Say Goodbye to 2015!

Last night, I stood on my chair (having removed my kitten heels) and made a speech to my friends entitled 'A Steep Upward Trajectory'. Given that I was speaking entirely off the cuff, as it were, with no prior plan of what I wanted to say in any more than the vaguest of terms, I chose a pretty difficult title after the number of cocktails and glasses of red wine I had consumed courtesy of Skip and Mrs Broccoli, for New Year's Eve was celebrated at their house this year. However, in the same manner that I think I know all the words to Friday I'm In Love by The Cure when I have consumed sufficient alcohol for the purposes of karaoke, I truly believed that I could stand on my chair and make a heartfelt speech to my chums. This morning, my beloved commented (and not for the first time) 'mercifully short'!

Why would I do this? Well, I have to say I have form in terms of chair-standing speechmaking but so long as I am brief, my friends are generally too polite to throw buns at me. But because January 2015 was a full-on, bottom-of-the-birdcage time in my life, to misquote Yazz, 'the only way was up!' and 2015 has been an upward journey, not without its hiccups, but most positively up. And those assembled last night have been very much instrumental in terms of my getting there.

Last New Year's Eve, which took place at the singing dancing doctors', the theme, I think, was European countries. So there was a tasteful smattering of lederhosen-wearing men and a full complement of Abba - who did a turn, of course. Me - well, it was as much as I could do to don my England rugby shirt (just one of a number of disappointing outings for the shirt as it turned out) and hope I made it through to midnight. I suppose I should have taken my hat off and gone as Telly Savalas whom I believe to have been of Greek origin but I'm afraid sense of humour was running very thin. During dinner, someone asked me what I had come as. "England", I said, thinking that it was obvious, only to be told that because it was a Canterbury rugby shirt, it was therefore New Zealand and not in Europe. I made it through to midnight, barely, and said goodbye to 2014 with a sigh of relief - 2014 being the year of the steep downward trajectory.

So since then, I have obediently taken everything our wonderful National Health Service wanted to throw at me and from early spring started to get better - and hairier! I managed to complete about a third of the Acorn Bike Ride in May, play some team tennis (not much but they did so well without me that we were promoted - yay!) and have a great holiday with friends. I started (occasionally) doing the Park Run and completed a Tough Mudder - big wow in my world!

But the best came almost last when number 2 went up the aisle on her father's arm a few weeks ago and married the lovely JS. Absolutely the happiest day for a very long time and thinking about it even now makes me smile.

 I can't tell you what a fantastic family and friends I have and how blessed I feel. And, importantly, I am learning (slowly) to listen to my body and be kinder to myself than of old.

So I wish you all a very healthy and happy 2016 (the first, the most because without health you have nothing) and that you - and I - continue our steep upward trajectory because life is good!

Post script: Before I managed to post this, life went on something of a downward trajectory with the loss of a granny. Sad times for the family and especially her many grandchildren. RIP GP.