This year has been interesting, we’ve had Brexit urgh, Donald Trump urgh, so much terrorism and fear, war, the loss of not only David Bowie but now George Micheal among other famous faces. So yeah, 2016 was a bit of a bitch.
I wanted to see what positive and exciting things happened in 2016 for me. If we didn’t focus on the good stuff, I’m pretty sure I’d be in a ball crying about the state of the world and that aint gonna get anyone nowhere fast. I was lucky enough to spend a fair amount of this year traveling, enjoying time with my friends and family and being pretty content in my safe bubble.
Here goes ….
January – Started my Post Grad certificate and now its very nearly finished, come at me January 2017. It wasn’t initially in my plans to work full time as well as study but wow its been tough at times and there’s been a few tears but I’m nearly done it feels like a real accomplishment. Well done 26 year old me.
February – I took Kevin to New York for a 5 day last min trip, basically we had some annual leave left and couldn’t let a deal pass me bye. So off we hopped over the pond to stay in the upper west side and get my Gossip Girl on again. It was 5 years since I was last in the City and I left part of my soul there!
March – The Rocky Horror Picture Show Live, it was the first time in around 10 years that I got dressed up with friends and enjoyed an amazing evening! Also a night in Manchester at the Gotham Hotel aka only the chuffin Bat Man themed hotel and Edinburgh for 2 nights including a trip to the Zoo hello Giant Pandas.
April – Got a Record player and quickly built a collection of Vinyl, it now stands at over 30 records and afternoons listening to music rather than mindlessly sat watching Netflix.
May – Annual family holiday 6 adults and 3 kids = mayhem. It’s busy, it’s crazy, it’s normally 5 days in a cabin and I need another week to get over the madness but family is family and amazingly we haven’t killed each other yet!
June – Attended the wedding of one of my best friends, she’s a force to be reckoned with and planned an amazing day in 1 month. We used my 1973 Beetle as the wedding car and it was just perfect.
July – We did another drive across America (it really started at the end of June but 3500 miles later it was July), this time we hit 10 states but the highlights included Dollywood, Memphis and Palm Springs. I will write a post about road tripping across America later.
August – Drove North of the Wall and hired a cottage in Avimore for a week! Saw Loch Ness and looked for a monster, walked around many Lochs, drank wine and relaxed in a hot tub.
September – Ward Thomas, I hadn’t seen any live music for a few years and drunkly bought tickets and it turned out to be an excellent idea. Ok, so my music taste is somewhat eclectic and there is a bit of a country thing going on at the moment, you should check out Kacey Musgraves too.
October – Gave our American friend a whistle stop tour of London as well as Yorkshire. He was here on a layover from Malaysia on his was back home to Chicago. And RHPS for the 2nd time in a year and only on bloody Halloween, I even got Kevin to dress up.
November – SNOW, it snowed for a few hours and then disappeared but yay snow. I was treated by Mum to a girly trip to the Theatre to see Mary Poppins with my cousin and an Auntie. We left a little disappointed mainly because who changes the words to supercalifragilisticexpialidocious????
December – I only went and cooked Christmas Dinner successfully for the first time for 5 people. Ok this may not be the biggest achievement ever, but no one died and we had family close by which is the most important thing.
In total we visited 11 states of America.
Stayed in Manchester, York, Edinburgh, Avimore, London and Penrith.
Day tripped it to Scarborough, Flamborough Head, Blackpool, Bridlington, York x4ish, Whitby, Yorkshire Sculpture Park and many other little adventures.
Now lets see where 2017 takes us, the world is a scary place but we can’t let it stop us enjoying life. 28 days of annual leave start again in April so stay tuned to see what magic I can work with them. I think we’ll be looking for discounted last minuet trips again, not sure we’ve ever booked anything more than 2 months in advance.
How was your 2016? Try and pull out a positive moment for each month, it doesn’t matter how big or small it was, write it down and smile at the memories made.
