Hello 2023...

Hi. I hope you are well and having a good day. 

Hello 2023. I normally like to make a blog post which introduces the new year properly... And this blog post does just that... The first proper chapter of a new year!

For this blog post, I wanted to write about how I was feeling at the end of 2022, times between Christmas and New Years and our weekend away in Stevenage. The time between Christmas and New Years was a relaxing one for a change. Normally I work inbetween Christmas and New Years however after last year with working 13 hour days, I decided to book the time off this year. Which was a great decision all things considered!

Lets go back to the end of 2022, where my mind was all over the place. Work hadn't exactly been the best for me last year and as mentioned in my yearly overview, I was looking for a new job nearer the end of last year. I had a couple of interviews for different positions at the same company and actually got a decent job offer, which was fantastic news. Only downside was that it was an hour away from my hometown. I was expected to go in once a week (same as my current job) and there would be more client meetings and studying for insurance qualifications. I was going to go for it, but after letting the company I work with know I was going to be leaving... They fought for me with an offer I couldn't refuse, which included a considerable pay increase and the opportunity to carve out my own job role with what I wanted to work on. 

Therefore after a week of consideration, I decided to stay with the company I currently work for. I know the people, I know the way the company works, less travel time and expenses due to working from home four days a week and I wasn't really sure if I wanted to do more client meetings and studying in insurance. All I wanted was to be happy in my job role, which is a feeling I haven't had for well over a year now. I am hoping this year will be better with work in consideration I am able to decide what I want to work on.. My fingers are crossed that things will be looking better with work at the end of this year! Right now I am looking into the possibility of becoming a trainee Client Executive across a wider variety of accounts. Which is the job role above me, it will be a challenge and a lot of work however if I decide I don't like the role, I can keep my current position as a Client Manager except with different accounts. However the handover of my current accounts and the reorganisation of the team will take time, so I don't think this will happen for a few months!

During this time where my brain was going in circles about work, I was also starting plans for our wedding. We have already decided a few things for our day, and we had a date in mind. We even reserved that date and were going to go ahead with paying deposits in the new year. However something didn't feel right when going through all the arrangements and decisions. The whole process was making me nervous more than excited, which was the most telling sign for me. I always go with my gut for any decision I make, and my gut was telling me that this didn't feel right for me at this moment in time right now. I could feel that I wasn't ready start planning a wedding and get married just yet, and I didn't want to go through organising a wedding with that feeling still lingering. For that reason, I decided to put a pause on wedding planning. My standpoint is that if you are going to be with someone for the rest of your life, there is plenty of time to get married.

Even with being in a long term relationship for seven years, a wedding hasn't been on my mind. I haven't even seriously considered a wedding until the point where we got engaged. What I am trying to say is that I want to feel comfortable, happy and ready to get married. As a wedding is something I haven't considered before, I need more time to get myself to that stage where I feel ready. Although I keep telling myself that it is perfectly ok to feel this way, I am finding it tough coming to terms with it as I would love to feel ready to get married! But I know that I don't feel ready at this moment in time and there is no point in forcing or rushing into something which I am not realistically ready for! I know this is the right decision for now and Jordan has been so supportive throughout everything. I am just very lucky to have him in my life!

It has been a bit of a crazy time and my brain has felt very overloaded with everything over the last few months of 2022. Therefore I booked a couple of days off work to give myself an extended Christmas break inbetween Christmas and New Years. My main aim for this break was to just relax and do what I wanted to do. I still wasn't feeling 100% after my bug which I caught the week before Christmas but I started feeling completely better in the unknown time between Christmas and New Years. 

I wasn't feeling 100% Christmas day but we still spent the day with our families (they were aware I wasn't 100% but still wanted to see us) and it was such a lovely day. We had Christmas lunch with my family, popped in to spend some time with Jordan's family in the afternoon and my family came round ours in the evening time where we played a bit of Mario Party. We both got truly spoilt this year. Jordan's main present from me was a tour around the Emirates stadium, where we will be visiting in the summer of this year. My main present was a vinyl record player from my parents, which is what I really wanted. Ever since working from home, I have listened and appreciated music more and I want to collect my all-time favourite albums on vinyl. That being said, one of my main presents from Jordan was the Billie Eilish Happier Than Ever vinyl, which was really thoughtful!

