Goodbye 2018, Welcome 2019

2018 has been quite a year. Part of me would like to erase it from my memory but the other part of me wants to remember it for lots of reasons. It didn’t start on the best foot.

On the 30th December 2017 I flew to Australia as my grandfather wasn’t in the best of health. Unfortunately when I got there I wasn’t either and the doctor wouldn’t let me see Poppa. Just a few days later he sadly passed away, I did get to see him twice though. I made the right decision to fly to Australia, if I hadn’t gone when I did I would have not had my chance to say goodbye.

While in Australia I had a really bad seizure while in Rundle Mall and ended up at Accident and Emergency for quite a few hours (my goodness the new Royal Adelaide Hospital is interesting). I did get the all clear though and was discharged later that night. The underlying issue wasn’t resolved for some months.

A few weeks after that Mum was diagnosed with cancer after having being dormant for many years. After a fight, some extremely intrusive surgery and some pretty awful side effects she is getting on with life. I do admire her determination.

In April, Greg and I got married in New Zealand. It was pretty special to have Verity and Delilah there. What was also incredibly special was the number of people (both friends and family) that flew in from across the globe. Never have I felt so special. We never really got a chance to tell everyone how much we appreciated them making the effort, something I really regret.

After New Zealand we had an incredible week in Fiji, it was our Familymoon. It didn’t start off the best with a hurricane passing through but it was still incredible.

Life got pretty shitty on our return to Zurich. Nothing I want to talk about here but things weren’t great. My health went downhill and hospital was calling. Thankfully the diagnosis was a short process and I was on the road to recovery.

August, September and October passed and something changed in me. I had energy I hadn’t had for a long time. A weight had been lifted off my shoulders (quite literally, about 16kg). I was enjoying spending time with the twins again, social media accounts were activated again, life seemed to be somewhat normal. Don’t get me wrong there were still crap days but a lot less than there had been. I’m not exactly sure what the catalyst for this change was, I suspect there were a lot of things but I am so pleased it came.

Now we are at the end of December. Christmas has passed and the new year is quickly approaching. I must say I am pleased. This post only touches on the surface of what actually happened this year and probably doesn’t really sound that bad but the year was really crap. One I really do want to forget.

I want to walk into the new year with my head held high, positive, healthy and enjoying the company of my amazing family and friends.

I guess we could say this about all years though. They all have bits of shit and bits of fabulous. I guess we just have to ride it out. Enjoy it when it’s fabulous and suck up the bits of shit along the way. What I learnt more than anything in 2018 is that although my year wasn’t fabulous, there were lots of highlights and someone else’s year was a lot worse than mine.

Happy New Year everyone!