Season's Greetings 2022

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas & Happy New Year from Australia. I hope this message finds you in good health and having a seasonal break with less challenges than the last few years. Australia and the state of New South Wales where we live has had the challenges of high rainfall and flooding over the last few months. We have not been directly affected yet, but the Peel River through Tamworth has flooded a few times. Thoughts with anyone who has been affected by the flooding. 

2022 has been a fun year, with our highlight as a family being the trip, we took to Kangaroo Island (near Adelaide). I was given an 'Australian Bucket List' book a few years ago and Frankie studies it furiously, and has pick-out a few favourites she wants to visit, including Kangaroo Island! It is the third largest Australian island, and well worth a visit. The afternoon we spent at Seal Bay was very special and unique opportunity to get close to the Sealions in their natural habitat. Another highlight was a visit to Canberra to be part of Sarah & Matt's beautiful wedding day. Frankie was a flower girl and it was very emotional seeing her walking down the aisle with her little basket. 

Frankie will be six in March and starts school in February. She has spent over three years in the Bambini daycare program and they have done a fantastic job with her. It has been wonderful going to the fathers day and christmas party events in 2022 and seeing how much fun she has with all her friends. She has done three orientation days at her new school and is very excited about the challenges ahead. Outside of daycare she has been doing lots of other activities, including art, hockey, swimming, scouts and tennis. New for 2023 she is starting Ukulele lessons and has already started practicing at home. 

Katherine and I have both had a year of studying. Katherine has been doing a Communicating Sustainability course and is very much following in her fathers footsteps in creating a beautiful garden for us all to enjoy. I took on a second job in the middle of the year and now work for a company called ManageHealth as a Personal Trainer, involving undertaking a Certificate III qualification. It is proving a great challenge to start at the bottom of an industry after twenty-five years focusing on tennis coaching. I am still loving my work as a tennis coach and looking forward to working in our new upgraded tennis club. I also qualified as a Scout Leader a few weeks ago after a six month process. I am working with Frankie's 'Joey Mob'. My dad was a leader for 20+ years and was probably the biggest influence on the way he lived his life. I really like the ethos behind scouting and the opportunities it gives children to develop leadership skills. 

Congratulations again to my brother James on completing the London Marathon in October and raising over 6,500 pounds for Macmillan Cancer Support. Fantastic effort and I know dad would be very proud of you. 

Here are the two things that have influenced me the most this year:

1) 'The Imperfects Podcast': I read a book called 'The Resilience Project' by Hugh van Cuylenburg and took a lot from it, which led me to this podcast. I have been working my way through the back catalogue. My biggest take home has been the discussions around vunerability. 

2) 'Burn Wild Podcast': thought provoking podcast where I found the question on 'how far is too far' on acting on climate change is an important question I think we all need to ask. 

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