A new start!

Well, it has been over a month since I wrote anything for Gilpies - which is truly a terrible effort. We are now in the lovely new year of 2010 which has crept up all too quickly, but I have already decided is going to be amazing.

After two years of pretty hard times I am ready for a different kind of year.

A year of wonder.

I remember in 2004 and 2005 I had a couple of years like that. They were amazing, I finished up my travels overseas in the February of 2004, came home and had two years left of my undergrad degree which I spent writing, reading and studying music - amazing stuff. I met my beloved N that year and made a number of now much adored new friends. It was a really fantastic time of change and of growing up. They were actually very, very hard years in lots of ways, with some terribly sad and difficult things presenting themselves. Overall though I felt my capacity as a person grow.

As I write this, and reflect on 2008 and 2009 they have actually been a bit similar to the adored years, in a number of ways. They have been so awful and so tremendously difficult to weather. I have never felt more tired, sad, fearful or overwhelmed as I did this year particularly. But, at the same time, I have grown up, again I've learnt my capacity as a human being, as a wife, as a child, a family member and a friend. I've recognised the highs and lows and how to truly relish in the high moments and really let myself sob it out and let go in the lows.

Now though, I am ready to reap the rewards of all this hard work . I'm ready for N and I to use all of this personal evolution to really now become the adult people we wish to be. I am certain that in another few years this intense period of change and struggle will come up again in our lives - but hopefully our experiences will give us the resources to deal with it.

Anyway, we have decided that 2010 is a new start for us.

2010 is the year of our big physical journey, as we head off in the van around Australia later this year. This will test us (me particularly, being a bit of a comfy bed and clean feet kind of girl) physically as people. I believe that we have been on the big emotional journey in 2009, we have learnt to band together as a team of two in those awful times, and hopefully this will stand us in good stead as we deal with the joys and pitfalls of travelling in such close quarters, for such a long time.

Let's see, shall we!

So, we will both get on Gilpies a lot more to write about how the planning is going, and how life is faring generally in this new year - and to prepare ourselves for the big journey ahead.

Our first little preparatory journey is next week - we are heading down south for a camping trip in the van. It is not yet fitted out with all the comforts of a camper van, instead it is just a big empty truck essentially - so this will be interesting.

I have planned our meals, and N has tried to organise all the bits and pieces we need - but things will have been forgotten, and if there's anything I learnt this year, nothing goes to plan.

So, bring on this first little journey and we'll see how we go..................