Friday, January 13, 2017

January 2016 - December 2016

So another year done and once again time for another post in our Annual Walsh Whereabouts blog...

Many of you use Facebook to document your achievements for the year, right? Well, I have decided that our Annual Blog is where I record these events as it is all in one place and serves as a reminder for me while my memory is not as sharp as it once was so I don't do this for your benefit but for mine - and maybe one or two of you who are interested to read it anyways:-).

I didn't think there was much to post about this year as many people are happy to see the back of 2016 but as I review the year, I am feeling very blessed as we have had a pretty good year!

Here are some of our highlights:

(1) January - Grace and I joined TopTots in Edgemead and made some wonderful and lasting friendships. We attended the weekly Tuesday classes until June. We had a break while I worked on a 6 month Project Management contract and now look forward to starting up again in 2017.

(2) February - 6th February - Happy 1st Birthday to Grace.
Milestones:
At 9 months - 1st tooth appeared,
At 10 months - Started crawling & standing,
At 13 months - Started walking,
At 14 months - Started talking with words like Mama, Dada, Tata,
At 16 months - Sucking juice from a straw,
At 18 months - Grace's 1st plane trip on the Sovereign
At 23 months - First swear word :-)





























In February, I also sold my Curasoles business which I had for almost 5 years - and happy to report that I am confident it will go places with the new Owner who has the network in place to make a success of it.

(3) March - 27th March - Jordan left to join the French Foreign Legion. A stressful time for us as we had no contact with him for over 3 months so had no idea how he was! Once he had passed the initial training and selection criteria he was able to make contact. He is enjoying the opportunity and we are very proud of him and what he has achieved. Only 10% make it past selection, so he has really done us proud. Well done, Jordan. We love and miss you tons!

(4) June - I started a 6 month Project Management contract at Qorus Software. I relieved a PM that went off on maternity leave. It was great to get back into a Project Management role again - and Qorus was a fabulous Company and Team to work with! Loved the experience and very grateful for the opportunity.

(5) September - 9th September - Mike's Birthday celebrations at home. We hired the Tako Kombi Food Truck to cater for us. It was a great evening and received very positive feedback!

(6) October - 29th October - I received an early Birthday present... Mike thought it was time that his wife drove a decent car, so surprised me with an upgrade to my old Toyota RunX... I now drive a BMW 118i and Grace sits in the back in her car seat smiling out the window too!

















(7) November - 12th November - Birthdays are for celebrating so we decided to have another memorable birthday bash this year - this time for my birthday of course. We hired the Paella Ladies to cater for us. They cooked delicious chicken and prawn paella in massive paella pans. Yummy!

(8) December - 21st December - 6th January - Finally, we  decided to take up the opportunity that Grace is under 2 years old so would travel for free, as well as the fact that Jordan had some leave over this period so we could meet up with him for an overseas family holiday. We went to Paris, Lyon and Amsterdam. It's quite a challenge travelling with a Toddler and very difficult to pack as light as I usually do but we did it and created some special memories.

General
We continued to attend our Monthly Dinner Club dinners and can truly say that we have tried some amazing places, some are on par &/ surpass those you find overseas! The last 2 we attended are definitely worth a return visit i.e. Brad's Grill and Maria's Greek Restaurant. If you would like to join our dinner club please let me know to add you to our mailing list.


May 2017 be a year of abundance and many opportunities for all of us.

“Opportunity dances with those who are already on the dance floor.” - H. Jackson Brown Jr.