So it’s goodbye to 2009…

Despite all of the trauma, 2009 feels like it’s been a pretty good year. After all, on 1st January my daughter was in a plaster, and here she is on 31st December running around and walking freely. We’re not out of the woods yet – she may still need an operation at some point in the future – but if you’d offered me this on 1st January, I’d have taken it. And her hernia problem is hopefully sorted too, so she goes in 2010 with – touch wood and all that – no major health worries.

Work wise, 2009 has been slower than previous years – well, I say slower, I actually mean less lucrative (sometimes I feel like I’ve done more work for less pay). But not by much, and I haven’t decimated the savings yet.

2009 is also the year when Baby Number Two was conceived, and after a clear 20-week scan on Monday, hopefully that bodes well for the rest of the pregnancy.

Toni has definitely seen her fledgling business develop and grow – yes, finding the time for it is difficult (I should know, as sometimes it feels like I go from work to babysitting back to work again!), but the foundations are there for the future. As Baby Two arrives and gets older, she can start to look beyond just keeping it going and pushing it forward a couple of gears.

The allotment was more productive this year, although the harvests weren’t as great as they might have been. But the variety of veg was increased, and we have some perennial plans (mostly fruit bushes) growing now. Finding the time to keep that going has been difficult, but hopefully one of my New Year’s Resolutions will be to organise myself much better and spend less time living in the margins of work, babysitting, house duties and everything else.

And we can’t end the year without talking of Birmingham City FC. Of course I’ve been sucked back in, but I will walk away again as soon as it starts to go wrong. But let’s just enjoy the fact that we end the year on an 11-match unbeaten run (seven of which have been victories), and top the form table over the past eight games. Of course it’ll all go wrong sooner rather than later, but for now, I’m going to enjoy it for all it’s worth.

So, goodbye 2009. There have been worse years, and on the whole I give you a strong 7 out of 10.