Rites of passage

My backyard on a really clear and sunny day!
But don't let the sunshine fool you-
it was -18˚C outside at the time! Brrr!!

Funny story! Wednesday I finished school early and so had to catch the bus home. While waiting for the bus I decided to go to the supermarket to look around. I was waiting at the checkout with only some pens for school. There was only one register open and there were 2 people in front of me. The guy in front of me sort of turned a few times and looked at me, I looked away not quite sure what he was doing. He started talking to me in Finnish and of course I had no idea what he was saying! As he was babbling about who knows what, he sort of motioned in front of him and stepped back a little. From the body cues I gathered he was letting me in front because he had a full trolley yet to go through. Everyone around was watching the whole thing and so to avoid explaining to him that I didn’t speak Finnish I just went out on a whim and stepped in front of him and said “kiitos” (thankyou), hoping that was what he had said to me! Luckily it seemed it was! He, the checkout chick and the other customer already being served started talking and I just stood there and tried not to make too much eye contact, hoping they wouldn’t try to involve my in their conversation. I said ‘hei’ when it was my turn, was served, motioned that I would use my card to pay and then said ‘kiitos’ and ‘hei hei’ (bye). This is what I call my ‘Survival Finnish’, it works at checkouts perfectly fine as long as they don’t ask me any questions or try and start a conversation!

Last week was the third year’s final week of school. The second year students had organised a night at the middle school in the music room. It was decked out in cool lights and they were dressed in cargo as it had like an army theme. They had the third year students dress in cargo also and made them commando crawl in under some desks! They had made a parody of a popular song dedicated to them and they sang it and played a video clip they’d also made. They had organised a bunch of activities for the third year’s to do. Including, making a select few girls and boys go out and swap clothes and had them imitate the guy or girl whose clothes they were wearing. I thought the guys’ impressions of the girls were quite hilarious! Obviously I had no idea what they were saying but I was sitting there watching guys dressed in girls clothes speak in a foreign language with girls voices which was enough to make it funny for me! Another favourite of mine was when they strapped heart rate monitors to some of the girls and challenged some boys to see who could raise the girl’s heart rate the most within a certain time limit. So funny! These things and many more happened and all of the younger students could come and just watch. Going with the theme throughout these activities some people would pull out the participants and make them do push ups for punishment for some reason or another. It was a rather entertaining night!

The next day was Penkkarit… I had been warned but nothing could’ve prepared me for what I walked into when I walked through those doors into school the next morning! It is like the muck up day some schools in Australia have except with like no rules and the vandalising of people is accepted and even one of the major parts of it! It’s the day where the third year students dress up and attack both the school and the younger students because they are the eldest and they have finished! When we got to school that morning all the windows and doors where covered so you couldn’t see what was waiting for you on the other side. Riina and I managed to sneak up the stairs and hide out for a while. We dropped our coats down onto the coat rack from the balcony and listened to the screams of the students now arriving at school and the laughs of the third years’. 

We did well but it was inevitable… we were caught and I was duct taped and glad wrapped to a pole in the cafeteria, drawn all over with lipstick and squirted with water! The day was crazy! Every time I managed to escape from the tape, I was bound again and again! I had so much water tipped over me and sprayed in my face, lipstick drawn on me and lollies stuck down my jumper! It was so funny though! 

When I got the chance I walked around and had a look in all of the classrooms. Each of them was completely turned upside down! Although, it wasn’t just like they had vandalised it all, they had changed each of them and they each had a kind of theme or décor. For example, they’d pitched a tent in one room with litter and empty bottles strewn around as if it was an aftermath of some crazy night, made a giant chess set in another, they had a teddy bear’s picnic, a room dedicated to ‘Robin’ (the Finnish equivalent of Justin Bieber) where they had pictures of him, his music playing and glow sticks, etc. 

