A new year!

So here it is......2011! Happy New Year everyone!

The turning of a new year is a time to reflect on what has passed and look forward to what is yet to come.......

Nothing really significant happened in my life in 2010, it seemed to be a year of just buckling down and getting on with it....but then nothing terrible happened either so I can only be grateful for that. Hearing the news last night about the knife-edge political situation currently playing out in the West African country of Ivory Coast has brought back lots of memories for me, because when I was 6 years old I went with my family to live in that country's capital, Abidjan. My father was employed by ICI and had just acquired a job out there. We remained for two years, and they proved to be the most formative years of my childhood. I looked in the suitcase under the bed where I keep my photograph albums and found my old school photo of the first class I was in at 'The American International School':

Here I am kneeling on the grass at the far right, and on the far left in the front row was my best friend Alexia. Our class was truly international, with fellow pupils from Ghana, Senegal, United States, Italy, Mexico, The Netherlands, Haiti, Ethiopia. There was one other English girl, my friend Nicole. Alexia and I were inseparable for those two years, but on my return to England we lost touch with each other, as her father was an ambassador and they moved from country to country. Alexia was from Haiti, and I recently typed her name into Facebook to see if perchance she was there... but no. I do hope she is safe and well.

2010 has been a year of devastating natural disasters - the Haiti earthquake and the Pakistan floods - and much human suffering. I just hope and pray that the Ivory Coast situation does not develop into another genocide. History is littered with rulers who have become so intoxicated with power that they refuse to stand down when a new leader has been democratically elected by the people, and it is the common people who end up suffering.

As I look forward to the year ahead, I can feel a change in my life coming......I have been feeling restless for a few years now, not quite knowing what to do, just letting things drift along. But life is what we make it, and if I need change then I must make it happen!