My health has been suffering again over the last few months. Breaking my collarbone seemed to trigger a mini CFS relapse, which is apparently to do with the energy demands that your body needs to repair the injury affecting my already depleted energy supplies. I would normally spend December gadding about, visiting as many Christmas markets as I could possibly fit in, but this year was spent sitting quietly at home feeling sorry for myself, although I did manage a pre-Christmas trip to Ramsgate to see the illuminated harbour.

During Twixmas we went to London to watch a fabulous production of The Nutcracker at the Royal Albert Hall, having booked the tickets during last February’s London Theatre Week. We also managed a short New Year’s walk up to the White Cliffs of Dover, and even though I couldn’t do much more than climb the path up there from the town centre, we sat and enjoyed the view – and the warm sunshine in a very sheltered spot – with a coffee at the Visitor Centre cafe.

With a return to work in January, I have been very sensible and cut out all activity as I am aware that whenever I have a big relapse, it is always at this time of year. As a result, my life has become one of work and complete rest in order to keep going, and I have to constantly remind myself that it is short term pain for long term gain. If I can get through the winter, then I will hopefully be in a better position to emerge, like a butterfly from a chrysalis, to get out and about when the weather improves. At least in the last couple of weeks, the Winter Olympics have been a very good excuse to sit in front of the television and do nothing! I am not a sports fan and never usually watch any sport on TV (beyond the odd bit of gymnastics and ice skating every two years), but I have become completely addicted and am now quite the armchair expert!

Looking after my health has been very much at the forefront of my mind, as this time last year I was in the grip of one of these big relapses, brought on, like the very first time, by a bout of flu. I was in very low spirits; on sick leave and barely able to leave the house, so even if I am having to be extra careful at the moment, things are definitely not as bleak as that. Back then, my daughter encouraged me to think about the things that I would like to do as I started to recover, and and so one year on from writing a blog post about Looking Ahead , I thought it would be interesting to go back, revisit my list, and see what I had and hadn’t done. So here it is, in the random order in which I wrote it –

Do something Jane Austen related: My ideal was to make it to Chawton (Jane Austen’s house) and I very nearly did! Unbeknown to me, my daughter had planned it into our October weekend away itinerary – but unfortunately she hadn’t factored in that they would change from their summer opening hours when she first came up with the idea, to their winter opening hours when we actually went to Hampshire. However, we did have a Jane Austen themed afternoon tea at the Pump Rooms in Bath in May, and I did see the newly unveiled Jane Austen statue (plus her tomb) at Winchester Cathedral on the October trip. This is more than I could possibly have expected a year ago.

Take my daughter on a birthday trip away: Despite being on sick leave at the time, I had already booked a two night stay in Malmesbury for the May half term when I made my list, because I wanted to give myself something to focus on and look forward to. I didn’t know whether I would actually be well enough to go, but there was free cancellation up to 24 hours beforehand meaning that, although it would be incredibly disappointing to have to cancel, at least I wouldn’t lose any money. But I made it, and even though we had to keep to a very slow and relaxed pace, we had a great time. We absolutely loved Malmesbury, and we also visited Castle Combe and Bath.

Stay in a Wetherspoons hotel: I didn’t do this one, and my daughter has since reminded me that not only do I like quiet accommodation, but I also need to have an afternoon nap and/or go to bed quite early, even when I’m on holiday. Staying above a pub is probably not the best idea to ensure either of these things. I’m not ruling it out completely, but I think it’s unlikely to happen.

Tackle the next part of my Kent Coast walk: Yes!! I had to split it into two sections to make it more manageable, but I did it! Deal to Sandwich is now complete and it was a huge achievement. Hopefully I can continue to make it further around the coastline in the year ahead.

