End of Leaving Normal

Year End

I declared, on what I thought was the 28 December 2014 but have just discovered was the 20th, that I would write for a year.  I was miserable and lost.  I was facing a Christmas without my dear children.  I had just spent a working year where I had not completed on a single property and therefore not deposited a penny into the communal funds.  I had forgotten about the fun things of the year.  This is what I wrote


20 December 2014

There is a picture doing the rounds of FB with the words 'if you aren't happy with what you have got, how can you be happy with more ?'.  True, I am not happy with what I have got - with the shite work, money worries, the bastard clients, the crap that circles around my head.  I need a change of reality.  I need to leave normal.  2015 is looming and I must do something different if I want this year not to be a repeat of the last eight years.

OK what do I want - lets focus on the positive

1.  Spend six months over winter in Paris in somewhere good with views of the Eiffel Tower and paint.

2.  Spend six months over summer in Provence and paint in all the places that the romantic painters painted.

3.  Do Strictly Come Dancing

4.  Make Angels and become well known for Angel making like Little A Designs and Mr Finch.

5.  Sell all properties in bastard, bastard town where I live

6.  Build grand designs property overlooking the South Coast of England.

7.  WF gets job which makes him happy and they both get decent caring girlfriends.

8.  End the year knowing I am on the right road.

Positive things about this year

1.  Have done level 2 reiki

2.  Link up with other agency means I wont be alone

3.  FB group going great guns - could it be Andorran version of the WI

4.  Have actually lost over a stone by giving up dairy and bread

5.  Apparently have had a lot of weeks away and have forgotten virtually all of them because have spent so much time stressing about work.  I take pictures on iPhone which faithfully records where I have been and when.  Completely forgot about Cordoba and Seville.   Heat was murderous and choosing to go to a spa (hot salt pool) and drink Turkish tea was unfortunate.  Combination of excessive wine, snoring disturbed sleep and over tapa-ing usually leaves me longing to get into my own cool bed and sleep twelve hours.

6.  I have got to the end of this year in one piece and avoided nervous breakdown.

Football blasting through the floor of my bedroom which is also ceiling of the front room.  Battery on laptop about to run out.  Not feeling inspired.  Here endeth Day 1 of 365 days which will be different.  Normal will be eradicated.  Leaving launched.

The most progress has been made on number 8 - I feel much more centred and now see my direction clearly.  I have sold one of the properties, two flats remain to be sold plus the main house.  We have the project to buy the investment property in the Lake District and I have a brilliant new project on which to focus.  The group has continued to grow and new people have come to the fore.  I have an outlet for my creativity - resin - which I can continue to develop.  This year coming will definitely be the last one in full time estate agency in France.  As for the rest of my wish list, they are still definitely on my bucket list.

What is the brilliant new project you may be asking?  It arose through a conversation with JJ.  She talked about an instagram business which is called Lucky Dip Club where people subscribe, or bid, to receive boxes of handmade items.  Each month has a theme and people do not know what is in the boxes but they pay 18 pounds sterling a month.  Typically, the boxes will contain a LDC charm, a piece of jewellery and paper goods such as cards or book marks or note books.  My idea is the Handmade Button club.  Bimonthly and containing a limited edition of handmade buttons and themed.  Have contacted LDC to ask to be a participant and am waiting to see what their response will be.  They currently are selling 1100 boxes a month.  The potential is huge, with vintage and handmade being so popular.  I will post world wide, LDC just does the UK.  The only limit will be how many buttons I can produce.

This will be the last post in Leaving Normal.  I will continue to blog on a new page called Normal Reloaded.  I will not write every day but will write when something worth writing about occurs.  Quality over quantity?  The exercise has been wonderful, as has the discipline, but I would love the opportunity of having some lie ins during the week instead of waking and thinking, I must catch up.  Thank you for following me and reading my blog, all and every one of you. http://normalreloaded.blogspot.fr/

And happy New Year wherever you are