Even during lunch people were being snuck up on and taped to their chairs! After lunch they went over to the middle school and took some of the madness out on the younger kids too and then they were back over for their last part in the school. It is tradition that the younger year levels in the Lukio ‘kick them out’. We carried each of the third years out to a truck outside where everyone in the town and all of the kids from all of the other schools were waiting and watching. 

It is tradition for them to then ride around the town in the truck and throw out lollies and chant or sing or whatever they want. People walked to the centre of the town and there we met the truck again and all of the third years’ piled out and stood atop a pile of snow. There they all threw out more lollies, yelled about how they had no mornings left at school and they set fire to a school desk! They came down from the snow and continued their giving out of lollies, drawing on the kids with lipstick and duct taping kids together! I have never experienced anything so crazy before in my life! It was definitely a new experience! It was so much fun to watch and also to take part in!

The next day was the Wanhat dance which marks the day that the second year students become the oldest at the school. The closest thing I can compare it to at home is our Formal, however it is actually really not much alike that at all! Unlike our Formals where we go to dinner and dance just for fun it’s more of a performance that they dance for people. These girls and guys in the second year that wish to take part in it take it as a class in the months leading up to the day where they learn the dance steps to a variety of songs and even choreograph their own special dance that they present at the end. They do have a special lunch at the school before the dance. They dance multiple times; I watched the one that was on during the school day where all of the students can come and watch. The girls aren’t just dressed just in nice dresses like we do, but in ball gowns! They all looked like princesses! It was really cool to watch!

After watching the Wanhat Dance Riina and I went to Ylivieska, a town about 30km from Oulainen. There is only one clothes shop in Oulainen so we went there for a little more variety! We wondered around, bought a few things and all of that. All was good until it came to the cash register at the big mall. Riina went through first and then I went through with my things. First mistake: I walked up and said “Hei hei” meaning “bye”! The checkout chick looked at me funny but ignored it. Then she started talking to me… oh no! I just stood there while she looked at me, clearly expecting some kind of answer to what she’d just said/asked… I just turned and called out to Riina who looked up and said to me (the English speaker) “Mitä?” and then turned to the Finnish checkout chick and asked “what?”. The chick, I think a bit bewildered, repeated the question she’d asked me and then Riina turned to me and began to explain to me… In Finnish! She realised and swapped to English… All of the fuss was over if I needed a plastic bag or not! I said no and then I proceeded to pay. I stuffed up my pin twice before I realised I was using a different card and then I accidentally cancelled the whole transaction! The poor girl on checkout put it back through and I put in my right pin! I think she was glad to see the back of us! What an event! Definitely gave us a laugh as we recapped in the car on the way home!

This Sunday for lunch my family went out to the primary school. There they had a village meal hosted in the school’s gym. Everyone in our village could come there and eat a meal of elk that locals had hunted and prepared. We lined up and had a proper feeding, it was really good! I think it tasted similar to lamb.

The night before last I went ice skating! Beforehand my host mum and I popped into the local library and picked out some things to help me learn Finnish and I even picked out some simple picture books to start learning simple sentence structures. I picked up a form and I’m going to get my own library card too!

We headed out to the ice rink afterwards. I have skated maybe twice before in Adelaide but it was years ago, indoor and I held onto the walls the whole time! So this was my first attempt at real skating! My host mum got me to wear an ice hockey helmet the whole time which was probably a good call! Even before I stepped onto the ice I was holding onto things and people! I discovered how bad my balance really is! I could not have gotten to the chair fast enough! All of the little kids stopped and stared at me leaning on this little chair and wobbling along with my big helmet on! I think they were a little confused as to why I didn’t know how to skate when they were like five and were flying around on their skates and even going with only one foot! I heard my host mum explain to one man that I was from Australia, immediately I could see his expression change from confusion and curiosity to understanding and maybe a little sympathy for my horrible skating abilities!

