It’s time to wrap up the year that was! A lot of people have had a pretty bad 2016. Mine wasn’t all terrible, but I felt I spent a lot of it in a state of anxiety holding pattern waiting for The Ginger Hunk to get through his DVA battle and have his replacement.
Let’s take a look at month by month, on reflection, it was a busy year!
January
In December 2015, I quit my job with no real plans, with the idea to help The Ginger Hunk recover from surgery and restart his business. Surgery was put off, and so I found myself beginning a new job at NSW Health in late January. Having said that, January was a time for reflecting. We did a massive de-clutter of the house, and I by default, turned back to being vegetarian.
February
February I settled into work and routine. I was excited to be interviewed for “Unclassified Women”, by Michelle Maria McGrath, reflecting on being childfree. This made me think that podcasting might be something I would be interested in for the future. No time though to pursue this so far. The other thing I did, much to the disgust of my parents, is get my first tattoo! A little lion cat on my wrist. Almost a year on I don’t regret it one bit. She looks so pretty, and it did not hurt at much as I thought.
March
In March I tried cat yoga for the first time with my friend Sanch who blogs over at Living My Imperfect Life. I felt a little bit abandoned by friends who had moved on to husbands and babies and wrote about what it feels like to feel like you are no longer needed. I had a flop of a fundraising stall at Kirribilli Markets and wrote about the five annoying types of women you meet at the markets.
April
In April, I was stoked to hit 3000 visitors per month for the blog. Not huge I know, but seeing I’m not selling anything, nor do I have a niche, I was happy that I’m making a difference on my little space on the interweb. One quiet Saturday evening, The Ginger Hunk and I found ourselves breaking up a domestic in our street and spending the night at the police station. I reflected on violence and that we all have a role to play in preventing it. One of the biggest things that happened in 2016, was that we extended our feline family. We brought little Piper into our home in April, and it took some months to achieve peace. Now we have two happy cats I am pleased to say. What did we do without her? A big win this month, was being published in the SMH.
May
In May I went back to school for a career night. I wrote about advice you wish you heard in school. May was not a great mental health month for me. I had low motivation and I felt pretty frozen, waiting for The Ginger Hunk and his hip surgery. I tried energetic healing for the first time and it is now something I add to my self care menu.
June
June saw me taking a two week break from blogging and physically took me to Bali for a week of freediving training. My Dad randomly decided to join me at the last minute for a few days, so it was a special time just chilling with my Dad and having him there for my 35th birthday. The Ginger Hunk is still waiting for news.
July
In July I started my trail running program with Cantoo. I reflected on why I do hard things that I am not very good at. The program has brought new connections into my life and a love of trail running and being out there in the bush, soooo much more fun than running on the road. My weight gain was starting to annoy me at this stage, and I reflected on my body image and having 7 extra kilos.
August
August was a pretty quiet month. I moved into a new team at work, and was happy to be given a big suicide prevention project to lead. This was too much work to do in my four days a week, and we needed the cash so I committed at this time to work full time until January. I got bitten by another spider and got a staph infection in my leg, which means I was unable to race my goal Cantoo event. In August I reflected on why marriage is important to me and why it is important to travel with your grown up family.
September
A very special birthday celebration for my sister this month. We travelled on a girls trip to Vietnam, visiting Hoi An and Phu Quoc Island. I fell in love with the food, the Vietnamese people, and had such a special time connecting with my sister away from husbands, children and life. Already planning my 40th in a few years time.
October
In October, the stress of waiting for DVA became enormous, and so did I. I realised I had been eating and drinking my emotions away, and I am ashamed to say that I hit the 80kg mark. I wrote about embracing versus taking responsibility for your body, and I realised that now was the time. I signed up to a program and did my first video vlog, pledging my commitment to continue this journey. I’m joined by my neighbour on my morning walks and this starts up a great friendship.
November
I’m going strong with my weight loss journey, week four and I have dropped 4 kilos. I’m happy to find something simple that works. Finally we get the approval we have been waiting for, The Ginger Hunk is having hip surgery. I cry with delight and relief at work, and it feels like the stress has drained from my body. I wrote about the whole long, sordid story here, if you want to read about it. I can’t believe this long road has come to an end.
December
A quick trip to Byron to celebrate my best friend’s 40th left me reflecting on great friends. Hip replacement day comes and goes, and I and the cats spend a good few weeks being on nurse duty. I’m suddenly ending 2016 feeling very grateful for our healthcare system, my relationship, our family and friends after the exasperation of the last few years.
I’m wrapping up December at around a 6kg loss, Chrismas waylaid me a little as it should. What’s on the cards for the rest of this week? Relaxing, walking, getting the boy in the pool over the next few days, catching up with friends, and working on this blog.
Thanks for coming along with me on the journey that was 2016.
I appreciate each and every one of you. (Otherwise I would be writing to no one, and that is just weird!)
What’s in store for 2017?
Well, that’s another post! ?
What were the highlights of 2016 for you? Looking forward to anything spesh in 2017?
Love, Ashleigh XXX
