themes in that too…It appears that you’re fascinated with Scorpio, Jupiter, Pisces and Uranus. Luckily, so am I!

Travel…

Enough to satisfy even my wanderlust:

  • A couple of weekends in Canberra to see hubby’s mother
  • Easter weekend in Lake Crackenback in the Snowy Mountains
  • A long weekend in Wellington to catch up with a friend and go to a game of rugby
  • Two weeks in Bali with hubby in May
  • A long weekend in Melbourne with Miss T and another mother-daughter combo
  • A week in Mooloolaba in July to breathe briefly between jobs and to celebrate avoiding having the heart attack my doctor was afraid I’d have.
  • Our annual “camping” long weekend in Eucumbene in August
  • Mollymook on the NSW South Coast for hubby’s birthday in October
  • A quick run back up to Mooloolaba property scouting in October
  • The Milford Track and Queenstown in November
  • Victorian High Country in November

Ticks on the Bucket List

Somehow, despite the chaos of the last 12 months – or maybe because of the chaos of the last 12 months – I’ve managed to cross quite a bit off my bucket list:

  • Tramp the Milford Track – you can find the post series here. Tick.
  • Resign from a job – yep, something I’d never done before. Even in my (admittedly short) dating career I’d never been the dumper, but always the dumpee. It was traumatic and messy. Tick.
  • Checked out the Victorian High Country. Tick.
  • Walk to Mt Kosciusko. Ok, didn’t quite get there, but I saw it and I took the photo. I’m calling that one as close enough. Tick.
  • If you count Mackinnon Pass (day 3 on Milford Track) I’ve also walked up something very high – possibly not quite a mountain, but as close as I’ve decided I’ll now get. Half tick.
  • I’ve self-published my 3rd book – Wish You Were Here…I happen to think it’s the best thing I’ve written (so far)… Tick. You should read it.
  • I finally saw a whale breach – at Mollymook in October. Tick.

If you’re interested, the bucket list as it stands is here.

Work…

I finished one partition job in July, took a week off and started another. Rather than driving to work, I’m now commuting into the city. The days are longer, and the commute is a total of 3 hours (giving me plenty of time to read), but although I miss my old crew, my blood pressure is almost back to normal – and I have Fridays off.

Finances…

I worked hard, I played hard. That should tell you everything! Let’s just say, until work is found in Queensland and the writing starts to pay for itself, 2017 promises to be the Year of Living Frugally!

Writing…

I was going to do all of this:

  • Publish another two chick lit novels.
  • Publish the first two astro workbooks in the Tuesday Toolbox series
  • Release Baby, It’s You on ibooks
  • Release Baby, It’s You and Big Girls Don’t Cry to print on demand.
  • Revamp the cover of Baby, It’s You

What I did was:

  • Published Wish You Were Here (in October)
  • Released Wish You Were Here to print on demand – and got so busy with selling the house I didn’t tell anyone about it
  • Revamped the cover of Baby, It’s You so it aligns with the other two
  • Wrote a 3000 word feature article for Wellbeing Astrology in April
  • Spent much of February and March writing 2017 horoscopes for these diaries.

Health…

The sad truth is I’ll be finishing 2016 just 2 kilos lighter than where I started it. Does that actually count as a tick beside the losing weight goal? No, I didn’t think so either.

I spent my birthday with an extreme purge aka salmonella, and my blood pressure peaked crazy high in the middle of all the madness in March – crazy crazy high. Since changing jobs, and since hubby went on long service leave (and has since retired), that’s all settled down.

My back is still seriously dodgy – due mostly to carrying so much extra weight around my tummy – although all other indicators show that despite the weight, I’m actually rudely healthy on the inside. Given that this is a Saturn year, I doubt, though, that I’ll be able to get away with that for much longer. I suspect it’s time to get real in that regard.

Home…

There’s been some extreme de-cluttering taken place, and hubby has turned a chaotic garden into a landscape.

The painting has been finished and the house is ready to go on the market immediately following Australia Day.

We have no idea where we’ll be living in 2017, so watch this space.

What’s next?

You’ll need to tune in tomorrow for that…

Thank you to each and every one of you who reads my rambles and has supported me this year. I wish you all the very best of whatever it is you want the very best of in 2017.

 

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