It was so much fun though and I only fell over once which was because Juulia thought it would be a good idea to get me to grab hold of her hockey stick and pull me along at a speed I was not ready for! I stacked it and could not get up! She had to fetch me my chair… It was a good night none the less! At the end I even managed to skate (quite badly but by myself none the less!) without the chair but not for very long or far… I think everyone out there had a good hearted laugh at the crazy Australian trying to learn to skate that night!

Incredible sunset and fog from my house-  5pm 20th February

Woolen socks

Last Saturday I trekked up to Kemi in Lapland to go to the Snow Castle with some other exchange students and Rotex in my district. I travelled by train which is quite expensive compared to what I am used to. I have a student card here which saves me about half price on transport but even with that the round trip cost me 40 euro! I met the others on the train to Oulu; I hadn’t met any of them before except Esteban who is on exchange in Ylivieska 30kms from Oulainen and we happened to meet that morning at the train station.

It was particularly terrible weather that day and my train from Ylivieska was delayed an hour but eventually I got there! The snow castle was really quite amazing! There were a lot of Angry Birds sculptures and carvings! I didn’t know until the week before that Angry Birds is actually a Finnish creation! Well there you go!

Inside there are rooms with the beds made out of big slabs of ice! There was a bar and people were sitting around tables drinking coffee and eating snacks inside! There is a Chapel where you can even get married!

Into the walls were carved all different things! Space invaders, Angry Birds, a forest, animals, etc. There was a giant dragon ice carving, a unicorn and so many other things!

After looking all through the snow castle we walked not too far to a pizzeria called ‘Puistopaviljonki’. We each ordered a reasonably priced pizza each and not long later, before each of us was placed pizza’s that overhung the sides of our already huge plates! I tried my best but I was one of quite a few that needed the doggie bag for my left overs!

I went skiing with Juulia, Emilia,
Sami and Soile on Sunday. I am getting more confident on the skis but I don’t think I’m really getting any better! There was a small slope (seriously only maybe a couple centre meter drop) where I started gliding. It was fun for a moment until I realised I hadn’t learnt how to slow down or stop and I was terrible at steering and I was headed straight for a tree! That ended in a lot of laughter! I soon hit square into the tree and was all covered in snow!

I obviously didn’t learn from that because next thing we were
headed UP a hill! Everyone was calmly walking up on their skis and there was me sliding backwards down the hill! I’d fall to the ground, stop and pull myself back up and then slide back down again! It was a bit scary! I don’t think skiing is really my thing…

This week I visited the bank and got a Finnish account. They gave me my card which the lady had picked out for me... It is a bright red Angry Birds card! Pretty cool and very Finnish!

February 5^th is the commemoration of the birthday of Finland’s national poet, Johan Runeberg. This day people make these special cakes called 'Runeberg's torte'. They put usually raspberry jam on top. I quite liked the little cake, it was really nice.

I have been trying to learn a little more of the language this week. I worked out and have been practicing the names of some vegetables. Also, Riina helped write out the names of things in my room and put post-it notes up! Now I know what table is (pöytä), clock (kello), etc.

This weekend it was Ilpo, my host dad’s birthday. Juulia and I helped stuff the cannelloni and I also folded all the napkins. It was only a small gathering of immediate family but there was lots of food and sweets! I tried some traditional Finnish candy called 'Salmiakki'. My reaction to it was about the same as Juulia’s reaction to the vegemite I gave her the other week… I had to go to the bin to spit it out! I couldn’t even bring myself to physically swallow it! I am not a fan at all! It’s like a dark salty lolly, I can only compare it to licorice but it isn’t really that much like that. They love it here! I do not understand it. Safe to say no one will be accusing me of helping myself to their salmiakki at any point this year!

We went out again this weekend but this time just to go tobogganing. It was so much fun! I got so much snow in my face and my mittens where completely covered in ice! I went down together with Emilia once and we got sprayed in snow! It was a lot of fun! It was a busy weekend and I was so tired by the end of it!

