new things for a new year

We've spent the past 2 weeks driving up and down the country seeing family and friends over Christmas and New Year... It's been good, and now we're both somewhat spent and looking forward to playing hermit for the rest of the month. (Apart from the Vann family Christmas next weekend...it never stops!) Despite being extremely grateful to see our own bed again, being able to simply get in a car and drive a few hours to see loved ones is still immensely satisfying and still feels somewhat novel.

Here's a few fun things that our trip included, aside from good time catching up with folk:
1. We took a day trip to London, as a Christmas gift from my parents, and spent the day bumbling around art galleries, coffee shops and cobbled streets and soaking up the vibe (and the rain) of London. As part of the day out we made a point to find Seizure, an art installation in a dilapidated council flat in Elephant & Castle into which the artist poured 70,000 litres of copper sulphate solution, creating an incredibly beautiful crystallized cave. Very blue. Very amazing. Very London.

2. We drove to a small village in North Devon and watched my very dear friend Josie get married to her life's love. The day was sunny and crisp and blue, and the bride didn't stop smiling once :)

3. On our way back, we went for an extremely bracing but beautiful walk along the beach at Woolacoombe, where Andy spent his childhood holidays. We shimmied down sand dunes, took pictures of our shadows and wrote dreams for a new year in the sand.

Here's to a year of new adventures...

NYE

I spent New Year's Eve with friends from Manchester in a tiny village in the south of England. We took a woodland walk at dusk with a dog and torches, we lit a fire and sat around it all night eating, drinking, singing, laughing and dreaming of what the new year might bring. At midnight we linked arms and sang Auld Lang Syne and walked up a hill with our glasses of champagne to better see the fireworks. I feel happy and hopeful about the year ahead...

New Things for a New Year

1. My good friend Ian is starting the new year as a husband. On Sunday, he married the love of his life Izzie and we all danced the night away in a medieval hall (above) to the music of a Ceilidh band in celebration of their marriage.

2. Next week myself and my colleague Jez officially launch The Freedom Project, a work readiness programme for ex-offenders/long term unemployed to help support them in returning to work. I'm keeping this part time job alongside my social work placement and university coursework so it promises to be a busy year!

3. The week after next I start my first social work placement as part of my Masters course. It will last 6 months and I will be working at a supported tenancy for African Caribbean men with mental health issues, helping them integrate into the community and work toward independent living.

4. The world will start the new year, as of January 20th, with a new leader of the United States. My hope is that this new thing will be felt throughout the world, and that the change it brings will be good.

5. This year will begin with 4 of the 5 original Vann Clan members living in the same country once more. Who knows where we will all be by the end of the year, but it's a great way to start!

6. The new year will dawn on this same magical and broken world, full of staggering beauty and terrible injustice. We will wake to this new year as a people still broken but hopeful, with fresh courage and resolve to make a difference, to go the extra mile, to speak out for change and to live humbly in awe of our smallness and our potential to usher in great things.