2022: That was the year that was July to December

July was a good month for us. It started with my daughter and I going to see Ed Sheeran at Wembley. We then had a day in London with my husband, before heading off for a brilliant holiday at Disneyland Paris. We last went there in 2011 and I’d been wanting to go back ever since!

My son then competed at the English Schools national athletics championships, followed by the England Athletics national championships. Sadly, he didn’t do quite as well as he would have liked at either of them. He did slightly better at the South West Inter-Counties and Championships – adding the South West champion title to his Midland champion and county champion titles.

We were hit by the highest temperature on record in the UK in July. It got to just over 40 in some places and reached around 38 degrees for us.

August was another busy and enjoyable month for us. We started by going to the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, which was a fantastic experience, especially as we got to see the men’s long jump finals.

My husband caught Covid shortly after that. Luckily he wasn’t ill with it and nobody else caught it. That’s actually the fourth time we’ve had Covid in our house, which seems rather a lot! My husband and I went to see Coldplay, which was absolutely brilliant.

Both kids got their exam results and they were amazing. My son got confirmation of his place to study medicine at Birmingham University.

We went for our annual holiday to Padstow – Hetty’s first holiday. Unfortunately she had to stay in kennels. My son left earlier than the rest of us to go interrailing with his friends. A couple of days later, my eldest went on an adventurous holiday too!

September was a funny old month. My sister and I ran Cheltenham half marathon at the start of the month. My boys were both still away and came home on the 9th and 10th September.

On 8th September, the Queen died. Everything was a bit odd for a few days, culminating in a bank holiday for the funeral on 19th September.

On 18th September, we dropped my son off at university. Actually dropping him off wasn’t too bad, but I really struggled after that.

In October, I went to five Cheltenham Literature Festival events, which I really enjoyed. Unfortunately, my dad picked up Covid at the literature festival, then passed it on to my mum. I’m pleased to say that they were both as ill as if they’d got a bad cold and nothing worse. My daughter started panto rehearsals, which she was very happy about.

My son came home to visit for a weekend. He is loving university, especially all the extra athletics training he is getting. On his birthday a few days later, we went to visit him for the evening. My eldest started a temporary new job with his current company, which involves a lot of driving and being away from home for a night or two every week. And I ran Stroud half marathon.

My eldest went on another of his solo holidays in November. My son came home for a weekend at the start of the month and another at the end of the month. I felt quite unsettled by it all. I had more work than usual, which is good for the finances, but I struggled with it a bit. My daughter started regular panto rehearsals, then the show opened at the end of the month. This year, the kids have far more time on stage than in the past and need to act and sing, as well as dance. My daughter was absolutely brilliant!

I was first lady at parkrun, which I was very pleased about. My sister turned 40 at the end of the month and had a big birthday party.

December for us was the month of illness. At the start of the month, my daughter got a nasty virus and had to miss panto. This is her sixth panto and in all those years she has never missed a single performance or rehearsal. She was ill for a week, then well for a week, then got another nasty virus and had to miss panto again. Just as she got her second virus, my husband got norovirus. We thought we’d been good at hygiene and staying away from him, but I got it four days later. I took the decision to isolate completely in my bedroom to try to prevent it spreading just before Christmas.

It was also the month of cold. We had a few very icy days at the beginning of the month, then on 11th December it snowed heavily. The snow lay on the ground for a whole week and we got used to temperatures like -6. On Boxing Day, we went to London as a family for the first time since Boxing Day 2019. My eldest went on a short solo holiday to Tunisia.

My daughter had panto all through the month and did her last ever performance on New Year’s Eve. It was a sad day. She did her first panto in 2015 at the age of 9. This was definitely final one. Panto has been a huge part of Christmas for all those years and will be very missed in future.

You can read about the first half of the year here…