2016: What a year!

2016 for me has been a year of highs and lows, incredibly exciting times and some of the lowest I’ve had.

Lets get into it!

I started the year recovering from my back surgery I had in December, immediately after surgery is the easy part, you get to slob around and have people look after you, but when you finish the pain meds and become more mobile thats when the hard work begins! I started physio very early in January and joined an exercise class at the hospital shortly after that. There were ups and downs which you can read about in my posts about my surgery but little did I know at the time that exercise really is the key to a good recovery.

February is my birthday month! Turning 27 makes you feel a lot older than being 26! Maybe because its now all downhill to 30! This was also my first birthday without my Grandad, throughout the year I felt up and down with dealing with the first loss in the family as an adult. It was my first real time experiencing true grief.

I got a cover up done on a tattoo I have on my side, it was originally 3 roses and some swirls, but I’d never been happy with the swirls so I had them covered up with some more flowers. 

March is the month I went to the Harry Potter Studios!!! I was so excited!! It was also my first full day out since the surgery so a personal triumph too! I purposely didn't look at anything to do with the studios before I went so I didn’t know what to expect and I was not disappointed. It was amazing! And when I walked around the corner to see the huge model of Hogwarts I nearly cried! I had no idea that was there and it was so magnificent it took my breath away!

Also around this time of year I lost my job, and spent a short time on job seekers allowance! But thats a story for another time!

In April I got my new job and in May i was lucky enough to be able to take Mum and Dad to see the Queen’s 90th Birthday Celebration in Windsor. We were sat across from The Royal Family, with only 6000 other people, and it was magnificent! Only 6000 people in the world can say they shared that experience with the Queen and I am one of them! I’ll never forget that day!

In June I went on holiday to Weston-Super-Mare with my Mum and both my Nana’s, had an amazing time and love making memories with family, as time is precious and my family mean so much to me. More family travels in August, my Aunt lives in Ireland and we haven't visited since she moved there so we went to visit for her birthday, Ireland is stunning and everyone is so nice! Its definitely a different pace of life than here in England. 

Not much happened now until November when I started my blog! It feels like I've been blogging for so much longer than I have, I’m really enjoying it, more than I expected, and love exploring other bloggers and reading their posts. I cant wait to learn more, get better and reach more people in 2017, my most popular post to date is my spine surgery story, and I only hope by sharing my experience I've helped someone going through something similar. 

December brought with it heartache and loss. After an 8 day stay in hospital, spending our last christmas together,  my Nana passed away peacefully on Thursday after Christmas. Both my Grandparents on that side of the family have now passed and its almost like losing my Grandad all over again too. I really do not know how to deal with the grief of losing her, and he feelings that have come back about my Grandad's passing, but I'm trying to stay positive and remember the good times, and there are so many. The start of 2017 will be shit, what with the funeral and things but I take a smile away knowing they are together now, watching over me and telling me off when I don’t wear a coat!

In 2017 I hope to get fit! I need to start regularly exercising to keep my spine strong, and improve my general fitness. I will keep blogging, even if it doesn’t reach more than one person I am really enjoying it so intend to keep going! I also wanna try and improve my photography, I am capable of taking some good pictures when I work at it but I let it slip and bum myself out about it so I need to learn to keep motivated and my hard work will pay off. This includes looking for a new job! 

Happy new year everyone!

Vikky

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