Last night I went to another Rotary meeting. This time I did my first presentation. We had a meal first as usual and then headed into a room where I presented about Australia and myself and my Rotary club to my Rotary club here. As it is only a few weeks into my exchange I don’t know enough Finnish yet to present even in basic Finnish so my host sister, Riina, acted as an interpreter  After I spoke each slide in English she translated into Finnish for those members who didn’t understand English. Timö, the president of the club, presented me with their club’s banner which I will bring home to give to my club in Gawler. I also took the opportunity to present to them my club’s banner.

Before I went into the room to present a lady in the Rotary club came to me and said ‘Welcome to Oulainen’ and handed me a gift bag. Inside was a pair of hand knitted woolen rainbow socks! I was so surprised but I think they’re awesome! I have been wanting to buy a pair of woolen socks. Everyone in Finland wears them in winter. At school we take our shoes off at the coat rack and we walk around all day in just our socks. Even though they’re a bit wild I wore my new socks today to school!

Today also I did another presentation, this time at my school for the English class I have been in for the last 2 weeks. I altered my presentation to involve some of the topics they have been covering in their class and took out a couple of things too. It went really well! I enjoyed it a lot, they asked questions as the presentation was going so it was more like a class discussion than me just presenting at them. It also meant that I knew that I wasn’t boring them to death because I was answering their own questions too.

Another little thing that happened tonight was that I tried elk for the first time! It was in the soup we had for dinner!

I have noticed how the sun is gradually rising earlier each day and setting later. When I started school two and a half weeks ago it was pitch black at 7:30am when we would leave for school. I realised this morning that, whilst the sun wasn’t up yet, it was quite light! I’m sure there is a while of winter left yet but at least were starting to see the sun again!

Aussie Summer to Finnish Winter!

Goodbye Mum and Dad!- Adelaide Airport

Farewell Australia!- Melbourne Airport

These last 2 weeks have been crazy! I think my flight time was almost 30 hours not including stop overs! Our flight itinerary was in local times so some of us didn't realise how big the time differences were and what we thought was only a 6 hour flight (already long enough!) from Singapore to Heathrow was actually 14 hours or so and that was only 1 stretch out of 4! It was at this realisation that I resigned myself to death by boredom! Boy was I glad when I finally landed in Helsinki! 

It was 5pm and already so dark! It felt like the middle of the night! I had watched the sun set out of my window on the plane as we flew over Sweden and came over Finland, so beautiful! Before take-off in Heathrow the pilot told us the current weather in Helsinki… -30˚C! Luckily for us it ‘warmed up’ to about -20˚C by the time we arrived… Still a shock to us Aussies coming out of the Australian Summer! Although we were lucky that it was a relatively cool day around 28˚C when we left so it was easy to wear pants without dying from the heat.

Us Aussies arrived a day before we were due at orientation camp so Helsinki Rotary had organised us to stay with families in the city for the night. Jemima and I stayed with an absolutely amazing family! They were so lovely! That night we walked their dog with their two teenage girls, Elise and Iiris, but we were back within 10 minutes as we were all frozen to the core! The perfect night for Jemima and I to experience our first Finnish sauna! It was so nice to defrost and warm up!

A casual January day the beach...

The next day the family showed us around Helsinki which included going to the beach. For some reason I don’t understand, I knew that their lakes froze but didn’t even consider that their beaches would freeze too! We walked on the sea! There were people with ski’s there as well! It was really a weird concept for my Aussie mind but they were just as gob smacked that our beaches are always flowing, even in our winter! It was really sad to leave the family that night when they took us to the bus stop for camp. I’d had such a great time! I have a year though, so I plan to go back down and see them at some point.

A nice dip in the lake

Camp was a lot of fun. Along with about 6 hours of language lessons each day we also had the chance to do a lot of activities. Twice we went to sauna and had the chance to dip in the hole in the frozen lake and roll in the snow. We ran from the 80˚C sauna out into about -20˚C outside and rolled in the snow and made snow angels and ran down to the lake for a dip! I went in, not just once but 3 times! I’m not sure if that qualifies me as totally insane, I guess I’ll leave that up to you to decide!

