Farewell 2006, Hellooooo 07!

Written 3 January 2007

2006 was good and bad for us, mostly good I think. Personally, it was a year of a lot of grieving for me, but I think I have made progress, and I feel good about the future for the 3 of us.

We moved yet again, weird circumstances, super stressful, but turned out to be absolutely perfect. Perfect house, perfect town, closer to the folks, and perfect school for our son. Fell into place amazing well, very much meant to be and we are incredibly happy here.

I spent a year studying italian and loved every second of it, though to become fluent would take a hell of a lot longer. I have a much better understanding than before, particularly reading comprehension, I loved studying the language!

J and I loooved watching the soccer world cup and seeing the aussies do so well, it was so exciting, many a late night and early morning screaming and jumping up and down was had! I still say we were robbed... ;)

The commonwealth games were held here in Melbourne.. turned out to be fairly low key, though I am still wondering what the hell the point of the duck was in the opening ceremony.

Our beloved Sydney Swans made the grand final second year running but we lost this one by ONE point. Heartbreaking but also exciting to watch.

We also watched with interest and baited breath when the 2 miners were trapped in the Tassie mine for 2 weeks, 1km underground. Terrifying, but they made it, remember watching that at 6am or so when they made it out, was such a relief for me as a stranger watching, imagine he families and their own. Amazing!

We went on holidays to Philip Island, was all about the F-man though, he was spoilt rotten and had a ball. As it was again in December when we had xmas parties, wiggles concerts and presents galore, and then a weekend back in Warrnambool, first time since leaving which was pretty cool.

Theres been hellish bushfires in our state this past month or so, when the wind is a certain direction, we have had scarily thick smoke right across the state, hundreds and thousands of kms from the fires. Visibility here is normally 20-30km or so, but was down to 2km. It was eery. In the towns closeby to the fires, it was like midnight in the middle of the afternoon it was so dark. Creepy... Then a week later they had snow there which helped.. but.. freak weather. Mother natures sooo pissed.

Lots of tragic losses in Australia this year, all in the last few months as well, Steve Irwin - that was heartbreaking. He was such a big character, and did so much for wildlife and conservation, kids LOVED him. It was sad, with 2 young kids, a devoted wife... just awful. Sure, sometimes I cringed at his larrikin behaviour, and wondered if he was for real but what a guy, what a loss.

Also, Peter Brock, a racing legend, just a few weeks later, and Colin Thiele, author of Storm Boy. Then Belinda Emmett, who fought cancer for so long, leaving behind her husband, Rove. Their love was so beautiful and obvious, and so precious and untouchable... so tragic. All losses that made me hold my husband and son a little longer, and tell them a little more often that I love them, life is truly too short.

So, what of 2007? I am determined to hunt my creativity gene down, starting with attempts at writing through my masters. My darling boy starts preschool 3 mornings a week, I am trying desperately not to think about it at the moment. I am going to miss him like crazy, I thought i had another year at home with him before this, but montessori starts this early. Hes sooo ready, he loved his 2hour a week sessions he did at the end of 2006. So that will be an adjustment - for me!
What else? I don't know, but I feel good about it, I feel like things are turning our way, and that good things are ahead. I hope so!

Happy New Year!