Digital Socks: Twenty-Twelve: Year of Changes

So 2011 was pretty much shitehawkes.

Apart from the obvious national crappiness (3.11), it was my worst year so far, personally and professionally. I had an already bad work situation that turned really toxic, combined with terrible homesickness and a feeling of having really messed up my life. I spent the second half of the year depressed - being sick going to work, crying alone, hiding under the covers. It was not good. But I got to go home at Christmas, and the support of friends and family helped me take control. So come twenty-twelve, I've quit my job, I'll be leaving Japan in April and heading back to Ireland to (hopefully) do a PhD at my old uni. Better yet, on the way home I'll be doing a bit of a mini world tour.

2011 broke me down and made me feel worthless, but it's a new year now and I'm back in control and things are looking up.

Of course the past year wasn't all bad. When I had gone through the worst of my angst, I headed to Hawaii to figure some stuff out. It's not a bad place to try and get your head together. It's hard to feel that life is treating you bad when you're hiking Diamond Head in the sun or having drinks at sunset at the Sheraton on the beach.

Basically, I'm a whiny bitch who had a bad few months and is now going to spoil himself unnecessarily with more world travels. I'm luckier than I know.

So Hawaii...Freakin' amazing sunsets (and mojitos)...

Hiking this arid beauty...

I mean, c'mon, it's paradise...

And I know it's Tacky McTouristy, but you can't go wrong with a fire show and a bit of hula.

The state flower (yellow hibiscus)...

Love the natural air-con on this place, but if you lived there, you'd spend your life opening and closing windows...

I also just love the unusual perspective on this next shot - they look like "Angels of the North do the Pacific"...

And can we also talk about how much I love Honolulu's open-air airport and occasional ukelele concerts...

There are so many doves (when seen in nature) in Hawaii...

AKA flying rats (when seen sneaking in off the balcony into your hotel room - this guy broke in three times! Look at him giving me the side-eye)...

Finally, I kind of loved this couple doing paradise on scooters for two...

Although these mobility devices are way more popular in the States than in anywhere else I've been. You even get them free at Wal-Mart (surreptitiously snapped on a business trip to Kansas last year)...