It was an intense month, I feel squeezed out. In a good way, if that’s possible. I was working part-time, because I needed time for other activites that had nothing to do with fattening my bank account. That will have to wait until April.

I kicked off the year with starting a writing course and in the second week the course convenor made me enter a short memoir competition. My entry, that I am not entirely confident to share with the whole wide world, is now there in the ether waiting to be judged. I won’t pretend modesty, of course I want the first prize! I had three days for writing it and I finished it this morning so I still feel slightly disoriented. It had not much to do with academic writing that I would normally do. The jury must have a sense of humour for they will announce the winners on 1 April.

I started the Spanish course that I have been looking forward to for months, only to cancel my participation after the very first class. The quality was unacceptable. After two weeks of fruitless hunt for a private teacher on my own, thanks to a LinkedIn call, I found a lovely person within less than 24 hours. It seems that I will get a glimpse into LatAm Spanish and that was the aim. Gracias!

I signed a contract with a human rights agency as a sign of their willingness to use my services. I have been working for them in the past few years on smaller tasks, but this time the plans are more ambitious. This is just a letter of intent for now but those who work in the development sector know that it’s not easy to secure paid projects so it’s definitely a progress.

I have been registered by a few new agencies that work in line with my values, and at the same time I ended working for others who do not. A big shout-out to ZingWord for their shiny new platform. It’s a great place to share my services without having to compromise on what I want to do and whom I want to work for!

On a less busy day I checked my accounts and realized that in the last 5 years I tripled my income. No worries, it all depends on where you started, I am still not a millionaire but it’s good to see the steady progress in numbers too. For my peace of mind.

Hello February! But first… bed.