Boxing Day is always a lazy day, so I decided to watch Home Alone and Home Alone 2 for the first time ever... which I really enjoyed. Proper good family feel-good Christmas films! I was going to watch Home Alone 3 until I realised that they had replaced Kevin McAllister.. Maybe I will try again with it next Christmas! On the 27th, we went to the city to shop in the sales. I treated myself to a couple of vinyl records and a couple of clothing pieces from Boux Avenue and River Island. I completed the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles game on the Nintendo Switch, which took me hours but it was so worth it! I got the game way back in August 2021 and after a lot of on / off playing, I am glad to say I have completed it. The Ace Attorney games are some of my favourite games to play and I am looking forward to if / when the next game will be released!

New Years was definitely a highlight, we went to a friends for a game night and the whole ceiling was covered in balloons for New Years, fairy lights were twinkling and we had a gaming extravaganza of a game called Red Dragon Inn, which I was surprisingly good at! Jordan won the first game, I won the second and quite honestly, I was passed out on the sofa and missed who won the third! I had a lot to drink during the course of the evening and mixed between raspberry rum shots and lemonade and Kopparberg gin. We saw in the new year chanting in the new year, hugging, kissing, watching the fireworks on the BBC, crying over the firework tribute to The Queen and promptly throwing up in the toilet (those last two were only me.. but I wasn't the only one who was sick!) It was a chaotic start to 2023 but I soon passed out asleep on the sofa and woke up feeling absolutely fine with Mcdonalds breakfast fakeaway to enjoy!

With that, it was the start of another new year. I went back to work for a couple of days and had a longer weekend, where we travelled to Stevenage to celebrate one of our friends Birthdays. I drove us there on Friday 6th January and we stayed at the Premier Inn in Stevenage Central. On the way we made a stop at Wandlebury Country Park, where we had a lovely woodland walk for around an hour. It was very cold, but it was so worth it! We saw sheep, highland cows, squirrels, various species of bird, woodlands and beautiful views of Ely. As it is winter, there wasn't many leaves on the trees but I am looking forward to going back again hopefully in the summer!

When we arrived at Stevenage, it was around 2pm therefore we decided to look around the leisure park, where we got ourselves a Five Guys. We then walked over to the Westgate Shopping Centre and had a look round the shops. I bought a couple of basic T-shirts and a new skirt from New Look with Christmas money and we spent a bit of time browsing the vinyls in HMV. We then met up with a couple of friends and had a KFC for dinner. Lining up the stomachs nicely for a night of drinking! We walked back to the hotel, had a shower and got ourselves ready for the night. We started off in The Red Lion pub in the Old Town, where they had an outdoor seating area with heaters and I started on fruity ciders. It was really good to catch up with everyone and . We then moved on to The Mulberry Tree where I switched over to vodka and lemonade for the rest of the evening. Prices were expensive so we only had one drink there but it was another very nice pub. We ended up at Lounge 72 which is one of the only clubs in Stevenage and actually enforces a dress code. None of us were really following that dress code but because it was a quieter night and there was around 10 of us, they let us in anyway. The actual club was very aesthetic with fake and real plants, neon lights, we got pretty drunk and it was a great night!

Saturday was definitely more chilled out, I woke up slightly hungover and ended up sleeping in until 11am! We then decided to get a Mcdonalds which helped our hangovers, went back to the hotel for a bit before meeting up with friends for a quick look round the shopping centre. Again we then went back to the hotel to get ready for the night but this one was much more chilled, Boom Battle Bar for fancy cocktails and then back to the Red Lion for more drinks. It was meant to be the other way round, a chill one on Friday and a big night Saturday so it definitely got switched! We said goodbye to a few friends that night and finished the night on Saturday with a Domino's at the hotel. Sunday we got breakfast at a local cafe in the town centre which was where we said goodbye to the rest of our friends, managed to get my first parking ticket and made the journey back home!

First impressions of Stevenage were that the shopping centre was a decent size and the amount of food places and choice of food was great. Nightlife is definitely more limited, the club scene is pretty much non-existent but the pubs had a great atmosphere. Every restaurant and pub I saw, a good majority of tables were taken so it was definitely a busy town centre and it was a decent size! I am looking forward to have a couple of quieter weekends in January to recover my bank balance and to relax that bit more!

It has been a good start to 2023 so far and I am hoping it continues as the year progresses. I don't normally make any resolutions but after the end of the year with my brain feeling overwhelmed and overloaded, my main aim for this year is to take things one step at a time. The past couple of years feel like they have been crazy and gone by very quickly. No doubt 2023 will also go very quickly! I just want 2023 to be a quieter and calmer year for me, and to appreciate the times with my family and friends. 

So yeah, it's all good...

Amy