2024: The year that everything changed

We've reached the end of another year, and as such, we've reached the time for another end-of-year blog post. In last year's, I wrote "2024 is going to be a big year of change for me but I'm really looking forward to what it has in store." Certain changes I was already anticipating. But actually, 2024 ended up being the year that everything changed. And arguably, the year that changed everything.

My address

This was the one I was already anticipating. Having separated from my ex boyfriend at the end of 2023, I was eagerly awaiting the keys to my new house. I didn't have to wait that long into the year, as I eventually completed on the 19th of January and moved into my brand new address.

Living alone wasn't completely alien to me, having bought a house solo before. But this year has been my first time living solo and single, and I've actually loved it so much.

I've done a fair amount of address hopping in the last 5 years and I've taken a lesson or two with me each time. So this chapter of having my new house and living alone in the way that suits me best has just been amazing. In fact, this house feels the most like home out of all of them!

My friendships

I've always been a very sociable person who values her friendships very dearly. I've been lucky enough to be surrounded by the greatest friends for many many years. But at the end of 2023, I looked around at my friendships and figured it was time for a shake-up. 

My best friend Laura moved to Italy, and while she will always remain my best friend in the entire world, the 940 miles that now separates us means she's not exactly someone I can call up to go for a quick coffee or brunch date. My oldest friend Sian is someone who I love very dearly (always have, always will), but we have very little in common these days (which we both joke about) so we don't see each other all that often either. My McDonald's group, Sophia, Justin and Emma may not have moved countries or have striking differences in interests to me, but I was going into the single girl era of my life, and all 3 of them are very much at the buying houses, getting married, and having babies era of their lives. So while my love towards the 3 of them hadn't changed, I thought it might be nice to make some friends who were at a more similar point of their life to me. Coincidentally, I then also stopped being friends with my old group of school friends (well more accurately, they stopped being friends with me). So it felt like the universe was pushing me towards my plan to meet some new people in 2024.

Having heard good things, I decided to download Bumble For Friends. It's exactly what it sounds like; a dating app for friends with exactly the same swiping and messaging mechanism. If you're sceptical then don't be! Everyone on there was super lovely and I managed to make 3 amazing new besties. 

First I met Alice, who I bonded with over a shared love of wine, a spontaneous attitude to holiday booking, and a love of juicy dating stories. We've made so many cool memories already, including fun nights at wine bars, two holidays (Albania and Vienna), and a trip to London with a musical. We're also both obsessed with rooftop bars!

Second I met Sophie, who I feel like I was maybe separated at birth from as we have almost everything in common (including the most random things). It's also a weird, small world story as she had actually been my neighbour for the past 3 years but we'd never met! I'm so glad the universe pushed us together eventually as we've had so many belly laughs, drunken antics, and a fab trip to Sarajevo.

Third I met G, and our first meet-up ended up being in the most tragic old man pub ever. And yet we still had the best time and were giggling until we were in pain. We knew from then that we'd be great friends! Since then, we've been for fab meals, fancy cocktails, and a great holiday in Turkiye. But our favourite is still a cute night in and a girly sleepover.

Once I had started to put myself out there and seek like-minded friends, it just got easier and easier. Scarlett and Jess (a couple of old friends from school days), have always been those people you support from afar and think about how well you'd get on IRL. Always liking and replying to each other's stuff on Instagram, noticing how many similar things we all like. Me and Scarlett had mentioned a few times before over the years that we should meet up but had never planned anything. Well, as a newly emboldened friend-maker, I suggested a coffee date, and I'm so glad I did. Reconnecting with both of them, and being welcomed into the friendship group by Anjeza, Harriett, and Naomi has been so lovely. I've never known a girl group to be filled with so many good vibes, and completely devoid of any judgement or bitchiness. It's been so nice making friends with them all and planning fun things like meals out, takeaway nights, and walks in the Peak District. Girls holiday 2025 pending!

Intentionally seeking to make new friends as an adult can be kind of a taboo, or unspoken subject. But I've had the best experience ever. I feel so lucky for the 8 new friends in my life, as well as all the amazing memories I've made this year with my day one besties. I honestly feel the happiest I've ever felt in my friendships this year, and I feel so lucky to be surrounded by such supportive, genuine, and incredible people who I love very much.

My job title

There were actually a couple of unofficial New Year's resolutions I made at the end of 2023. One of which being the friend making, the other being to get a promotion. Well, in April I managed that one too!

I've been at my job for two blissful years now, and after 18 months as Marketing Manager, I was promoted to the newly changed title of Senior Marketing Manager.

It's been another busy year at work and I've been involved in planning events, launching a new website, and marketing new products. And while I feel and know that my promotion was very well-deserved, I also feel very lucky to have such an amazing boss who champions me at every point. I never had to ask him to promote me; he put together the business case and got it approved off his own accord. 

I feel very fortunate to have a boss who understands how ambitious I am, who nurtures that ambition, and who treats me like his right hand man. Our whole marketing team has a great dynamic, as I do with a load of other work friends, and we always have loads of fun together too (work hard play hard). For the third year running, I'm happy to report that all is well in my career. I'm simply more important now!

My house

After moving into my new house, the first half of the year was very much dedicated to changing it from top to bottom! Mum and Dad were enrolled as my very best (voluntary) employees and so the work began.

Mum was on painting and decorating duty and tackled rooms such as the living room, bedrooms, and downstairs toilet. While Dad was on "big job" duty and tackled the bathroom, kitchen and staircase (with help from his handyman). I'm literally so happy with how everything turned out and they did an absolutely amazing job. I let them have a well-earned rest the second half of the year!

