Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you one and all. I’ve had such a blissful restful Christmas break with Mr GFB, my friends and family, it’s been just gorgeous.

The last 12 months has been a bit of a roller coaster. I’ve met some truly inspirational people, taken part in some incredible projects, from Craftivism to the What I See Project. It’s been incredible. I’ve also had some lows on a personal level. A friendship that ended badly and I’ve lost a friend to cancer.

Along with everyone else, I’m doing a bit of a look back at last year and the goals I set myself – those I reached and those I didn’t.

I failed at completing the Greater Manchester Marathon. This was probably one of the biggest low points of my year. A heavy cold, followed by a chest and sinus infection left my hopes scuppered and me in tears.

Thankfully, my sponsorship was still ok and so I did raise some money for Forever Manchester. And I raised money for them with Caketober. To add to my 2014 goals, I balloted for the London Marathon  and got in, so that’s one of this year’s targets. I’m also taking part in a blogger challenge for Sport Relief, but more on that next week.

 

Abseiling – One of my positives. Thanks to Gordon, I went abseiling and went much higher than I planned. Or thought I could. I think it might deserve a revisit later in the year.

 

Ladies Shooting came to my aid for the clay pigeon shooting challenge and myself and friend Bec had a huge amount of fun and were much more successful that we thought we would be!

Another failed task was Roller Derby, so this is going back on the to do list – though I did manage to ice skate with the gorgeous Matt Evers, so maybe we could consider that halfway there?

I’m also going to add dancing to that list. I wanted to, and didn’t, sign up for a lot of dance classes last year. This year I’m going to do it. My mum was a ballroom dancer when she was young and my dad studied ballet, jazz and tap. The genes are there somewhere, I just need to find them…

And at home, my poor kitchen needs kicking into shape, so that’s going to eat into our spare cash. So this year is also going to be rather thrifty!

I don’t do new year resolutions, I don’t believe in them. I grew tired of torturing myself by swearing I’ll be healthy, throw myself into something so hard I lose faith and reach for the Hob Nobs (the ultimate biscuit) and undo all my hard work. So, in this spirit, I’ve signed up for 30 Days of Good Stuff with Katie and take a giant step away from the diet industry.

That’s it in a nutshell. Lots of goals, all worth it.

So, 2014…… I’m coming to get you….