I know the year ended a couple of days ago but I need more time than that for reflection. So here are my belated feelings about 2009.

2009 was the year of the horrific bush fires in Victoria and the news was full of heart-breaking stories of families torn apart by this disaster. But rather than let the disaster define them I saw a side of Australia I’d never seen before as the people opened their hearts and gave so generously that I think a surplus of money was raised. We had a fund raiser at the Village and as one of the top donors I got to shave my boss completely bald, he was a good sport about all of it even the leg waxing he had to endure.

This was also the year when I got to meet some truly great people; Josh, Kat, Matt, Brittany, Andi, Adam, Callum, Cato, Cheri, Shradha, Simon, Sam, Rebecca, Sarah, Emily, Mana, Michael, Kara, Carole, Kitin, Helvin, Clarence, John, Dannia, Avi and many more. I also deepened existing relationships and although some people aren’t in my life as much anymore I still think that it was a good year for me in terms of getting to spend time with some pretty exceptional people.

Sadly this was the year that Dome cafe and I parted ways. It was an amiable split as my health wasn’t great and I was finding it a great strain to keep two jobs as well as study. Dome is a great cafe and the people there made it feel more like a family than a simple job so I did feel a lot of regret over leaving them. I feel pretty special because I can walk into Dome and get such a warm welcome and I think it really reflects well on the great people there.

2009 also saw the inauguration of Barack Obama which is, politics aside, a pretty historical occasion. I remember being up at like 2 or 3 in the morning with Avi to watch his speech and feeling so inspired by his words. Thumbs up Mr. President.

We also lost some pretty special people this year which is always sad especially when they have touched so many lives in so many ways. Michael Jackson, however you feel about him, was a spectacular entertainer. Edward Woodward was the original, and best, Wicker Man. Those two really stuck out for me, Michael Jackson because I followed his career and the much publicised trial and Edward Woodward because I really liked him as an actor.

This was also a pretty exceptional year for cinema as we had the film adaptation of Alan Moore’s excellent “Watchmen”, the re-boot of “Star Trek”, the boy-meets-girl-but-not-love story of “(500) days of Summer”, the tongue in cheek ‘historical’ film “Inglorious Basterds”, the touching story of “Up” which had me in tears and James Cameron’s simply all around excellent “Avatar”. I know there were also a lot of bad films released in 2009 but I’m trying to focus on the positives here.

In musical terms I got introduced to a heap of new bands in 2009, Davy Knowles & Backdoor Slam, Kate Miller-Heidke, Mumford & Sons, The Temper Trap, The Wagons, Art Vs. Science and many more. I love to listen to music as a form of relaxation and even meditation sometimes and learning about bands I haven’t heard before simply broadens my options.

Finally 2009 saw the blogging competition which really challenged me to write in different ways and pushed me to try untested ideas. Before this I’d never uploaded a video to youtube or really saw the value of twitter but now I’ve been show how interconnected all the social networking sites and programs really are. I didn’t win the competition which was a bit disappointing but I will wholeheartedly acknowledge that Jessica, http://unstable-stability.blogspot.com/, deserved the honour because she really showed what she was capable of. Thumbs up!

Overall I think 2009 was a mixed year, I had to deal with a lot of issues that affected my life and there were a lot of moments where I felt completely overwhelmed by circumstances that felt out of my control. There was also a profound sense of loss as some very special people in my life moved away or returned to their home countries and I certainly miss them a lot. However I think if 2009 taught me anything it’s that I am capable of a lot more than I realise and I really hope that in 2010 I will get a chance to prove it.

Happy New Year everybody, thank you for the kind words, the support and the emails. I hope each and every one of you has a great year.