Joy cometh in the morning.

Fortune favours the bold, but there are no old, bold heroes, or so the sages of antiquity tell us. This blogger rarely attempts anything bold; but in the past year, there have arisen opportunities for proving that warm blood, nay hot blood, courses through his veins. And it has paid off, after a fashion.

It is a rare opportunity to rejoice in this blog. But this blogger does. In abundance. Sure, and this blogger is yet to be disabused over others' travails, there have been setbacks, and some have been devastating. In the grand scheme of things, however, fortune seems to smile increasingly in this blogger's favour, with new connections made, old ones retired without physical or emotional pain. Quite obviously - you have been reading the signs, haven't you - financial favours have been few and far between; the gods of finance have seen fit to deny this blogger the insight or the speed to take advantage of the opportunities that seem to have made his peers captains of industry in the style of the 40 Under 40s.

It is in the realm of the personal, where emotions tend to the phrase "my cup runneth over" that this blogger would tend to the taciturn. In the span of a year, suffice to say, there have been changes - vast changes - in status, though it remains to be seen if December will arrive with great heartache or an easing in parental fears of perpetual bachelorhood. Clearly, there is but one outcome that would satisfy all, including this blogger; whether events, circumstances, fate, whatever conspire to make this outcome so, we shall agree that until you are invited to share in certain confidences, there would be no point in allowing even greater scrutiny of what remain deeply intimate, private and personal matters.

In the professional arena, however, we are on more familiar and less emotionally treacherous territory. It is widely acknowledged in this blogger's circles that a day will come when he will either be jailed for a legislative proposal he has made - or promoted to ever greater heights by the powers-that-be. Brief sojourns in foreign jurisdictions have been accompanied by muted praises from his hosts, and to some extent, his supervisors. These are yet to translate into the increased zeroes promised in his bank balance, but eternal hope in the public service seems to be the preference of all experienced professionals in this blogger's field.

While this blogger's closest relations go from strength to strength, especially in their social and filial obligations, as well as their economic achievements, it is becoming more apparent that his service to the nation has come at great cost and, given the recent murmurings and rumblings over "high public wage bill", this blogger is not confident that the economic front is going to see an upward trend anytime soon. However, recent personal advances have given credence to that other old chestnut that "behind every successful man is a woman." That should steady the anxious hearts of the various relations who are wont to worry and give them confidence that providence and all that jazz have conspired, despite this blogger's efforts, to arrange the stars in a certain way.