a letter from elena

A Year in Review

  • Post by Elena
  • Dec 31, 2021
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What a whirlwind of a year it has been. Some very big highs and lows, we have at the time of writing managed to somehow avoid catching covid. Unlike lots of people I know.

Today is 31st December, and although I have not yet been in Australia a year yet I thought I’d go back and look at the goals that I set myself this year.

Carrots Above is a picture of some of the carrots I harvested earlier this year from the garden

1. Create a garden

We did this! Yet, my initial plans were a little ambitious if I am honest. We successfully planted and harvested:

  • Carrots - a small variety, we had about 15. Very tasty, well worth it

  • Strawberries - two berries. They have started growing again and there are about 5 berries coming through as we speak.

  • Potatoes - A Scottish variety, we planted four seeded potatoes and got a yield of 1.6kg back from it.

  • Chili’s - This was something I got Colin as part of his birthday gift this year, he loves spicy food. We have three plants, so far we have had 7 fruit and there are more coming

  • Mini Brocoli - two small heads

  • Lavender

Planter Above is a picture of our large potato planter that Colin built himself this year

We currently have growing:

  • The aforementioned Chili plants

  • Baby Spinach

  • Baby Salad leaves

We will be adding more plants in the new year, hopefully. I am still wanting to try and grow some onions.

2. Swimming and Hiking

We have also done this. Near to where we live is a hiking trail so we go often exploring around the area. We see different wildlife every time. Let me tell you the snake warnings were a bit scary though!

I found a pool locally that nobody knew about. This was initially great for me because it felt almost like it was my own private space.

However, I didn’t really like the way that I was paying to use this pool. I had to wire money into a bank account of someone I didn’t know. There were no proper changing rooms or shower rooms. The management was very strict about when I was going to get there and how long I would be there. After a while I explored the possibility of going back to a proper gym.

Gym prices in Sydney are very expensive, depending on where you live or where you want to work out. I decided that I wanted to get my fitness back and my local health club was doing a deal for 12 weeks half price.

Overall, I would say paying for the gym membership has been worth it. When I joined the gym, I was able to hire a personal trainer who was fantastic.

She created a routine very specific to me and my body’s limitations. She has enabled me to be able to build up muscle strength in my arms unlike I have ever had before.

Brocoli

3. Volunteering

I couldn’t volunteer with animals sadly, as there was nothing local to where we live. I took inspiration from my partners sister and decided to join the Girl Guides as a leader. I am still going through my training, but hope to become a fully-fledged leader my mid year. The girls I have been working are a great age to work with, and they say the funniest things.

4. Eating less dairy

I will write a separate blog post about this. Since moving to Australia it has not gone well. I’ve been through periods of not consuming any at all, to consuming a great amount and then instantly regretting it.

5. Find a job

After 6 months of being in Australia and not getting very far with employment I found a job at YouGov. On the one hand in that six months I was able to expand my cooking repertoire, focus on my gardening skills and try and make some local connections - which I did.

I got a large amount of enjoyment out of it, but there were some days that I really felt like a bit of a a let down. Once I found my job with YouGov I was elated. My team were lovely.

It was such a strange experience to start a job in a pandemic, and I only recently met my colleagues in person for the first time which was equally as weird. They were all just as nice in person!

Potatoes Above is a picture of the Potatoes we harvested from the garden

6. Putting wellbeing first

This section could also be another blog post by itself. This was quite a difficult thing to do in a way, because I am quite guilty of putting others before my own. I had to go into A&E once since being here, relating to a previously diagnosed medical condition. At the time I felt like the poor doctor who was helping me was not actually helping.

It wasn’t until weeks later that I realized because of his help things had been getting better, and will continue to. Also, things like going to the gym and building my garden have kept me motivated. Finding time to be creative has also been something that has helped me immensely.

7. Resisting impulse buying

I remember the book that I read this year, and what an inspirational book it is too. If you need a reminder it is called ‘The Year of Less’ by Cait Flanders, I would highly recommend you to read it, if you need inspiration.

The good news is that since I started working I have been able to do budgeting of my funds. I have also got very detailed accounts of what I have been spending money on. There are only two places I think that could do with improvement upon.

  • Gifts (Birthdays, Christmases etc) both in Australia and back in the UK.

I don’t want to think about how much I spent this year on gifts for other people this year, it makes my eyes water. For next year I will set a very strict budget per person and that will be the end of it.

  • Impulse buying at the supermarket. I like trying new foods, so if I see something that sparks my interest more often than not I will pick it up. I might go to the shop with two things on my list and come out with five. Generally, because it is food it will get eaten by myself or Colin but I need to get better with this.

When reviewing what I have bought this year I can say that I’ve done quite well compared with previous years. I had to replace some shoes because I tend to wear them out yearly, so I did. I can quite easily justify all of the things I have spent my money on.

In conclusion it seems that I have met the majority of my goals for 2021. I am happy to know that ‘goal setting’ rather than new years resolutions work better for me. I will be setting some more for the coming year in January so stay tuned for the very exciting things coming up.

Email me if you would like to discuss anything I have written in this blog article. Until next year my friends, have a wonderful day those of you who celebrate NYE.

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Credit to the main photograph on this page goes Markus Winkler on Unsplash all other photographs are my own

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