Happy Year of the Water Dragon!

Gong xi fa cai, everyone!

It has been a bit of a cleansing last few days. The last post, combined with talks with friends, cleaning my flat like it's never been cleaned before and reading an incredibly positive horoscope for 2012, has made me feel incredibly light.

Well, at least before tonight's reunion dinner where I ate so much that I am now unable to go to bed because of the pain in my stomach.

Anyway, back to the subject. I'm very proud of myself. My flat is cleaner than it's ever been. Over the last few days, I have washed the walls, mopped the floors, vacuumed, done loads of laundry and given away quite a bit to charity. There is still a little more that needs to be done before this flat can be considered truly organised, namely, installing some shelves, but, it's come a long way in the last few months and I don't think of it as the small, cramped flat I bought just over a year ago, despite there being an additional presence in it more often than not.

On the job front, I am trying to allow myself to explore possibilities by talking to people from other fields. Some role have offered to put me in touch with people I would not have thought would have been able to help, but, even if I take just a smidgen of information away with me after every conversation, it will still have helped.

On the horoscope front, it says that my sign will have 12 favourable months out of 12, and that early 2012 will be a good time to demand a good position with good pay, or even change jobs. Definitely sounds good. I don't believe in horoscopes but it's always nice to hear good things, yes?

Anyway, it's about time for me to head to bed. I'm still suffering from overindulgence but someone has agreed to create a latte art dragon for me tomorrow and I would hate to oversleep and miss out!

Burnout

This post is a little more "stream of consciousness" than usual as it originally started out as my just writing about burning out, but evolved a little into dream jobs. Rather than attempt to organise this more properly, I've left it as it is. 

I've started applying for jobs again. Or rather, I've put my CV up on an industry job site and have started reconnecting with head-hunters. The good thing is, there do seem to be opportunities out there. The bad thing is, they're, unsurprisingly, in what I used to do, the area which I'd lost all passion for, which, even now, I can't think about doing without hearing my inner self scream with horror and frustration... all internally, of course.

Yes, I haven't done it since June, when I left my previous company, but, the thing is, I haven't been motivated by what I used to do in a long, long time. I was incredible at it, and I still think I would kick anyone's ass at it if you made me do it all over again, but the main issue is, it doesn't do anything for me.

My plea for 2012

Happy new year, everyone! I sincerely hope 2012 is everything that you need it to be. I know I really need it to be that for me. I'd been using the festive season as an excuse to escape from the reality that is life; after all, no HR person was going to be reviewing job applications prior to January, right?

But, now, the new year has come, although it has not quite gone just yet, and I have no real excuse other than bonus season to explain my procrastination in applying for jobs. It's not because I'm lazy. Far from it. All this doing nothing is driving me crazy.

I am shit scared though.

I took the huge risk that was my last job as I was desperate for a career change. Now, I have to figure out whether to go back to what I was good at and accept I may not be able to change from that ever. The alternative is to figure out what it is I can do and how to go about getting there. The latter is far more appealing but infinitely more difficult than the former. And, as with all things, especially as a person faced with a number of big bills coming up (£2k for my visa extension application, twice that for partial renovations of my flat, and another grand for other stuff), I need money. I'm not hard-up, but the reality of it only hit me an hour ago and I am now terrified.

So, 2012, it's not that 2011 was a horrible year for me. It really wasn't. But I do need you to be spectacular in the one way that 2011 wasn't. And I need it to happen soon. So here's the deal: I will do whatever it takes. I will leap on any opportunity that comes my way. I will do my best, as I have done throughout my life.

Just come through for me, okay?

Compliments

Recently, I have been receiving compliments from some of my Twitter followers, having met several of them in person over the last few days. These people have all been people who've been following me on Twitter for more than a few weeks. I've been told by someone who writes for a living that she thought I was interesting and a good writer to boot. Another who met me in person for the first time told me that I'd survived a Twitter purge because she liked what I wrote, as I wrote about life and trends. Yet another told me that I, along with another person he follows, brighten up his Twitter stream.

I'd be lying if I said the compliments had no impact on me whatsoever. In fact, because the compliments have all been unsolicited and have been said by completely different people working in different fields (writing, fashion and hospitality), I'm incredibly pleased, particularly considering that I haven't been having a great last few couple of weeks. I'm even starting to believe that I just may be a half-way decent writer after all.

Thank you all so very much.

Little Miss Random's 2011 review: Shopping

Warning: Overly girly, uninsightful, very much show-offy post coming up. Look away now before you suffer permanent damage.

Online shopping is evil. Most people have come to the erroneous conclusion that because my last job took up so much of my time, I couldn't possibly have had the time to spend it on anything. They obviously don't know me very well. Firstly, I don't need much sleep, or, rather, I do, but I hate sleeping, so it's a moot point. Secondly, I am an Internet whiz, meaning, I know exactly where to go in order to feed that shopping monster inside me and how to sort of maximise my pound, if you count getting something at a discount saving!

What's the point of this post exactly? Well, nothing much, really, other than to show off the fruits of my shopping travails which I'm proudest of. This is, in essence, the 2011 edition of my favourite pretty things.