Wednesday, 25 January 2017

THE YEAR OF TALES OF THE UNEXPECTED


It’s been a funny old year hasn’t it?

That’s what this columnist thinks to herself as she looks back over 12 months and the events that have come to pass as the calendar has month by month shed its papery leaves.

Who’d have thought at the start of this year we would have lost so many of the people we thought were completely invincible, the ones who we grew up with, admired and loved, who gave us our first laughs, sung their way into and sometimes helped heal our broken hearts and inspired us to embark or change direction on the routes that life took us.

And who could have guessed as 2015 made way for 2016 that we would now have our first female prime minister since Margaret Thatcher, taking over the role from David Cameron who felt he should move onto pastures new in the wake of the vote on Brexit.

Would anyone have seen coming , Boris the bumbling former mayor of London , he of stuck on zip wire , rugby tackling children and falling over in rivers fame in such an important role as Foreign Secretary or the man who personifies the phrase bad hair day everyday being sworn in as the next US president .

And what of my life , has much changed since I sat glass of wine in hand on New Year’s Eve awaiting the clock to strike midnight and composing in my head and probably on social media all the things I was hoping to achieve .

Well let’s see, I finally worked up the courage to put in for my driving test during the summer holidays which I took in October and as you can tell from the lack of coverage in my column I failed but its rebooked for a day over the Christmas holidays so fingers crossed I might be legally allowed out on the roads by myself come the New Year.

I’ve shed in total about another stone and a half in weight , my health is greatly improved and having started going regularly to an exercise class , something unheard in my old self , I feel like I’m going from strength to strength in getting myself fit.

I’ve lost some dear old friends and have also gained a beautiful new niece but by far my most favourite event of the year has been seeing my amazing step daughter starting her first year at university.

For two years ago, she was stuck in hospital undergoing chemotherapy for leukaemia but instead of letting it beat her she stuck two fingers up at it and said “ you didn’t take away those six months of my life , you gifted me with the life I needed to live “

She says you never know what’s round the corner so it’s best to live life to fullest now instead of leaving it for another day because by then it might be too late.

So I’m going to live by that same motto from now on because she’s right , the unexpected does happen , we do need to grab life with both hands  because we don’t know when it’ll be gone and we don’t want to get to the end of it and regret not embracing it.

I’m going to take all those things that were on my list of things I wanted to do this year but let slip by the wayside because I was too busy, wasn’t brave enough or whatever and do something about them and I suggest that you do the same because you never know where it might lead or what difference it could make to you.

I suggest we reconvene back here in December 2017and compare notes.

 However there remains only one thing left to say from this girl from the neck down to you in 2016

And that is,

Merry Christmas and a happy new year.

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