New Beginnings in Every Direction.....

If I could put my finger on one thing that would improve the lives of so many people, it would be the ability to embrace change and to realise that, whilst your plans may not work out exactly as you planned them, you can always make the best of any situation you find yourself in and adapt.

2012 is going to be a fascinating year for us. We have rough ideas of how we think we want it to develop and, the truth is, it will end up being nothing like that. But we're passionate, intelligent, eloquent people and, whichever direction we end up going in, I'm sure we'll have fun and be successful, even though that may not be measured on a financial scale!

We need to push on with some of our plans and, with this in mind, I'm very much looking forward to going on a Summer ML training course in just a few weeks time...and hopefully Kirsten will now be joining me. My wish is, with so many years of experience in the hills, to push on with the consolidation days through the summer and try and get assessed in early autumn. Kirsten will probably need longer, but the sooner she gets on training, the sooner she will be armed with the skills and confidence to push her boundaries on the hill.

As for my sports massage work, it's been ticking over and I've not dedicated the necessary time to really push that - another situation that needs to be addressed. It's a work in progress right now, but I've secured a "brand name" that will, in time, encompass more than just the sports massage. The domain name is purchased, website in progress, blog site secured and initial blogs drafted, and facebook page ready for set-up. The plan is to kick all this off within a couple of months and have a big push. I've got great faith in my own ability to assist individuals now and I want to translate that into helping as many folks as possible.

As part of that push, I'm trying to get to a few lower-key events and provide sports massage, either at low-cost or, in some cases, free (donations to charity?). That'll get my name out there and I'll have fun into the bargain. Got a nice one lined up for late May, a few others on the burner.

And then there's property! Opinions are changing, views being re-shaped and ideas formulated, but from wanting a low-budget option, we've both realised and decided that we might need to stretch ourselves in the short to medium term to acquire the right sort of place. We're still open to all ideas but potentially a b&b property which also includes an element of holiday-let would be perfect.

So where does this leave the running? Somewhere in the mix, is the honest option. All of our plans are focussed around the running and it would therefore be wrong to drop it all while we concentrated on other plans. I've got events lined up each month and, inevitably and ideally, my training will be focussed on nice long days out on big hills. So far, (and it always changes!) the plans are;

April - Eigg

May - Ben Lomond

June - Slioch

July - Wasdale

August - Glenshee 9

Sept - Ben Nevis

Oct - Langdale Horseshoe

Out of those, I'd probably look at Slioch and Wasdale as being the "target" races with Ben Nevis to be done in a time that doesn't embarrass me (as previous times have done!).

Having decided against the Paddy now (on the grounds of it being a long way away and there's plenty up here to do!), I've got a seed in my mind that's growing that says I want to have a go at a Rigby Round, probably somewhere around the back end of July or early August...that'd be fun!

So all in all, another exciting year to look forward to. Plus the fact that I am excited every day by waking up next to the most wonderful person in the world and waking to another day in our fantastic life here amongst the woods behind the castle, watching mother nature conjure up incredible sights and sounds, and receiving the unconditional love and affection from our lovely dog and cats. "I am blessed every day that I live", as someone once sang.