Adieu

Well that’s another Olympics over. I love the Olympics. It’s so wonderful seeing different sports taking centre stage. Don’t get me wrong, I love football, rugby and golf, but there are so many other sports to enjoy.

This time I got really hooked on skeet shooting, kayak cross and sport climbing. Who knew they would be edge of the seat stuff!

Of course, my favourites are the equestrian disciplines. Ending the games with 2 Team Golds, a Team Bronze and 2 individual Bronzes shows how strong we are. Long may they continued to be celebrated at the games.

On reflection, I have a strange relationship with the Summer Olympics. In 2008 when the Bejing Games were on, I was signed off work with stress-related insomnia and severe anxiety. There was a lot of crying!

By 2012 and the London Games, I was Team GBs head cheerleader again as I led the internal campaign at Aviva to get everyone behind the games and Team GB. More cheering than crying this time.

On to 2016 and the Rio Games found me on the sofa again, this time with a broken finger. Yup you guessed it, back to lots of crying.

A global pandemic put pay to the 2020 Games! Can’t say I was in the best place in 2021 when the games actually took place. Back to struggling with anxiety and the new joy of depression! But at least I wasn’t injured eh?!?!

In fact, this is the first games in a very long time that I actually enjoyed. I’m in a good place mentally and physically. One thing is for sure, I will always Team GBs cheerleader. I’ve cried when people lost, I’ve cried when they won. I love hearing the back stories.

I will never get to the Olympics as a competitor. But I would love to go one day as a spectator. Might need to take lots of tissues with me though. So adieu Paris and the is for the memories…

Out of sorts

I woke up feeling ‘out of sorts’ as my Nanna would say. Nothing major has happened. Nothing’s really changed. I have lots to be happy about. On the flip side, lots of things need sorted.

Today I just felt fed up with stuff. The last few weeks have been physically, mentally and emotionally draining for many reasons. I’m very proud of what I’ve achieved, how things have gone and grateful for more deposits in the memory bank.

Throw into the mix the scaremongering, unrest, negative sound bite and riots. There’s a lot of uncertainty again. Lots of frustration. It’s hard to stay in your lane. The world feels rather odd right now. Again.

The Olympics are a great distraction. I’ve cheered, I’ve cried, it’s so inspiring. Not without controversy though. I guess it shows that even at the top of your game, you can make mistakes. Things don’t always go right. It’s how you react to it I guess.

Take me today, I headed to the yard, mucked out and took Buddy for a wander round the village. Only to get home to realise I’d done the whole thing with my t-shirt inside out. Didn’t spoil the view…

London 2012

This photo came up on my memories today. It was 10 years ago that London 2012 started. At the time, I was working at Aviva, running the internal celebrations campaigns for the Diamond Jubilee, Euro 2012 and London 2012. It was a huge challenge, but an incredible thing to be part of.

We had red, white and blue bunting in every location (including Belfast), office street parties and of course, office Olympics.

Little did I know that it would be my last year with Aviva. So much has changed in the last decade. Back then my biggest worries were would London 2012 be a success, would Team GB win any medals and our employees play on the Xbox.

I’m so proud of achievements I’ve had in my career. And the things I’ve been fortunate enough to be a part of.

I‘m also incredibly proud of the way I’ve faced everything that I’ve been through in that decade. I’m a very different person to the one in this photo.

Olympic success

After watching the cross country yesterday with my friend’s dog, it seemed appropriate that today’s photo is of my show jumping companion. The excitement is clearly too much for him.

Hugo was snoring at one point. I woke him up servers times with my cheering! It was so exciting.

What an amazing performance by our eventers. Team gold and an individual
Silver.

And a bronze for Andrew Hoy. Just shows that there’s no age limit on our wonderful sport. I have his saddle you know. If it’s good enough for him…. 🤪

Cross country

Watched the cross country from Tokyo this morning. I was dog sitting so the perfect way to start the day – coffee, cuddles and cross country.

There were lots of ooohing, ahhhhing, cheering and gasping. And that was just me. 🤪

Team GB were incredible!