Happy New Year! I don’t do New Year Resolutions. This year I will climb mountains, finish what I started and be surrounded by brilliant people. Christmas in our house was good fun, Christmas Eve was the traditional Turkey gamble and I am pleased to say I got a much reduced one late in the afternoon, our guests picked up the veg from Fletchers and together we peeled everything so that Christmas Day wasn’t as fraught as it would be with 8 people busying in the kitchen.
2019 was a big year, it was very much my year of discovery. I turned 50, my girls turned 21 and 18, the youngest got taller, my husband got a pacemaker, I got to Terry Walton’s Allotment, I attended the Red Carpet Premiere of Keeping Faith Series 2, Keynote Speaker at the Brecon Beacons Tourism Annual Conference, Welsh Tourism Summit, I got to hang out with some really tall and cool people, finalist in the Mid Wales Tourism Awards, I was well apart from a chest infection, I started the year running and ended it running, the puppy arrived, the old dog saw another birthday, no one significant died, positive mental attitude, wellness, met some amazing people, said goodbye to sugar coated toxic people, lots of radio, wore a bikini, spent time with brilliant friends and the list goes on.
Last Year was also Visit Wales’ Year of Discovery and I had great fun getting out and about discovering Wales as well as meeting people closer to home with links to Wales, there are many! This year it’s Visit Wales’ Year of Outdoors which I am really looking forward to getting involved in. I love the great outdoors and all that it has to offer, it asks nothing of you just that you look after it and leave it as you found it. As much as I love catching up with a good book I also enjoy being outside and now it has been over 400 days since I went sugar free I am now really reaping the benefits of this healthy lifestyle change.
After Christmas I spent a very pleasurable couple of hours with Jillian Lawrence who some of you may remember from the newsagents at the Station back in the day. It was a real treat to chat to her and reminisce over the town and borough, and to gain an insight into life with clothing coupons and evacuees. When she was 6 Jillian’s family took in an evacuee from Clapham who in later life moved to Bracknell New Town as it was then and she was in touch with him until his death his 90s.
Here’s to a happy 2020.