Well, I appear to have ended the year the way I began it.

In the x-ray room of a hospital waiting to see if I have broken something...

It's OK, nothing broken this time around, just some ligaments and tendons FUBAR-ed after catching a pass badly in out last game of netball for the year (we lost.) And here I was thinking I had excellent ball-handling skills.

But it has made for a dramatic end for what has been a dramatic year.

I've broken a toe, been left to the mercy of the American health system as a traveller without insurance (or a zip code with five digits--what a fuss that caused!) and nursed myself through the odd hangover.

The company I've worked for for the past seven years has gone through so many changes this year that it will be unrecognisable in 2002. We've been sold to a larger organisation, moved offices, changed general managers, changed managing directors, had nine people leave and seven people start.

Even my job has changed dramatically. I now teach courses in addition to all the other stuff I do. I project manage and next year I'm asking for a senior consultant's pay packet to match the senior consultant's responsibilities I now have.

But I can't complain. My job has allowed me to travel to Sydney, Brisbane (twice) and all over the US. It's allowed me to meet people all over the world and expand my horizons. It's allowed me to put faces to online names and catch up with dear friends that I don't get to see terribly often. Thingie hugs are just the bestest things in the world.

This year saw me evicted from my home and madly dashing around so that I had somewhere to live before I went overseas. And so I had somewhere to keep my boy when he came to see me.

I spent three wonderful, challenging, scary, exciting weeks learning my way around another person, face to face for the first time. We liked doing it so much, we're doing it again in April. Wish us luck.

I sat and watched in mute horror as the world changed irrevocably in September. It took me a long time to cry and mourn and understand what it all really meant to me. I'm still not sure that I do. But the picture I took of the NY skyline in July now holds very special significance.

I came back from the US convinced that I wanted to live for at least five years in New York. Now I'm not so sure. Not because I would not feel safe, but because it will not be the city I fell in love with earlier this year. And it never will be. That saddens me greatly.

2001 has changed me in so many different ways I couldn't even describe them all to you. Some changes were hard, some were easy, some were voluntary, some were forced on me. But that's the way life works, doesn't it?

Thank you for coming along for part of the journey this year. Thanks for your encouragement and comments and props. I hope to see you all again in the new year. In the meantime, have a wonderful festive season, whatever it is you celebrate at this time of year.

Take care of you.