Last quarter of 2016 coming up! Check out January-March here, April-June here, and July-September here. It was a crazy year and I'm so glad it's over, though I learnt so much and there were a lot of good times as well. Last quarter of the year was mainly about settling into a new routine, flat, job, country, well, life really. Let's have a look.
OCTOBER
I remember feeling stressed at the time, but October was a brilliant month and the first month in a pretty long time that I had decent work/life balance. Natasha invited myself and Vicky over for a lavish four-course meal and we spent all evening chatting away before I got on my bike back home, ten minutes away. Alec and I explored the local area and got fresh flowers (perhaps my biggest vice) at the local market. We also had our inaugural conference over a luxurious brunch where we discussed joint goals and plans, and how to get there. I hosted birthday brunch for ten of my closest friends, and was invited to join a book club - one of the best things to come out of 2016. Alec and I took my sister and her kids to Skånes Djurpark to hang out with the animals, and I also went to Copenhagen for a bit of a shopping spree and seeing Caroline. I also rediscovered my love for my job, actually felt pretty good at it, and took myself out for champagne and steak tartare after a particularly good week. Other than that, I slept. It was needed.
NOVEMBER
November was pretty mental, and I don't think I was prepared for it. This continues to happen in my life, all of a sudden I'll find myself in a self-inflicted shitstorm and I have no idea how it happened, until I take a step back and realise I've probably planned a zillion things too many. I'd also gone to an event in October that left me pretty emotionally unstable to be honest, so I immersed myself in work and other forms of escapism. Vicky and I went to Soran Ismail's and Magnus Betner's show En Skam för Sverige 2. I took Alec to Arken outside Copenhagen, before we ventured to the cinema to see Woody Allen's Cafe Society - it was a masterpiece. We argued a lot over Donald Trump, and although Brexit had me feel like Trump would win the US election, I was shellshocked when it actually happened. That day I bought my colleagues cake, probably mainly to comfort myself. We offered refuge to a rescue cat, Katten, which is also one of the best things to come from 2016 - I love him so much it's slightly insane? Alec and I hosted Thanksgiving for 16 of our closest friends, Alec held a speech in my honour (I cried, obvs), and the morning after I flew to Brussels for a weekend with Ingrid. From there I flew to Stockholm to see my girls and to do a couple of quick meetings, before I hopped on the ferry to Helsinki and Slush. Slush offered 16 hours work days and countless of meetings with top-tier journos, and I returned to Malmö both exhausted and inspired.
DECEMBER
December came and I felt like I'd checked out, I was so tired. I started looking up stress management courses and my girl mates told me off and told me to slow down instead of looking up silly courses. Point taken. I went to Stockholm for another press trip, had a glorious 3 month review with my boss and successfully managed my first bout of crisis comms. I also went to Zemika's and Joakim's wedding in Stockholm, and got to meet baby Lukas for the first time. Fanny, Isabelle and I went to the theatre in Stockholm after a particular gossip-y dinner, and Alec signed the contract at a startup and got his Swedish social security number exactly three months after arriving in Sweden. After having planned to work over the holidays I instead took two weeks(!) off, and Alec and I checked in at Haymarket in Stockholm over Christmas Day and Christmas Eve. We went to Skansen, had spenny cocktails and opened our presents over a lavish hotel breakfast. Back in Malmö I signed up to the Palestine half marathon, and started training accordingly. On New Year's Eve we took the train to Copenhagen where Thomas and Caroline had set up a splendid three-course meal and following house party, and I ended 2016 much like I started it - kissing the boy.
That was my 2016 - mental. I'm looking forward to a much calmer and more composed 2017. For the first time in my entire life I expect life to look pretty similar at the end of the year to what it does now, and obviously that influences goals and resolutions, but more about that in another post...