Ear we go

What should I write about this time? Architecture? Done that already, in fact a few times. Complaints about various things? Done - actually, in every column. An investment overview? Same again. The future outlook? Who wants to read another gloomy column about 2012? An overview of the previous year? Who cares, it's already gone. A look back at my first 2011 column? OK, we could give that a try.
So, at the end of 2010 I put together a list of suggestions, little things and not so little things that could make Warsaw a better place to live in over the year. The mayor of Warsaw was hopefully to read it and start ticking the boxes. Did it help? Let me see (taking some time to pore over the January 2011 column). Well, no, not really. We did get a Gap store though, as someone in the column requested, but the rest of the new year's resolutions remained just wishes: Warsaw remains a difficult city to navigate for mothers with prams and pushchairs as well as for handicapped people; bus drivers still need to learn how to be nice; work has still not started on the site of the Museum of Modern Art; ditto for the Polonia stadium, etc... On second thoughts, let's forget about that idea. So what else is there?
This is the situation I find myself in at the end of December. No, I am not discussing possible topics with my editors - I'm actually debating with myself. And now I've ditched all of the above ideas and decided instead to do the usual thing: play it by ear. This may not be the best strategy if you are an investor poised to make an important decision involving a price tag with a lot of zeros at the end. As we can see now, some investors during the boom years were playing it by ear, and looking at the empty overpriced plots that they bought, I don't think this approach exactly worked out for them.
Yet more and more people around me seem to now be playing it by ear. Can you sense it? There's something in the air... No matter what we read in the papers, including this one, 2012 might actually turn out to be a great year. Excuse me for getting all sentimental, but I can't help it. As I was writing this piece another e-mail from an acquaintance of mine popped up in my e-mail inbox. "Things are really happening. I am hopefully getting a new job and will know today. But in the meantime my boyfriend and I have opened up a little bar. Come and see it - it's cool." I'm not even surprised - and not because this friend of mine is a very talented person. It seems that over the last month I've been getting nothing but "I am starting something new" messages. So many promising changes - and right in the midst of a deep economic crisis! New jobs, new apartments, new projects, new boyfriends or girlfriends - you name it.
As the old adage goes, life is whatever happens while we are busy planning something else (and reading about the macro-economic outlook). Woody Allen is fond of saying that if we want to make God laugh we just need to tell him (or her?) about our plans. I am happy that so many people around me are also coming to this conclusion. But don't get me wrong - planning is good as long as you leave some room for improvisation. Or actually maybe, lots of room for improvisation.
Well, as it happens, my job is done here. My final column is ready and now it is my turn to send one of those important e-mails to all my friends and acquaintances. For those of you who don't receive it, I would also like to thank you all for these four amazing years together on the pages of this magazine, on the phone chasing a story or in a meeting in one of those top floor offices with beautiful views. It's strange to relate, but when I got my first job as a business writer it was supposed to be a temporary thing. No more than six months - I promised myself - until I figure things out. One thing led to another, and here I am four years later. The don't-plan-anything rule strikes again!