Dead Cat Bounces and Happy New Year

Hello Brave New Year

This is officially the fifth New Year in a row that I am looking forward to, while at the same time being very thankful to see the back of the previous. It’s a bit tiring I have to say to always look to a new year for something better and always happy to close the door on the old.

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve had some really good times over 2011. There are many happy memories, lots of laughs and improvements. But I’ve also lived through a year of dead cat bounces. Just when I think I’ve hit the bottom, I discover there is more below. And what lies below is often pretty sinister.

2011 has been a roller coaster for me, again.

I feel like Herman Wouk in his book Don’t Stop the Carnival*. Only I keep saying, ‘Stop the World I wanna get off.’ Just for a bit. I wouldn’t have minded a holiday or a break this year, but along with many others, that didn’t figure. I wouldn’t have minded a weekend off work, but the only weekends I wasn’t in the office was because I so busy doing other stuff I literally did not have time. Again, as the thankful creed goes, I am lucky to have work. The only downside is that for 23 months I did not get paid for my work. This December I actually took some financial reward for my work – that is the norm I seem to remember – and I am hopeful that 2012 which ensure it stays the norm.

2011 was also the year my house went viral. You may have heard of it. For 2011 I was ‘The Irish Divorcee sells her house on YouTube’. I preface ‘Divorcee’ with ‘Irish’ because my house and story went viral and global. Of course, the downside to being a divorcee is that alteration and subbies all like to associate it with words such as ‘Desperate’, ‘Doomed’, and ‘Depressed.’ Good job I don’t believe everything I read in the papers.

2011 was also the year my ailing business limped its last. Very hard to see a business that was once a thriving concern sink into failure. With each month that passed the bills stacked up and the income disappeared. The harder I worked the worse it got. In the end I just stopped. Stopping is not easy and it has its repercussions.  I could not afford liquidation. My accountant refused to do accounts unless I gave him cash. There were no funds left, only debts. And so I stopped and turned to face the music. The worse moment, my own particular bete noire, or is that chat mort noire qui bouces, was the day the bailiffs arrived at my office. Sent by the Revenue, they were prepared to take my vintage PCs and tatty desks for a €3,000 bill. The irony was not lost on me. Take away my only means of working for a €3,000 bill and then let try me and get the dole. It will take some time of course as I am self employed but when I eventually get through the red tape, I will cost the state a whole lot more unemployed than the original bill.

I have to say I crashed and burned that week waiting for them to return. My rational self had many alternative plans for survival, including moving the office lock stock and barrel, replacing my vintage PCs with truly scrap machines and finally an Occupy Shillelagh style protest with me chained to the door. Thankfully none of the above was needed but not before I lost sleep, brain cells and nearly my sanity.

2011 wasn’t all doom and gloom. Mind you. I’m not out of the woods with the house: in fact I’m still exactly in the same place I was twelve months ago only I have an extra year’s worth of arrears added on top. My limited business is gone, but I am now a thriving sole trader, sometimes the universe just needs a readjustment to set things back on a positive note. My kids, while both doing state exams this year, are playing a blinder! Me, I’m busier than ever, busy with my writers group, the riding club, the Mount Wolseley Choir, my new gym membership in Tinahely, and my kids.

And oh, did I mention that I’m part of the #TwitterXmasSingle and have, if only briefly, been part of a single that is charting in the Irish Music charts.

And I also debuted as a actor, albeit a silent 6 second part, with #DepressionHurts.

And I managed to create a really quirky promotional video for my first novel, Running out of Road.  Look on the PPRWeb Channel on Youtube and I’ll try and attach the link here too.

And even more importantly I have started writing at a great rate again. I have my mojo back again. I am haemorrhaging articles, blogs and book ideas  like a wounded soldier on the Somme. My word count is on the up and up and I’m loving it.

I’m going to write my way out this year and into the next.

So, as I prepare to close the door on 2011, I wonder what 2012 will bring. No dead cats anywhere I hope. As my mum says: Every onwards and upwards, maybe sideways, but never backwards.

Happy New Year!

*I should point out that I read that Wouk book when I was twelve after finding it on my parent’s bookshelf, sandwiched between the Children’s Encyclopaedia and Desmond Morris’ The Naked Ape. I had, by default, an eclectic taste in literature while in primary school. lol[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=klaxOZ5E6UA]