When my parents arrived a few days ago, they said I look better than last year – less exhausted and yet thinner (?). This year has been challenging yet there were some major payoffs, too.
The main event was that towards the end of the year we bought a house to live in. It took us a year to find it and in the end the timing was almost perfect, with twins finishing daycare (school next year) and R having a chance to finish the year in her current school. We lived on the Northern Beaches for over 5 years and I will always have a soft spot for the area and for the friends we made along the way but the area we moved to seems very quiet and friendly; I went for a walk with my Mum on the day of my parents’ arrival and we ran into a street party that we were invited to join, with food, drinks and lots of conversations with random lovely ladies who have lived around for a while. The move has been the hardest on R, she made lots of friends in her old school and her best friend struggled with her moving on from the area. She was quite settled with a lovely teacher this year, another dance concert and choir and her favourite swimming lessons and she’s been a bit quiet since going on holidays. The new school seems lovely though, I really like the principal so I hope she will feel supported there.
It is major relief for us not to be renting anymore; back in July a pipe burst under the driveway in our rental and the plumber cut out two substantial holes in the wall searching for leaks; they were still not repaired when we were leaving which was consistent with what the landlord did throughout the whole tenancy. He still tried to claim our entire bond to repaint the entire property, redo the garden and do a whole bunch of other repairs and it took me a few weeks of restrained communication with the agent to fight it back. It never used to bother me to rent yet I really hope we never have to do it in the future as the experience of renting in the past few years was, frankly, dehumanising.
Work felt very difficult throughout the year. I won’t go into detail but it felt like pushing a boulder up the hill (only for it to slide back, hey Sysiphus) – but then there were some wins there, too, and some lovely people. I was interviewed by our corporate blog team mid-year and they posted a blog article about my desk setup in December (good reason to tidy up my desk). As per usual, girls took turns to be sick, especially in winter and at times life felt so overwhelming that it almost seemed unmanageable.
Yet most days I managed to at least go for my morning walks. I saw my friend swamp wallaby many times this year, including a mother with a baby in the pouch once, a red belly snake, many birds and some rabbits. I will miss Warriewood wetlands but I have already discovered beautiful walks around our new area, with gorgeous lookouts. And bunnies are everywhere around here. I will definitely miss the ocean.
I went to Vegas for a sales kick off in May and then joined my family in Vanuatu where the kids spent most days in the pool. We also had a few weekend getaways throughout the year, including one In Oberon where the kids saw snow for the first time.
World events continued to be mostly terrible this year, with two shooters at Bondi striking particularly close to home.
In almost every single one of these end of year reflections I mentioned that I wanted to read and write more; this year I actually did that. I read more than 50 books this year, writing a short review on each. It also helped that I was invited to a book club with a great bunch of people who have opinions about books and are keen to talk about them. I also stepped away from this blog a little as I found that I get too attached to statistics, too keen to see responses and reactions. I did, however, wrote two short stories for the first time in many, many years.
It felt for a while that life has been quite difficult and overwhelming and I was drowning as I was trying to manage it all. This year I can finally see it paying off, with the new house and my loud, happy children, and a room of my own with bookshelves, a piano and an orchid from a lovely friend.
Sails and Commas 