And so, the year came around once more for me. It`s weird since for the past few years I started counting years by my birthday rather than by the “universal” 1st of January. January for me was nothing more and nothing less than just another month, nothing more than something that introduces the new last two digits on the calendar. But October…that is special.

A year ago, things were different. I remember the feeling of emptiness and nonfulfillment. There was “that” holland thing, which started as a bad joke and ended even worse, there was a constant reminder of failure and the whole thing felt like somebody upstairs pressed the “pause” button and there I was, freezing in mid-frame.

Come 2005 and things start to change. Not right away of course, that would be too movie-like, but still, things started to turn for the best. And it was like a whole new point of view was cast upon me, with shiny new perspectives and options.

Of course, I could not (or so I think) do it alone. I guess stuff had to happen the way it did and looking back from now I am glad. Glad that things went down the way they did.

I guess this is the time where I toast to some of the people who made a difference or helped me made a difference. Since I am not a big fan of birthday parties I guess this is what`ll have to do.

From the top, I would like to thank the si.blogs community, especially SPS, Mrwica, BeeBee and Novala.

I would also like to thank the Ljudmila crew which gave me a job for a year which involved a free sympathetic pats and words of advice.

And before I get all mist-eyed, thanks to everbody who helped along the way. Here`s to a fab 24th 😀