So here it is, the last day of 2019…the last day of a decade… and the start of a brand new year! I couldn’t let the year end slip by without taking some time to reflect on all Patrick and I have done and also think about what we might do next.

I’m often accused of taking too many photos, and while my phone may be too close to hand and in peoples faces (more often than not my own), ever ready to take the next happy snap, I do love being able to look back on the year gone by through the photos I have taken to remind me of all of the wonderful places we’ve been, the fabulous people we’ve spent time with and the fantastic adventures we’ve had.

I know 2019 hasn’t been a great year for lots of people and it’s certainly had its ‘moments’ for us too, but overall it been good to me and P.

I was trying to think of a word that best describes our year gone by and while ‘change’ sprung to mind immediately (change really is the only constant in our world), I didn’t feel that it was quite right this time round. So, after a little help from Google, I decided that ‘established’ is much better.

After two years, two months and eight days of living back in the UK, I feel like we’ve established our place in our little corner of the world. We moved house to a fab third floor apartment with amazing views and we love it, I got myself a car with a bit of oomph that makes me smile when I drive it. Ambitions has built a solid reputation with lots of happy members, Patrick is loving football life and we finally feel like we have found our tribe…and we love them! That’s not to say we don’t miss everyone on the other side of the world terribly, and birthdays, Christmas and special celebrations are always hard to sit back and watch from so far away – but we are always there in spirit. We’re lucky to have been back to Australia twice this year, Daddy has also been over three times and we have our dates planned for our next trip in May. We have amazing people in our lives all over the world and while we may not see all of them everyday, we know they are there and know they always will be.

We enjoyed the sunny skies of Greece once again, a wonderful girls trip took me to Cheltenham, we did Blackpool illuminations with Sarah and the family and seeing Pink took me to Wembley for one of the best nights of the year. It was during that concert that I decided that I was going to start saying yes to doing more things and going more places and I’ve started booking things in already.

I appear to have found a love for socialising that I never knew I had and I reckon I’ve consumed more alcohol in 2019 than I have done in the 25 years that preceded it! In saying that I’m also the fittest and the healthiest, both mentally and physically that I’ve ever been – go figure??!!! I have an active job, my family around me, great friends, Patrick and a positive attitude (most of the time) to attribute my state of wellbeing to I think.

We’ve really loved spending time with family, from both sides of the world this year and those wonderful times have been very special for both of us. Patrick still lives for football and he has been lucky to have a number of opportunities in 2019 which will no doubt put him in good stead for the future.

I feel fortunate that the work we do with gymnastics and teaching children was recognised here in the UK this year and I am confident that this is only going to keep getting bigger and better for the Ambitions team. Flyaway has had an interesting year and as we look back on it, it would be easy to get lost in the tumultuous times, but I have an amazing team who I have the utmost faith in, and it’s a gym that has more passion, love, loyalty and joy in it than any other I have ever been in, and I am so very proud of it and because of that, I know that 2020 is going to be our best year yet!

2019 has also been about letting go (people, places and things), accepting change for what it is and opening our minds to new directions. But when one door closes, another really does open and I found this to be true on so many occasions in the last year. Not having a path mapped out step by step has been a little challenging for my crazy brain at times but…we’re having fun and while we’re having fun, we’ll keep doing what we’re doing, and if we’re not having fun anymore…we’ll work out what we do next!

Looking forward to 2020, I want to take more chances, do lots of fun things, go places we’ve never been, spend more wonderful times with family and friends and keep enjoying life to the full…and maybe not work quite so hard!!! In saying that, I have business plans and ideas that I want to turn into reality and I want to keep making a difference in peoples lives.

So here’s to a year gone by without too much heartache or pain (for us) and here’s to the year ahead, where anything is possible and magic will happen. 💫

Happy New Year everyone 🥂💕