Annual Review: 2009 Was the Start of Something
Source: flydime at flickr
Feb 9 Update: I found that post I was looking for. Linked below as well.
I was inspired by Nora Dunn’s The Professional Hobo 2009 annual review to create one of my own. Of course, I did not lead as exciting a life as Nora did, since this blog basically started a year ago. So without further ado…
The blog launched in January, and by then I already knew I was taking some time off work in the spring. We had a number of friends and aquaintances pass away late in 2008 – a really odd cluster of several in a row looking back – and that led to the decision to change our lives, which led to this blog being launched.
In February, I was deep in the planning stages. Laying out a calendar, I had put city names in several spots, making sure we had enough time in each place and not too much time. We had made the decision to try to do a whole month in a single villa, and February was when we started making inquiries to various owners using a UK holiday web site. Bank drafts were sent to the landlords, and reservations were set in concrete.
March was a blur, the checks were received in the UK and Spain, and plans were finalized. Final plane tickets were secured. Car was rented. Oh yeah, we also sold our condo that month just as we were pulling it off the market.
We left for our trip at the end of April. A slight mix up on my part caused me to have a hotel reservation in Barcelona a night earlier than we actually arrived. No cancellations or changes allowed, so in effect we arrived in Spain a day before we actually did.
May was spent in Barcelona, Madrid, and Nerja. All three places had their charms. We loved Barcelona. What a magical city. And Nerja stole our heart with it’s quaint sea-side charms. Waking up with the view to the Mediterranean blew us away. We spent the final week of May in Portugal, another wonderful place. I’m running out of superlatives.
We started June off in Javea, a small city in Spain that’s closest to Ibiza. We enjoyed Ibiza, but not the boat ride. Flying next time. We really enjoyed Valencia, which is an up-and-coming city about 90 minutes drive from Javea. A recent picture of the week highlighted Valencia.
We came back down to real life, Toronto, in June as well. Back to work at the end of June. Starting on setting the next goal in life.
By July, I had made my mind up. “My goal is to spend six months a year in Spain. And six months a year here.” There it is in black and white. You can call that an epiphany I guess. We really want to do this. Or at least try it. My most popular post of the year also happened in July, “How Long Can You Stay in One Place“? Visas are always a thorny issue I guess.
In August, I thought I was on to something with my idea to get into the t-shirt business. There is big money in t-shirts, and people definitely buy them online. There are several popular sites now, including http://shirt.woot.com and http://threadless.com. Ultimately though, I didn’t have the passion to see it through. I still might come back to the idea of selling a product online, but for now, Your Mom Shirts is gonna have to wait a bit.
September had me thinking about money, and I posted a sample sabbatical budget for people to comment on. I appreciate all the thoughtful feedback that post received. I’m going to be doing a post like that again, as I work through my thoughts on how much money it takes, whether I should plan on having ANY income or just enjoy the time off, and issues like that. I recently saw an amazing blog post on it, and now I can’t find it. Ahhh, not even Google can help with that one.
Quite honestly, October and November were quite busy for me at work – late nights in the office. I couldn’t devote much time to the dream or the web site. I did get a few posts up, and so it was not a total disaster.
Finally, December has been a big month to reflect for me. Where I am going in 2010, where I have been, and most importantly, how.
Thank you to everyone who visits here, reads, comments, sends email, posts to twitter… Your contributions are invaluable to me. Please keep sending your feedback.
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Thanks for the shout-out! It’s always great to read annual reviews like this (as well as occasional flashbacks, once you’ve been up and running for a few years)….new readers appreciate the recap – as I enjoyed this post.
(PS – I have an entire group of friends who love mom jokes….so when Your Mom Shirts expands its line, I’ll send a few your way!)