If you want to see the full transformation, I did a house makeover blog post in the summer where you can see the before and afters.

My relationship status

I entered the year single, after coming out of my long term relationship towards the end of 2023. And after 4 years with someone, I wasn't particularly in a rush to meet anyone new. However, after having such success with apps for my friendships, I figured I would see if the same would be true for dating and downloaded Hinge. I wasn't necessarily hoping to really meet someone, but I thought it would be fun to have a single girl dating era, and hoped it would give me lots of funny experiences and stories.

Well, it turns out that my extremely stringent criteria for a man, plus the fact I'm a little too good at spotting red flags early, meant I didn't actually end up with many crazy stories. Just a string of first dates with guys who were perfectly lovely but just not for me. Of the handful that I did go on to actually date, there was The Self Obsessed Guy, The Just-Had-So-Much-Going-On Guy, and The Genuinely Nice Guy, who there was just no spark with. 

Then there was Ash. 

And he completely changed the game for me...

He ticked all my boxes, plus additional ones that I didn't even know I had. I actually wrote a note on my phone back in May titled 'things I want in a partner' and there are 15 things on the list. Ash has managed all 15! He's communicative, thoughtful and ambitious. He has his own life and loves that I have mine too. We laugh crazy amounts together. He plans dates, buys me flowers and makes lots of effort to carve out quality time together. He basically treats me how every girl dreams of being treated and he just totally gets me. I can just completely be myself with him. 

Even though I wasn't necessarily expecting to meet someone when I downloaded Hinge, I'm so happy that Ash walked into my life and that everything has unfolded as it has. 

So I entered the year single and I'm leaving it not, excited to take on 2025 with an amazing new boyfriend by my side.

My total country count

You knew we wouldn't make it through an end-of-year blog post without talking about travel right? 2023 was quite the record-breaker so I haven't managed to top it in terms of new countries visited, but I still did manage an impressive 5 new countries to add to my total count!

I kicked the year off with a visit to Laura and Fulvio in Milan in January. I was back again in March with Laura's friend Sophie and we took a day trip to Lake Como. I went on a road trip around Ireland with my family in May and drank lots of Guinness and whiskey. I did a two stop Turkiye trip with G in July, to Istanbul and Cappadoccia. I met up with Laura in Split in July for a bit of island hopping. I visited Laura and Fulvio in his motherland, Napoli, for amazing pizza and sunshine in August. I found out why southern Albania is called the Maldives of Europe in September with Alice. I took my first Eurostar trip in October for a weekend of cheese and wine in Lille with my family. I discovered the east-meets-west city of Sarajevo with Sophie in October. I ventured far east on a solo adventure to Vietnam in November. And I finished up the year with Christmas markets aplenty in Vienna with Alice.

Every year is an amazing year of travel for me, and I continue to plan my annual leave as though I'm running a military operation. I love seeing and discovering new parts of the world, and travelling to fun and exotic destinations. With a couple of trips already planned and plenty more in the works, I have a feeling that 2025 will be just as amazing.

My new years resolutions

Time for the fun part: seeing if I managed what I set out to in 2024. Well, as I mentioned I had a couple of unofficial new year's resolutions which got a big fat tick. What about my official, published ones?

Well number 1 was: Take up hot yoga. Technically I did take it up. But once I was out of the trial period and they wanted 85 Great British Pounds off me per MONTH for the privilege to stick with it, I decided to wave it goodbye. So this one gets a thumbs down. Number 2 was: Pick up Italian. This one gets a thumbs up! I'm still continuing with the learning of all 3 of my languages (French and Spanish too), and as you can see from my travel summary, I've had plenty of trips to Italy to practise! Then number 3 was: Straighten teeth. I had braces when I was only 11, so my teeth had had time to start moving again. I decided to go with a cheap Invisalign alternative, because my teeth weren't crooked enough to justify £5k on the real deal. For about 25% of the cost, I'm pretty happy with the results I got with Diamond Whites Aligners! So my third and final resolution of 2024 gets a thumbs up too.

So what about 2025? It's time for a couple of new resolutions.

1. Drink more water

I used to be really good at drinking 2.5-3 litres of water every day. But over the last 6 months or so, I feel like this has slipped to only 1-1.5 litres per day and because I used to be so good, my body feels very sensitive to not drinking enough (see also: instant headaches). So in 2025 we're upping that water intake baby.

2. See more of the UK

Obviously I'm very well travelled. My pursuit of ticking off every country is a big focus for me, and every year I inch ever closer to that goal. But in focussing so much on international travel, I've realised that I haven't actually seen lots of places in the UK that I'd like to. Let's see if I can't explore a bit more of it in 2025!

My happiness levels

At the beginning of 2024, I felt a little bit like a phoenix rising from the ashes. 2023 was a real mixed bag and while I had a lot of fun, the year was full of emotional hardship. So I entered 2024 excited to rebuild and I can honestly say I'm leaving it the happiest I've ever been.

I've made amazing memories, I've made new friends, I've laughed infinite amounts, I've had fabulous food, I've visited beautiful countries, I've spent quality time with my family, I've excelled in my career, I've fallen for someone incredible, and I've just had the best time.

I've always loved the quote "be in love with your life, every minute of it", and it feels like the perfect one to summarise my 2024. Here's to hoping for more of the same in 2025!