It's been an interesting year! Filled with challenges, celebrations, covid lockdowns and everything in between...

Well, I will admit this upfront right now....I am actually writing this post all about 2020 in January of 2022!!

I think many of you can agree, that the past couple of years seemed to have merged all into one big lump of a shit show as far as the world is concerned. We've all been in lockdown for so many days, weeks and months, that its no long a "new normal"its just normal!

Apart from dealing with my back operation in March 2020, this was also the year that saw us selling our home - something I thought was a dream I had finally achieved only to have it all disappear again.

During 2020 I was also in the middle of my Spiritual Journey and I know for a fact that I would not have made it through the year without the support and friendship of some amazing women, whom I've actually not even met in real life yet!!

So with all this going on, I didn't blog for the entire time. It fell by the wayside as many things did. So now to revitalise my blog, I am doing this Year in Review kind of post.

I love Facebook and the fact that it holds all our memories, but to have things all in one place means a lot to me as well. So pardon the self-indulgence, but here is a look back on 2020 through photos and words.

- Every year I decided on a word for the Year. This year it was going to be TRUST, together with the phrase - Inspired Action.

- Lucas starts rugby training - he was excited, I was worried! He is a small build but I was made to understand that he would be okay. I would soon be proved right!

- I launched my virtual services company. After many name changes, I have currently settled on Blue Lotus Creatives (Jan 2022)

- I tried acupuncture for the first time with a view to ease my sciatica and back pain. Given that I'm terrified of needles this was a huge achievement for me, probably done out of many desperation!

- I started teaching English Conversation to foreign ladies living in Johor

- Ryan sent me a beautiful bouquet of flowers for Valentines Day

- Went to get an MRI done on my back, as I said in my "back post" this was the beginning of realising that I would need an operation.

- The month that things really began to change!

- I was only able to stand up to eat and work! I'd even started putting my laptop on a box to improvise a standing desk!

- Eventually, enough was enough - I took my first ambulance ride to the hospital and had my back operation on March 25th!

- As if things couldn't get any worse - they did!! Our beloved Molly had an accident at home and ended up crossing the rainbow bridge.

- This happened the night before my birthday, so we woke up to the news on my birthday.

- It was an incredibly sad day for us all and we grieved for a very long time.

- Prior to this, we'd sent Coco up to Kuala Lumper with Ryan as she needed to have a back operation as well!

- She ends up being on almost the same medication as me and stays with Ryan for 2 months until she came back home again.

- Raja and I celebrated our 21st Wedding Anniversary.

- The year was looking up, UNTIL, it was his turn, and he ended up in hospital to have a 2cm gall stone removed!!

- Covid restrictions lifted long enough for Ryan to bring Coco back to Johor.

- A month of celebrations!!

- The house was SOLD!! Very grateful as we had put it on the market in November 2019 and with COVID we weren't sure if we were going to sell it and make a profit - we did - well a little one!

- Raja turns 60 and my Dad celebrated his 80th!

- We celebrated Raja's birthday with a delicious dinner at Gianni's Italian Restaurant.

- Unfortunately, COVID meant we couldn't fly to the UK to celebrate Dad's birthday.

- Schools are still closed, so Lucas is doing online schooling for his Exam years!

- I started creating my wine charms for Christmas gifts and launched a small business selling them.

- The went on to be a great success over the Christmas holidays!

- Lucas played his first Rugby game and ended up dislocating his shoulder within the first 3 minutes. I intuitively knew it would happen but there was nothing I could do to stop him playing!

- He ended up having to stop sports for nearly 6 months!

- I had decided that as our house was going to be sold, it was time to move before it had happened.

- We found a new home in Taman Molek and at the beginning of December, we moved in.

- We didn't put the Christmas decorations away, instead we put them up straight away.

- We ended up hosting our first Christmas Gathering with the Molek Gang. All parents of friends that Lucas had from school.

- New Year saw another great party and the hopes that 2021 were going to be different and that COVID would finally go away - little did we know then!!