Wanders The World

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Another collective spin around the sun and another exceptionally eventful year has passed. 2021 has been tough, yet I am grateful, that for me personally, there were some fun and memorable moments. That is what I’d prefer to focus on because I think it helps. Certainly there were times where things were not so fun — cancelled plans, lingering and new injuries, health scares of those close to me, the loss of motivation for some personal interests, and the ongoing ”pandemic fatigue” (which at this is stage if more like pandemic exhaustion). But there were good times too! New adventures, laughs and good times with friends, online learning, and totally getting into audio books — just to name a few. Yes, I can definitely recall far more times to smile in 2021 than in 2020.

ALL THE GOOD

• Dine-Out Vancouver
  • A chance to go to some new-to-me restaurants with set menus at reduced pricing
  • A chance to break bread with my core bubble (of 2 people)
• Reconnecting with friends
  • Restrictions loosened which meant more outdoor and then indoor get togethers
  • Visits and laughs with many friends who I had not seen in months, some for over a year
  • Brewery visits, whisky tastings, and sitting at a bar shooting the sh*t
  • Art and museum experiences
• Work was steady
  • I was fortunate that my work was steady
• Road Trip
  • I took a road trip to Penticton, BC
  • Survived the unprecedented heat wave with tubing, AC, and ice cream
• Walking
  • I went out on some new-to-me walking paths in my neighbourhood
  • A great time to listen to various audio books
• Online Classes
  • The personal interest one was much more interesting that the work related ones
• Visiting Family & Friends
  • I was able to visit my family and see friends who live far away
  • More than once!
• Beer Festival
  • Finally attended the Fort Langley Beer Festival
• International Travel
  • Nice to see you again Italy
  • Nice to get to know you Naples
  • A tonne of laughs with a good friend on that trip
• Annual Girls Secret Santa
  • The return of my annual Girls Night Secret Santa Xmas dinner
  • Our yearly (sans last year) gift exchange and dinner at my home

LOOKING FORWARD

I, like most of us, have absolutely no clue what’s coming next. I don’t have much planned in the way of travel. A group trip to Morocco in the fall has been (re)booked after being cancelled in 2021. I sincerely hope that ones comes to fruition. A few weekends aways and of course visiting family. These latter ones are pending as Omicron will be deciding the fate of those. As for personal enrichment and activities, I hope to take a course in the spring to keep learning something new and to take up walking again after I discover what is going on with my lingering knee ailment that reared its ugly head while walking all over Rome and Naples. For this blog, I hope to be more consistent with posts and offer a variety of information from the small wanderings of my city to those beyond its borders; from new and past travel experiences to information that hopefully is helpful. And finally, there is a small idea in my head that many say I should at least try. Many tell me I should post on YouTube the short videos I took during my Camino pilgrimage in 2019. Maybe? I dunno? It’s a bit of a leap for me but I might.

I hope that with this coming year the good will outweigh the bad for everyone. As always, we can not possibly know what the future stores but I really really hope its better than these last couple years. Fingers crossed and Happy New Year.

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All photos taken and owned by Eeva Valiharju / Wanders the World