It’s not yet the end of the year, but it’s close enough and since I’ll be missing NYE flying back over the date line, I figure now is as good a time as any to post a year in review - the first one I’ve done on this blog. This year has been very kind to me, save a few hiccups.

I spent two months of it overseas, in the US. Those of you who live in cities where it snows have probably forgotten what it’s like to think “snowflakes really do look like snowflakes!” I went to a Rad Ref meeting in NYC, and was amazed by ABC No Rio. I visited a library in every city I went to.

I got a new job and joined a conference organising committee. Apart from a few pieces in our association’s monthly newsmagazine, I didn’t write any articles. Which is something I should have done. I went to two conferences this year, Blogtalk Downunder and RAILS.

A few strange things happened during the year. I DJ’d in NYC at a bar purchased later in the year by David Cross, hung out backstage at a fashion show eating icecream, where I unfortunately was also introduced to Alan Jones, and we were driven around Chicago by a nice guy who owns an apartment in the Hancock Building. I said “hello” to Rufus Wainwright. These are not the sorts of things that usually happen to me.

The most significant hiccup during the year was ending up in a Chicago emergency room with anaphylaxis, the first time I’ve ever been in an ambulance or an emergency room for that matter. I understand a little more about what it’s like to be poor or uninsured and needing health care in the US - while the paramedics were the kindest, gentlest people that could have helped me that day, the administration in the hospital stunned me. The look on her face when I shook my head that I had neither a Social Security number (being a foreign tourist) or medical insurance (though I had travel insurance including medical) was unbelievable. There is nothing like fighting for breath, unable to speak, and being chastised for not having the right information.

Apart from that I did love the US, enough to be heading back to Hawaii this Sunday for a week. It’s a place that I didn’t think I’d like much, but I found it fascinating. It’s a place that’s optimistic yet full of contradictions, with more alternative culture than many other places I’ve visited, despite its outwardly conservative approach.

Next year will bring the conference I’m helping to organise - NLS2006, the Biennial ALIA conference, a trip to Singapore, and hopefully another trip next year. I’d like to get back into writing again (articles, not just the blog), see more art, and make more things. Here’s to a happy new year.