10 things that happened since we last spoke - Feb 2022 edition
Aside from my 2022 word of the year and a wee reflection on my twenty eighth year round the sun, it was last October when I properly blogged, and even then it was one of these posts.
I love writing these, as a way of putting pen to paper (or text to computer screen) but also a little memory bank for myself too. So what better way than to kick off a new year of probably barely blogging than a round up of 10 nice, big, life changing in some instances, things that have happened in the last four months.
1. T U R N I N G T W E N T Y N I N E
Yes I am flying through the last year of my twenties, already a quarter of the way through how the hell has that happened? My birthday in October was a really lovely celebration after eighteen months of lockdown. I managed to spend it with my parents, my brother and his family and my husband and we went to the beach. Whilst I envisaged an autumnal walk along the sand wrapped up in woollies, what I got was a day so sunny and warm my brother and eldest niece went swimming and I couldn't take my sunnies off for all the blue skies.
2. S P O O K Y S E A S O N
We are big Halloween lovers in our household and this year was a bigger celebration than most. My family hadn't been altogether in my house since Christmas 2019 so our annual Halloween hosting and treasure hunt was a really special one this year. We actually had to do it a week early as we were isolating for Halloween itself so we got in more party food than we could eat, did all the spooky crafts and everyone dressed up and we took the first photo of all eight of us since my wedding when the now toddler was a mere baby. On Halloween itself my husband and I did what we do best and watched Nightmare Before Christmas and carved our pumpkins and made (and ate) pumpkin pie.
3. W I N T E R W A N D E R S
Lockdown walks continue after lockdowns did you know? My mum and I started walking for an hour every morning during lockdown one and we’ve tried to keep it up as many mornings as we can since - her in my village, me in mine, gassing away on the phone. Winter walks are a lot harder because of the lack of light but we try and do half hour minimum as much as we can anyway and it’s so bloody good for my soul. Wrapping up, getting out in the fresh air and filling my camera roll with the good stuff from where I live - nothing better.
4. F O N D F A R E W E L L S
On December 3rd I handed my notice in to the job I’d held for three and a half years, switched my phone off and went into Cardiff Christmas shopping with my husband. I had two weeks of annual leave booked off for the Christmas holidays so all of a sudden it was a case of handovers, announcing my (very) imminent departure and leaving dos. Course, omicron played it’s part in cancelling any hopes of a face to face leaving do but my lovely colleagues got me this pile of goodies, we said our goodbyes on a Microsoft Teams staff call and I switched my computer off for the last time on 21st December. Luckily for me my old colleagues also happen to be my local pals so in January, a month after leaving we had a big pizza night for my official leaving do and it was bloody lovely.
5. F E S T I V E C H E E R
Of course there’s no escaping the fact Christmas happened even though it already feels like a lifetime ago. In the midst of the latest variant to taunt us we managed, by locking down the week before, to all stay well and healthy and covid free and we spent Christmas all together as normal (with an added lat flow test in for good measure). My husband and I had to spend our first Christmas married apart in 2020 so we could each bubble with our respective families so to be able to spend it together, to see both sets of parents and siblings, let alone the added bonus of grandparents, cousins, aunts and uncles…..it really was something to behold and something I am so grateful we got when so many families were isolating.
6. B O O S T E D
Wee disclaimer here…..we didn’t actually wear our Christmas get up to the mass vaccination centre but this was snapped on Boxing Day and I didn’t get a selfie whilst getting jabbed. We did however get our third covid vaccine on December 27th at an eye watering 7am just after Christmas and we were yet again absolutely fine. My husband had the sore arm he’d not had before, I escaped with a bit of a cold feeling and one of us lazed around on the sofa all day watching Disney Plus and the other cleaned the house from top to bottom ready to host the Rees Family treasure hunt. I’lll let you decide who was who.
7. F R E S H S T A R T S
Again, like most people, our NYE traditions were halted in the lockdown of 2020 and again, whilst lots of people had their plans scuppered again this year, with a few neggy tests we managed to ring in 2022 together as always. I picked my brother and sister in law up and we had a Dominos with a side order of a chippy at my parents house and played board games till 2.30am when I played designated driver and took them all home to bed with their hangovers. This year’s fav was the Taskmaster boar game, a show we love and a game I definitely thought I’d have been good at….until my Mum was made taskmaster and the power went to her head.
8. N E W B E G I N N I N G S
I am a big fan of the new year new me vibe, even though I’m not into the old cliches of being more healthy and taking up a language (don’t @ me, I never stick to them) I like the feeling a new year of 365 days of fresh hope gives you. This year I decided to take it up a notch by starting a new job on the 4th January, the first working day of the year and somehow I’ve already been there six weeks. I am a People Development Coordinator for a housing association, basically exactly what I was doing before but for more cash and more benefits, which is always nice. So far so good and I feel like I never even settled in, it was just my job now from the get go and whilst the drive to the other side of Cardiff is a bugger when my old commute was 9 minutes, I am looking forward to getting up North to my old uni town in a few weeks time.
9. C O T T O N A N N I V E R S A R Y
February 7th saw two years since our pre penny d wedding so for our cotton anniversary I got this flag as a promise to get going on the living room renovation that I will get organised this year, and where this flag will have a place to hang when it’s done. We didn’t do much for our anniversary at all but when we got back from work we ate the pies we had at our wedding made by our local butchers and kicked off a James Bond movie marathon that’s set to see us well into the summer. We’ve also booked our honeymoon for May in a third time lucky kinda bit to get out of Wales and spend some quality time together……as if we haven’t the last two years of lockdowns!
10. B A B Y S I T T I N G
Last week my in laws went to NYC for eleven days to finally reunite with my brother in law and his family so we were left in charge of the farm. These days my husband works out of the house on a timber yard 7am - 4.30pm daily and I generally work from home so with a quick nod to work that I wouldn’t be in on my usual Wednesday, full responsibility for the farm, house and animals was up to me. Whilst the dog tested me on day one by trying to drown himself and all the booked contractors tried to test me on day five by turning up all at the same time, on the whole it was a successful week and whilst I have many many hours of flexi to make up for the daily two hour feeding lunch break, I loved getting out in the fields and looking after my flock.
So there we have it, ten lovely things that happened in the last four months, and there were plenty more small and big things beside that too.
In another four months it’ll be June and we’ll already somehow be halfway through 2022. If we don’t speak before then, I’ll have hopefully been up to North Wales with work, seen War of the Worlds live, celebrated a million family birthdays and made it on my Scottish honeymoon so you can look forward to hearing about all of that then.
(But hopefully I’ll be back before that)