A new year a new beginning ?

Although the year is already 2 months old, I am still having mixed feelings about my prospects this year.  Recently I had to explain to a dear friend on facebook, why I would consider a headstone predicting my death this year saying that I died 'for preventing the end of the world' to be funny.  To her it was a very morbid kind of joke.  In May last year while we were spending a very nice holiday in Italy, the world was supposed to end according to an American sect leader. I decided that the world shouldn't end during my splendid vacation so as a joke I 'forbade'  it.  The same funny guy then said that the end of the world would occur in October.  By that time my American friend and I had decided that if the world was going to end, it could only be on December 21st 2012 (12-21-12) as according to some the Maya calendar predicts.  As 21 December happens to be my birthday and I was born in 1956 and I am turning 56 this year, the prediction kind of appeals to me, and my friend and I are still debating wether I should forbid it or not and how much time I have to forbid it. So now I am wondering what this year will bring.  The year started out badly for me.  2011 did end with a positive financial note : I was paid out my unemployment benefit on December 31st, 3 months late but never mind that. So January started and I was still unemployed and with the economic crisis I did not think it would be an easy task to find a job I liked soon.  I did have 1good prospect : the birth of our 6th grandchild was coming nearer, always a happy occasion and I was, stll am,  looking forward to a new addition to our family.  But otherwise I had nothing to be very happy about.  So I got busy again going round employment agencies looking for a job and sending emails applying for whatever I felt would suit me.  At the end of January  I did find a new employer and so I started in a new job on February 1st.  It' a whole new world for me.  I have to send out tax bills to whoever owns property in an area called 'De Nieuwe Polder van Blankenberge'. The organisation I work for has to maintain all waterways in this area, vulnerable to flooding because it's just behind the coastline and below sea level.  Their budget is partly from the tax I have to make sure is collected and partly from local and federal government.  I am in an office on my own and the only other person in the same building, the size of a normal house, is my boss in his own office next to mine.  The location is a small village called Houtave. A challenge to say the least.  At first I didn't really know wether or not to accept this job.  I had never really worked alone. But it has been a month now and I would never have thought it but I am actually enjoying it.  Before starting in my new job, we helped our son and daughter in law with some decorating, getting everything ready for the baby due around March 15th. They were turning the attic into an extra bedroom and fortunately I don't have fear of height. We booked our holiday : we are going to Rhodes (again) at the end of September and our friends from Antwerp will be there.  We also did some shopping around to do some small changes to our home, a new front door, a new railing for our balcony.  February has however been an emotional month otherwise.  We visited some dear long time friends in Hull. We hadn't seen them for 4 years and it felt good to spend some time with them.  One of them had lost his wife last year, and it felt good to be able to show him our sympathy in person and talk about her while we were staying at his house. An then, my mother had to go into hospital. She had been a bit poorly and wasn't feeling very well, nothing dramatic.  But in the hospital, after about a week, she seemed to get worse and then suddenly she passed away two weeks ago.  It was sad but at the same time a happy moment.  She was 86, had a good life, didn't have to suffer and passed away quietly. And now a lot still has to be done.  Our parents' house will have to be sold.  We will have to empty the house and I'm sure a lot of memories will grab me by the throat or bring me and my brother and sister some smiles.  And the baby that will fill us with tenderness to come into this world in the next fortnight.  I guess you can see why I have mixed feelings about 2012, at least about the coming months. I am still new at my new work place so a lot is still unknown and therefore uncertain for me, but such is life I suppose.  I'll give it some time and when I'm back on track, I want to get all my old North Sea Ferries colleagues together.  That is my this year's project.