Habitually I will set goals at the beginning of the new year only to leave it til the years end to revisit and review those goals – this isn’t exactly the recipe for success and this year I wanted it to be different. Now that we are over half way through 2022, I want to celebrate those goals we have achieved and make some plans for the rest of them. If you would like to, read 22 For 2022 here.

OVERSEAS HOLIDAY/NISBETT-PLUCK HOLIDAY: Last year we enjoyed a wonderful holiday to Scotland with our Australian friends the Nisbetts and the experience left us with such wonderful memories. It was a no-brainer to bring our families together again this year for our annual holiday which took us all to the Cinque Terre in Italy, and the memories we made were so great we are about to go on another holiday together to the seaside here in the south of England. This has allowed us to tick off two of our goals.

22 MEMORIES IN 2022: It is an important goal this year to create some great memories as a married couple and I will be honest in saying I haven’t done all that well. I am probably being a little hard on myself really because sometimes its the little things that count the most that we might very well take for granted. Italy allowed us to make some memories, particularly our dinner out with great food, good wine, and great company. At home we decided to create a little fun and bought ping pong paddles and balls to use on our extendable table, and I will just say I need a little practice actually hitting the ball – sports isnt my forte. We have some memories to go yet and do have a few things in the pipeline.

CREATE MEANINGFUL CONNECTIONS: Connections were high on our goals for this year and I have kept to my word about not being on anything but Twitter (for work) and instagram, and it has felt quite liberating. It has given me an opportunity to set boundaries for the types of relationships I want to have and has made me more concious about how I invest my time and energy. Historically I would be the person in the relationship to make all the effort for calls, letters and catch ups and I now respect myself enough to step back from that and honour my own worth.

So far this year we have been really lucky to have had my best friend Kerrys son Rene visit from Australia, and hanging out in London with him felt like we had a little bit of home. For the first time in a long period we had a good catch up with Mackenzies eldest sister and her partner which turned out to be a very positive experience and we look forward to seeing how that progresses. We have spent time with my family and friends here over the holidays, and enjoyed seeing my nephew win his first MMA fight, not to mention the few social catch ups with some of my current and previous colleagues.

TAKE MORE WALKS: Whilst I did anticipate doing more walks this year, it hasn’t happened for a variety of reasons. The walks we did do were incredible though and certainly made for some great views, and included some sunset walks, strolls through the bluebell woods, exploring some of Snowdonia, and of course the few walks we did in Italy. I have yet to wear in my hiking boots and it certainly would be easier if I could find some socks that don’t fall down into them (recommendations welcome), and we do have some walks planned.

BOAT TRIP, JOURNALLING, READING: We are yet to go on the Dover boat trip to see seals, but in the meantime we did do a boat trip along the Cinque Terre in Italy during our holiday, and it was incredible to see the deep clear blue water with the back drop of beautiful villages. As for the journalling, well I did say I would likely not be great at this but I have bought a stack of same-sized note books to start and thought I would use Gretchin Rubins idea of an “anytime” book. I am really happy to say that I have managed to get halfway through Braving the Wilderness by Brene Brown and my next book will likely be the dialysis machine manual as I prepare for getting my competencies signed off – this will allow be to support in practice more.

There are quite a few goals yet to achieve this year and I am determined to tick them all off as at least attempted if not complete, but with some successfully achieved I feel a little chuffed already. There is so much to catch up on and share here from over the last six months and now with two weeks of summer holidays stretched out before me I hope to enjoy some blogging time for myself. Would love to hear how everyone elses goals are going so far.

Cheers From Kent, Tams