Exchange student
toboggan train!

Throughout the week we went tobogganing and also played a variation of ice hockey but with half the team being pulled in toboggans by their teammates as they used the hockey sticks to try and score goals. It was so much fun! It got quite competitive! People were flying left right and centre out of toboggans and even a few people pulling them were toppled over, including me! 

One night we went for a sort of hike. We were split up into small groups and did a collection of things including cooking Finnish pancakes over a fire in a little hut and we went and met some ice fishermen who had a campfire going in the middle of the lake and were fishing. We each had a turn and used the metre long drill to manually drill a hole in the ice. It was hard work but we all managed to get there! They told us that the ice was between 60cm-1m thick! None of us campers managed to catch anything but we were all chuffed with our drilling efforts none the less!

Next stop was to eat some salmon and cook some traditional sausages over the fire with some fisherman in their open wooden type hut, it was all so nice! We also had the chance to try on snow shoes and walk on the deep snow, use a sledge and also try some cross country skiing but as I only went a few metres on them I didn’t really count it as my first time skiing, that would come in a week’s time!

Tampere Cathedral

We also had a day excursion to Tampere where we went on a bus tour of the city, went and visited a beautiful cathedral and also had the chance afterwards to have a look around and do some of our own shopping if we wanted. I think just about everyone made a visit to ‘Hesburger’, I suppose you could think of it as the Finnish version of McDonalds.

In no time camp was over and we were packing our bags once again to make another trip! Our host families started arriving and after their own small briefing, our farewell and a last lunch together we were each off to our different parts of Finland to officially start our exchange year!

I slept most of the 400km journey to my host family’s house in Oulainen, Northern Finland. We arrived at around 6pm but, again, it could have been midnight it was so dark!

My first night, after eating something, I already was out to meet some of Riina, my host sister’s, friends. I was so knackered but it was also nice to already have some contact with people here. 

After sleeping quite late on Sunday we went out to do some cross country skiing! However, what I had the most fun doing was the tobogganing! I still am yet to master the whole steering concept but I think the falling out into the snow is a big part in the fun of it all! I think, so far tobogganing is my favourite snow activity.

Emilia

My youngest sibling, 5 year old Emilia, has learnt 3 English words that she likes to use at every opportunity… The other night she came up to my room, knocked on my door and then went to me… “Emmy, let’s go eat!”

Monday was a full on day! I started school in morning at 8am. After tagging along with Riina to 2 hours of Advanced Maths and then an hour of Swedish taught in Finnish I was ready for my own timetable! I am now taking Biology, History and a final year English class. Whilst I don’t understand History at all I don’t really mind Biology because even though it is taught in Finnish I can basically follow along because all of the scientific words are fairly similar to in English and I take Biology in Australia so I understand! 

School is quite different here compared to Australia. After every lesson of 45 minutes there is a 10-15 minute break. Also, the lunch every day is a proper hot meal which is free, same as their schooling as it is all paid for through taxes. The Lukio (senior high school, equivalent to Australian grades 10-12) is really different to our high schools. Attending there feels like you are in a higher education like Uni. You have no bells and there aren’t teachers telling you were to be or chasing you up for things, you call all the teachers by their first names and you have no set uniform. Each student has to attain a certain grade in year 9 to be able to move on to Lukio so at this stage it is your education so it is your responsibility.

At lunchtime on my first day everyone was called to the cafeteria and was introduced to me. It was nice but I was keen to get out of the limelight! So many people looking at me all at once!

Oulainen famous!

That night I went to my first Rotary meeting. My host club is so friendly! I had a really good time chatting to everyone there. In the meeting they gave a little welcome in English for me which was really nice and they invited me to make a presentation about myself and about Australia which I will do on the 11^th of February. I even stared in the local paper this week!

