Looking Back At 2017

I feel like whenever bloggers return from a long absence they write a post explaining where they've been. I can't really say anything other than...life happened. Things went a bit wrong. But I'd like to get back into blogging if I can and felt like a post recapping 2017 was a good start!

2017 has, overall, been a pretty shit year. Our beautiful, beautiful dog Mabel died very suddenly in January. My health has declined severely to the point I am now signed off work sick and have been for 2 months now. My mum had a prolonged hospital stay in the summer that left me looking after a young puppy and a house and still maintaining my job (though my mum is doing much better now so it was for the good). And obviously it was a very shit year for the world at large. There were some light spots in the dark though, and that's what I'd prefer to focus on now. 

Our beautiful Mabel just after midnight on New Years Day

Despite my worsening health I managed 7 holidays this year! I went to: Budapest in January, Wroclaw in March, Rome in May, Cologne in July, Prague in September, Edinburgh in October and Lisbon in November. I feel like I am now the queen of reasonably priced holidays as this lot cost me probably just over a grand. I feel like this was a good mix of holidays; I went to 5 countries I hadn't been to before, went back to Cologne which I first visited over a decade ago with school, and went back to my favourite city: Edinburgh. I think Rome and Budapest were probably my favourite out of the bunch! It was amazing to finally go to Italy and it was so warm and lovely and the city is so full of treasures. And Budapest was icy and freezing but in that clear, clean, crisp cold way that is just wonderful. I'm hoping to get some posts up about these trips! I'm so grateful to my various travel buddies for being sympathetic and understanding about my limitations and not making me feel ba when we had to miss things!

Rome - I loved all the architectural layers. Thousands of years worth of structures

In Lisbon

We also got a puppy! We found our house empty and sad without our beloved Mabel, so we welcomed little Agatha into our home in March. She was a bit of a handful at first but now at nearly a year old she's settled into a lovely dog. She's so sweet and affectionate and even though we all still miss Mabel, its really nice to have another dog to love. 

Our sweet Agatha 

I also got a tattoo this year! I went at the end of November with my best friend and that was really special. I've wanted this specific tattoo for a long time so I'm really happy I finally got it! Flecti Non Frangi translates to 'bending not breaking', which I think is pretty apt for a hypermobile person! 

Even though my health has gone in the wrong direction this year, I did take some steps forward. I eventually got a new medication added into my regimen which I think is working. I started taking Magnesium which I think was helping, but then I stopped...uhh. I restarted recently. I managed to see a physio who gave me a full stretching routine to help with my pain and muscle tightness and I started hydrotherapy. I'm hoping this will lead into more exercise in the new year. Lately I've been trying to go on more walks with Agatha to get more exercise as well. 

A small 2017 thing I'm proud of is making my skincare regime cruelty free. It's something I really wanted to do but I had existing none-CF products I wanted to use up first. Everything I use is now CF, though I do need to work on my haircare routine as some elements aren't CF yet. I also really want to work on reducing my environmental impact as much as possible in 2018, as I made small inroads this year.

And I think that's about it! I already have some plans in place for 2018 and I'm hoping it will be a better year. 

Christmas - a lovely one to end 2017 with