The answer, in its shortest form, is resting.
I’ve had patches of being unwell these past 6 months but the onset of swine flu, promptly followed by pneumonia (the trick I learned was not to expose yourself to cold air for an hour while trying to get rid of swine flu induced temperature) knocked me for six. Luckily for you, I don’t intend to dwell on that.
It’s Christmas and I’m really looking forward to the break and time for rest and reflection that this time of year brings. There are wonderful people to spend time with and an over-dressed Christmas tree to keep me excited. More importantly, I’ve had several awesome chances to share “the reason for the season” in the least cheesy way possible and that has been brilliant.
In a month I’m off to New York to see my little sister in her adopted habitat, to celebrate her 21st and to have loads of fun in a city I’ve never been to before. I’ve taken out proper (read: extra) travel insurance in case of need of hospital while there – I’m learning how best to deal with these bursting cysts while I wait for the initial appointment with the specialist. It’s going to be so great to see her (the sister not the specialist) again!
This wasn’t how I thought this year would end but as we’re all constantly learning I guess, things rarely work out as planned. I had thought I’d be on an adventure in a foreign country with VSO at this point but instead I’m going to be abseiling down a 12 floor building in central London with VSO in March to fundraise for them. I like VSO – they’re a good group of people doing marvellous work! Anyway more about that later…
It’s funny, if you’d told me how this year would end at the beginning I think I’d have tried to do everything I could to avoid the inevitable health issues and yet as it is I’m happy and joyful and glad to be here at Christmas surrounded by people I really care about. I’m lucky to be in a country that provides free healthcare (even when it frustrates me) and truly lucky to live around the corner from one of the best hospitals in the country where I have been treated superbly this year. (Merry Christmas UCH!) I had a wonderful weekend away in York last weekend and it was a wonderful chance to wind down and slide over icy pavements (those two don’t necessarily go together).
In short I’m glad to be alive, glad to be here, and really glad that 2010 brings it’s share of delights too.
I’ll be putting up a few Christmas and New Year posts but until 2010 starts, there’ll be a wee bit of rambling along to the 2009 finish line.
Merry Christmas all! I promise to be better at keeping up next year.
Adventuring with Fi 