2014: good but at the same time sad

I set the precedent last year (click here) of listing my five highlights of the year so I suppose I’d better continue. But it’s difficult to call them all highlights because it’s been a year of some sadness. I’ll start with that and then there’s four rather more upbeat recollections.

It was a sad year because we lost three good friends.

• First was Abi, our dog since the end of 2001. Abi was a German Shepherd/Akita cross and made us proud. She was great company and gave us the motivation to take lots of exercise. We miss her greatly.
• Then John Rickards, a school friend since 1958, died of cancer. It took hold of him early in the year and despite some promising results from chemotherapy it did its worst and John died in August. He was too young to die. His funeral was well-attended, I gave the eulogy, and I think he’d have been surprised by the number who were there.
• The third friend to go was my Uncle Colin. He’d been a bit of a father figure for me when I was young and being brought up in a single person family. He’d had a good life and leaves a bunch of children and grand-children who are a credit to him.

There have been major family changes during the year. First Alex, Clare and Amelia moved into a new home in Wetherby on the same weekend as Amelia’s first birthday. It’s a nice. detached family house and Wetherby seems to be a good place to live. And then Charles left the UK to take up a position with Western Australia Police. That’s left a big hole although it’s filled to some extent by the ability to use Skype to communicate. We’ll be visiting Charles in March of this year.

I have continued to fill my time during the year. County and parish council work can easily expand to fill the time available but I’ve also been fortunate to continue to work with existing clients and to acquire three new ones, two through the Growth Accelerator program. I tell people that I no longer look for business because I’m old enough for the nice Mr Osborne to send me a cheque every 4 weeks. However I do enjoy the variety that this work brings to my life and it serves to finance my lifestyle.

2014 was not a big year for travel. There were no long haul trips although we did enjoy a splendid week in Turkey (click here) in November. Earlier in the year Juni and I had weekends in Harrogate and Llandudno, I enjoyed a couple of nights in Plymouth (click here), and then Charles and I spent two days in Oxford and Woodstock (click here).

And finally I seem to have ended the year in relatively good condition health-wise. I suffered a couple of viral infections but then all you can do is be patient and let them pass, I seemed to get an attack of labyrinthitis but that went pretty quickly although it was unnerving at the time, and again suffered repeated calf muscle problems. However I finally found a physiotherapist (Alex Howarth at The Sports Injury Clinic, click here) who did more that just treat the problem and he put me on a program to strengthen the muscles and, touch wood, I’ve been trouble free since September. The result of this is that although I did not do enough preparation I ran the Bonfire Burn 10k at the beginning of November successfully! However I was a little slower that I wanted, blame the inadequate preparation, so maybe I’ll do it again this year.

So: despite the sadness not a bad year and two notional bucket list items ticked off viz a hot air balloon ride (in Cappadocia in November) and a successful 10k run. I’ll maybe draw up an actual list and get to work on it.