A new year, a new beginning?

This April will mark five years since we moved to Perth and while we've had our fair share of happiness and fun times, since Rohan's birth I've no longer felt a connectedness to the state but have instead felt a longing for family.

Rohan has seen my family on only a handful of occasions since his birth and while we have been blessed with many visits from my in-laws the feeling of isolation has magnified in the past 18 months.

I've never felt a need to be near family quite as much as I do right now and as we welcomed in the new year yesterday in sweltering 35 degree heat, I couldn't help but wish that it would be the last Perth summer we would have to endure.

So where is home? I don't really know. Our families are on the Gold Coast and in Sydney but I think anywhere along the south east coast would do. Work for  Mark isn't going to be easy to find in these areas and would perhaps be limited to the capital cities. Neither of us is really keen on living in Sydney but right now a move anywhere out of Perth would be welcomed (at least by me).

2012 was not the kind of year I'd have liked it to be - there was a death close to home, the loss of an important friendship and our relationship that took a back seat to all the other 'stuff' in my head. This period of suffering has been exacerbated by poor eating and a less than ideal exercise regime. How do these admissions make me feel and how am I going to turn the misfortune of the past year around so that 2013 can be a better year? Strangely enough I feel guilty about the past year as much as most of it has been out of my control. I just really want to wipe the slate clean and for 2013 to be a joyous year.

I don't usually make new years resolutions but perhaps now is the time to start. So this year I will exercise more, eat better, laugh more and worry less, I'll be kinder to myself and expect less from others. There's a start. Maybe I can add to the list as the year progresses.

Rohan dancing gangnam style

NYE at Northbridge Piazza