Performance review (last year's Resolutions revisited)

I decided not to bother with any of that New Year's Resolutions guff this year (not with any I'd embarrass myself in public with, anyway; I have some private goals - but private they are going to remain, for the time being at least).

However, I thought I'd offer a brisk review of how I did on last year's.  (Um, not very well.)

1)  I am going to finish unpacking and get my apartment straightened out by this weekend.

(ALMOST.  Well, I got my kitchen sorted out [a MAJOR undertaking!] within a couple of days of that Resolutions post at the beginning of the year, but progress in other areas was fitful, and the new pad wasn't really starting to look shipshape until the end of January.)

2) I am going to have a party at the beginning of next month.

(YES.  The infamous housewarming party at the start of February.  Yes, it happened.  No, it wasn't very good [attendance heavily impacted by inclement weather and the proximity of the Chinese New Year!], but it happened.) 

3) I am finally going to stop moping about Madame X.

(ALMOST.  I'm still suffering the occasional slight relapse; but, on the whole, I've done pretty well.)

4) I am going to visit Bangladesh.

(NOT MY FAULT.  The friend - crush - I was hoping to visit there was in the process of quitting the country, and travelling all over the place at the beginning of last year.  We did at least meet up when she was passing through Beijing in May.)

5) I am going to get a paid writing gig by the middle of this year.

(KIND OF.  Again, I fear it's probably more of a not really.  I have become an occasional 'China columnist' for a friend's motor racing website [under the tongue-in-cheek alias Giles Wade]; but I'm still not too sure when or how I'm actually going to get paid for this.  Just more hobby writing, really; nothing that's going to make my name.)

6) I am going to break myself of my 'pool divination' superstition.

(KIND OF.  Well, not really, NO.  Fact is, I didn't play very much pool or show very much interest in women this year; so, I undermined the power of the superstition [that success on the table is linked to  positivity and good fortune in other areas of my life, particularly romance] only by avoiding the input of any relevant new data - and that probably doesn't really count.)

7) I am going to invest in a bar or restaurant.

(NO.  Opportunities, alas, continue to be very limited; particularly for someone with a lot of enthusiasm and intelligence but very little actual capital.  JK was offering to sell the bar to me a few months back, but his asking price was.... somewhat unrealistic.  And I pondered having a dabble - as a consultant/manager/PR guy - in a couple of obviously failing Chinese ventures, but... couldn't see any way of making sure I got paid.  So.... this one's STILL LIVE for 2011!!!)

8) I am going to complete the Great Wall Marathon this May.

(NO.  I've been dogged by recurring injuries - and more generalised and mysterious 'ill health' - throughout the year, and have scarcely done any running at all.  Wretched.)

[Yes, I already offered a very similar mid-year review back in July...  No further progress, really.  I fear that, by the second half of the year, I had dropped even the pretence of trying with most of these...]