Reflections on 2022

In the time-honoured tradition of reflection at the turn of the year, I thought I would take a look back of te highs and lows of 2022. I took up this 500 words a day writing challenge after seeing a Twitter post and thought it might be what I needed to get me going.  It looks like the guy that started it, Jeff Goins,  has moved off social media now and only does his work on substack which is a platform to consider if I want to get serious about writing. Anyway the plan is to write a minimum of 500 words each day for 31 days which should be enough to get habitual about writing.

Anyway 2022 was our first post-pandemic year and while Covid is still with us it is a lot less scary.  Work at Lorn & Islands Hospital was a busy as ever but I find fewer of the students seem to be using our services.  As I like to remind everyone, I am the only NHS librarian in all of Highland.  Talks are starting to see about replacing the SLA with UHI and it could mean the transformation of library services.  Chris O’Malley and I have some ideas about expanding the model at Cairndow Village Hall to provide NHS Near Me to other communities that lack libraries and GPs.  Hopefully we will get our act together and apply for the SLIC grant money soon.  Britt took off on her secondment to UNISON and I picked up extra hours, which helps a lot financially.  Emma struggles a bit with the changed nature of her job and hoping that Carolyn’s plan to move her down to admin doesn’t materialise.  Our walking group participated in the Spring and Autumn walking challenges but with Neal retiring and Frank going back to ABHSCP driving, the heart was taken out of it for the second challenge.  We do have a great little Facebook group going to cheer us up but it isn’t the same.  We did manage to have our corridor Christmas lunch and the boys joined in for good food and laughs.

I got my theatre chops back in order and did a one act with the Benderloch group for the Lorn Drama Festival. No awards but good for discipline.  A bit against my better instinct I agreed to be in the Christmas panto and played Mrs Fezziwig in our version of A Christmas Carol.  The Community loved it because lots of kids were in it and I actually sang and danced a bit.  Thankfully I had few lines to mess up.  I don’t really know why but I signed up to do the hospital panto in February and will be playing Toby the Footman in our version of Cinderella.

The past year was not without its losses.  Doc Burns, my online buddy since 1996, passed away around 4 July.  We don’t know exactly as he lived alone, had been in poor health for years, and his brother had to break the door down after not hearing from him for a while.  Every aginging single persons nightmare, I think.  This year also saw the passing of Murphy, my rescued Jack Russell terrier who got me through lockdown.  His last few months were not easy and I finally had to have him put down when he could no longer walk.  He lived a long life (15 or 16 years)  and I was glad to give him a home for a couple of years.

My only leisure travel was to Stirling when Michael Howley came over and we mooched around for a day.  I actually got my camping gear out for that one.  Finally made it to the quirky library in Dunblane and then on to Calandar House which was really interesting. I did make it to the revived Reivers’ Festival in Hawick in March and delivered my third talk based on Michael Robson’s work and mine with the DNA project.

I suppose looking back on it all, I did a lot last year even if I felt like I didn’t accomplish a thing. Here’s to looking forward!

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