Looking back, looking forwards

Hello and welcome to the last blog of the year from The Olivia Rose Diaries on December 29^th 2024.

Christmas has gone, New Year’s Eve awaits and we are in that slightly odd space between these two big events on the calendar. Looking back is not normally something I spend much time doing, but these in-between days  provide the perfect opportunity to reflect, to remind myself of what has happened in the past twelve months, and I am amazed at how much of it I have forgotten. I persuade myself that this memory lapse is not a sign of approaching senility, although there are times when I wonder, but is more a consequence of the year being so jam-packed full of wonderful things that it is no surprise that some of them fall through the cracks.

I have just spent a morning browsing through photos taken over the last twelve months, a good way to jog the memory, and it has made me intensely grateful for the life I am lucky enough to live. I thought I would share these precious memories with you and set myself the challenge of one photo plus the occasional short video per month. As will become immediately obvious, that was a silly idea but don’t worry, I won’t keep you for too long …

So much for looking back. Now is also a time where we like to look forward, wondering what our future holds. Unfortunately, on so many counts, 2025 is a year full of worrying uncertainties and potential areas of conflict. It can be hard to steer a path through it all. One of the many things that I have learnt whilst living on our boat, Olivia Rose, is that nothing is certain, that life can throw something at you at any time, sometimes good, sometimes not so good, sometimes trivial, sometimes life-changing, and in most cases it is something completely outside of your control. There is little point worrying about it or trying to predict it. Of course worrying and trying to control our lives is part of being human and we have all got it down to a fine art, but wherever possible I try to apply that hard-won nautical wisdom to the rest of my life and I have found it makes me happier.

And so what does 2025 hold for us? The beginning of the year will be spent mainly at Le Shack with a couple of short French house-sits to break the winter up. April sees us back on board the boat.  We will leave the Netherlands, after two wonderful summers there, and head back through Belgium, into France and all the way back down to the south of the country to the Canal du Midi. We are ready for a long trip again and our plan is to bring Olivia Rose as close to Le Shack as possible for the winter of 2025, close enough that we can reach her in two or three days on our bikes. It will mean the pattern of our year might change in 2026 and we can enjoy time on her in winter and not just the summer. That’s the plan. We’ll see what actually happens.

Wishing you all the very best for 2025 and looking forward to sharing our journey with you.

MJ