Visit a part of London that I have never been to before: I was hoping for Hampstead or Highgate but didn’t go to either of those, but we did go to Kingston Upon Thames (for the 1100th anniversary of the crowning of King Athelstan) and walked along the Thames to Hampton Court, which I think probably counts as Kingston was new to us. We also went to London twice for theatre trips, seeing Witness for the Prosecution in April as well as The Nutcracker at Christmas. For the former, we headed to Lower Marsh for lunch, purely because it was close to Waterloo Station so not far to walk, and I’d seen online that there were lots of independent eateries. However, I’ve since discovered, whilst checking addresses on census records against old maps of London, that I had ancestors actually living in streets off Lower Marsh. I knew they all lived in and around Lambeth, but hadn’t really pinpointed them so exactly before, and I wish I had known at the time (although there wasn’t actually anything to see because theses streets were all demolished during the slum clearances). As the Tunisian cafe where we had lunch was amazing, and as Waterloo is one of the stations on our direct train route into London, I’m sure that we will return.

Walk to or from St Augustine’s Cross: The cross marks the place where St Augustine first met with King Aethelberht of Kent when he arrived in 597AD to bring Christianity to England. St Augustine’s Day is on May 26th, and as the patron saint of Kent, we decided to celebrate him. We caught the train to Thanet Parkway, walked across the field to the monument, and then headed along the coast to see his shrine – and relic (a finger bone) – at St Augustine’s Church in Ramsgate. The recent opening of Thanet Parkway station means that it is now an easy trip and an easy walk, and one that we are planning on doing on an annual basis.

Visit Pegwell Bay Country Park/Nature Reserve (and maybe see some seals?): The part of the country park that is accessible to visitors is on the Thanet side of the River Stour and is in fact quite close to St Augustine’s Cross. However, this is another one that I didn’t get to do last year. I knew that I would have to pass through when I did the next section of my Kent Coast Walk (Sandwich to Ramsgate), and wasn’t really sure when that might be happening, and in my head, I was also saving it for autumn when the chances of seeing seals are supposed to be higher. Then when autumn came, I was out of action again (see above!) so that was that. I did see the one seal swimming along while walking from Deal to Sandwich, but this is one that I would like to carry over and achieve this year.

Go on a day trip to France: I didn’t have the day trip to Calais that I had envisaged, but we did end up spending a couple of hours in Paris on our way home from our summer holiday. We bought some Miffy themed bits in Hema, discovered some amazing fabric shops in Montmartre that we would like to return to when we have some specific projects in mind, and then sat on a bench in the sunshine admiring Sacre Coeur before catching the Eurostar home. Arguably this was better than a day in Calais!

Have a summer holiday: I thought that if we had a summer holiday, it would be a very scaled down affair. In fact we travelled through Switzerland, staying in Basel and then Zurich, before catching the Bernina Express into Italy, where we spent a couple of nights in Lecco on Lake Como and then Milan.

Make Chelsea buns or cinnamon buns: This was a bit of a rogue one to add to my list, but it was something that I’d always wanted to do but kept putting off. Although I always bake my own bread, I had never attempted anything with an enriched dough and being confined to the house a lot more, it seemed like a good time to give it a try. Because last year, I was also having a UPF free Lent, I kicked things off by baking hot cross buns. Although the first batch was slightly burnt, despite following instructions to the letter, the second lot were so successful that I will never buy shop hot cross buns again!

I had a go at making Chelsea buns (which didn’t have much of a rise because I think my milk was too hot and killed off the yeast although they tasted quite nice), and then finished the year with cinnamon buns. I made them for St Lucia’s Day on 13th December, and although Saffron buns are apparently more traditional, saffron is also expensive and, after my Chelsea bun failure, I didn’t want to risk the outlay. The buns I made are probably not that authentic, but, they turned out significantly better than I’d hoped and they tasted delicious.

So 2025 ended up being nowhere near as bad as I feared when I was first contemplating this list and everything seemed impossible. I may not have managed any of the big walks that I had been hoping for, but looking back over my photos, I have so many great memories of days out and trips away I would like to think that I have learnt some important lessons about pacing activity and not pushing myself into overdoing it, but I fear that as I continue to recover I will inevitably forget and think that I am capable of more than I can comfortably manage, but for now I am facing 2026 with a whole lot more positivity than I could ever have envisaged a year ago, and know that I have a lot to look forward to.