It has been some time since I write anything on here. I keep telling myself I will and then, well, not. So, here I go again, with good intentions but the follow through shall remain to be seen!
It’s a new year, and after the world’s busiest festive season, time to reflect on the old year. Which was also busy. Every year I tell myself (and my husband!) this year we will take it a little more easy. It never happens. We already have so many things in for this year, my next availability might be in 2048, and my next restful day will be when I shuffle off this mortal coil! Not quite, I exaggerate for effect, although my husband does have a tendency to plan well ahead and cram a lot in. I shouldn’t grumble, he does all the planning I wouldn’t do, and I rein him in when what he thinks is a twenty minute activity is probably a two day activity – it works.
2024 was an odd kind of year. In January I had been working as a consultant with a second law firm for a few months, and oddly enough will be starting to work for a third one this year. My skills are in demand it seems, which is lovely, but it also means that no one wants to practice the type of law I do and so I may have to lasso some young lawyers into a housing and charity governance and regulation learning bootcamp in order to be able to retire one day. However, it is better that I am busy because it gives me less time to overthink everything and feel guilty about not being busy.
As it turns out, the busy thing is not just because I am anxious and depressed, it is because I have ADHD! 2024 saw me diagnosed with combined ADHD (when I got the results my first comment to my husband was, yep, I have ALL the ADHD!). I have been seeing an amazing psychologist who asked me if I had ever considered whether I had ADHD. I did what I always do, read. Think Hermione in Harry Potter. Lo and behold, it all made so much sense. Post diagnosis I have consumed every book I can find, especially Gabor Mate’s books, and it’s quite freeing to have so many ‘aha’ moments and start to understand yourself better. I have meds now, which seem to be making a difference, and am still seeing my psychologist and a counsellor, and slowly finding new structure in my life. I even wrote an article for LawCare about it.
It has in many ways been a year of relief and release. On a retreat in France, I experienced something which I had previously only heard others talk about experiencing. During a healing circle I started to cry. Not about anything, I wasn’t thinking of something upsetting, I was laying down nestled in blankets, and the tears just came and would not stop. It was clearly a release of something which had been waiting for the opportunity to be set free.
There has also been loss. My neighbour died and has left my other neighbour a little bereft. They had been friends and neighbours for 70 years. I have been keeping an eye on her, and made up a basket for her to ensure she had life’s necessities; coffee, tea, cheese, meat, chocolate and some homemade muffins. That was a bit of task, I had to mix by hand, because my hand mixer was broken and I had given my spare to my mother in law – or so I thought. Turns out, I was wrong on both counts, but not before I ordered another one – people should be grateful they did not get a mixer for Christmas. If anyone needs one though, I am at your service! The muffins turned out OK considering that my tiny oven which runs off a gas bottle has only two temperatures – on and off.
Friends have been ill, relationships have ended, beloved pets have left this earthly realm. However, new friends have been made, or existing connections have been strengthened and will hopefully continue to do so.
There have been many travels too. My husband rode the track at Portimao and we spent some time exploring Lisbon. We went to Belgium to see Bruce Springsteen. I went to France whilst my husband went to Mugello for more motorbike action. We also went to the motorbike show in Milan, which was actually quite disappointing, bike wise, but if you want to see some old school misogyny, it will not disappoint! Lots of young ladies in skin tight outfits and short skirts selling motorbikes to deluded fellas.
We spent a day in Ascoli in torrential rain, stayed in a lovely hotel in Turin with a load of tennis pros (unintentionally) and took a tour of the Fiat factory, saw Queens of the Stone Age in Rome, and Frank Turner in Milan. Spent our 10 year anniversary (not wedding anniversary, just ten years together) in a beautiful Italian town and a very well furnished hotel, because the town is known for its furniture design. Saw our local football team lose a few matches, went to a party at the local church.
We had an old family friend from Malta stay with us in February and then for Christmas. As a detour on the way to the airport on his way home we all took a tour of Rome in vintage Fiat 500s. My husband even took him to London in February to see Tottenham play, his favourite team, as he had never seen them play in person. We also had my dad and step mum to stay. This was less of a success and ten days was a long time, especially when your dad’s driving results in you being in a car crash, luckily without injury. We also had my husband’s family over throughout the year and spent time catching up and eating out. There has also been time with our friends in Italy.
We travelled around Greece for three week, from Athens, to Hydra, to Ithaca and Kefalonia and Lefkada. I have always loved Greece; nowhere else in the world is the water so blue. We travelled to Malta, with stopovers in Sicily and a week in Stromboli. I have a weird obsession with volcanoes and so far have been to Etna, Vesuvius, Reunion Island and now Stromboli. The amazing thing about this one was that it was active and I got as close as they would allow. I have never been more in awe of nature and its power. Absolutely magical. We took boat and ferry rides, hired boats for the day, hiked, swam, ate great food, saw exquisite sights, visited caves with lakes, and met some truly lovely people. And cats. Lots of cats.
We are slowly moving forward with the plans for building our new house. In fact I am off to the commune this week to finally submit the planning permission, and keep my fingers crossed! It has so far been a year in the making, admin is rather slow in Italy, but I keep telling myself it is tortoise not hare.
I finally got the sign off from my diabetes consultant to learn to drive and so that’s part of my 2025 plan, although quite when I will find the time is a mystery! My husband also had laser eye surgery, which after a short spell of squinting, was a resounding success. This year will also be the year when I insist on HRT and get some treatment for historical skin scarring, as well as finally speak to a sleep specialist about my nightmares. I continue to be a trustee for two charities and it is very rewarding to be part of positive change. I have also written articles and contributed to discussions about changes in the law and the government’s housing strategy in the UK through my job and also my voluntary work with the UK’s largest professional body for housing.
I sent a novel I wrote about 12 years ago to an editor for comment and review and he suggested some edits, after which we will get the ball moving on publication. I also have many other ideas for more books in the future. Again, quite when this will happen is yet to be determined!
I spent a week in a beautiful part of Wales and at the end of the week I was ordained as a Heart Minister for Heart of Living Yoga and am incredibly proud and blessed to be part of something so wonderful.
This year is not shaping up to be any less full, and at the end of it there will still be a whole shit load of stuff on my ‘to do’ list and I am certain there will never be enough time to complete it. I would need several lifetimes I imagine. I can’t remember where I read this, but there was something I read which basically said a person did not want to die regretting the things they had not done, but instead with a whole bunch of things that they hadn’t managed to fit in. I like that way of thinking. It might be exhausting sometimes, leading a full life, but it does mean, when the time comes, reliving it will be a blast.
That’s all from me. There are so many other things that have taken place in 2024, but a blog is not supposed to be a dissertation, so with that in mind, it’s a goodbye from me!
I am not going to make it 