Usually Finland in the middle of winter is too cold to make snowmen. It is so cold here that the snow is just powder and cannot actually stick together! But the last couple of days it has been a little warmer so the other night we went out and I made my first snowman! He was just the generic snowman, nothing compared to the cute Snow-Muumi made by Riina and Emilia. Muumi is a very popular cartoon troll here; you can basically buy anything with Muumi on it!

Last night I went along with Juulia and Riina, my host sisters, to their floorball game and I even played as well! I had so much fun! I had never heard of floorball before I came to Finland and no one here has heard of Netball but both sports are extremely popular and common in their respective countries. I got a few goals and had an absolute ball! They go every week and I am now going to join the team too!

These last two weeks have been a rollercoaster! Such huge changes but it didn’t take long to settle into life here and into the family. I am really enjoying myself and loving the family I am staying with! My sisters and I get along really well! They’re both teaching me Finnish and I can already see a difference from a few days ago. In class I can pick up a couple of words that the teacher says and whilst I can’t work out what the rest of the sentence means those couple of recognitions, however small, confirms to me that I’m on the right track and that if I continue to try I will get there eventually! 

Australia, Brazil, South Africa, Colombia, Argentina... Finland!!

Ready to rumble!

Finally all packed and ready to go!

So… The time has finally come where I can say, “I leave tomorrow”!
As I hug my parents goodnight for the last time for a long time I can’t help but think about how truly different this year is going to be from the previous one!
My last week in Australia has been a bit of a blur! If anyone has been driving around Gawler this week and has seen two suspicious people taking photos of all kinds of random landmarks, don’t stress it was more than likely just my dad and I! We have been taking photos of the town to put with my presentation I have been working on for when I get to my host club in Oulainen, Finland. Covering topics of family, school, my town and more it should be interesting trying to get my point across to people who may or may not understand a single word of English! I think my first task when I get there is to work on writing and practicing it in Finnish so at the very least they can understand what my name is!

Me speaking at the Rotary Club of
Gawler Light's meeting- Tuesday 15/1/13 

Rotary is an international organisation, with clubs all around the world. My local Rotary club is the Rotary Club of Gawler Light and they are sponsoring my exchange this year. They meet weekly and on Tuesday night I went and gave a small impromptu talk where I spoke a bit about whatever came to mind in relation to myself, my exchange and Finland. I talked about my host families, about my Finnish language skills (or lack thereof!) and also about the Finnish weather… It sure is going to be a shock after the heat we’ve been having here!

My Outbound Counsellor and I

My first week in Finland will be spent in Karkku not too far from the capital, Helsinki but around 400kms from my host town, Oulainen. There I will be with all of the other newly arrived exchange students on a camp. We haven’t been told exactly what we will actually be doing but from what past students have said I believe we will learn a little about the language and culture and basically settle into the ridiculously awkward time difference. (Finland is about 8 and a half hours behind us here in SA which will prove difficult when it comes time to wanting to Skype Mum and Dad or friends back home…)

I have been told that at some point we will have a day trip into Tampere where we can do a bit of shopping which would be awesome as I am going with the warmest clothes I own which I can 100% guarantee I am going to freeze in over there!

Today has been such a mad rush of final farewells to friends and family and organising so many little last minute things! Tonight’s packing turned into a very demanding exercise when my luggage totalled 27kgs! With only 7 of those kilos being my own things I finally came to the conclusion that I may have overdone the souvenir and gift shopping a little bit!! The drama of deciding what to take and what Australian goodies would have to stay in Australia was extremely trying! The sad moment came where the Tim tams were told they were not going on their European holiday and out they went…
With our bathroom scales giving us all kinds of answers we resorted to weighing items 1kg at a time on the kitchen scales! After the drama of packing was over which took much longer than expected I am finally about to call it a night!

I will be getting up bright and early in the morning for what I am sure will be yet another last minute rush to be ready to get to the airport for my morning flight to Melbourne. It will be weird to drive away from home tomorrow. It may not change a lot in the year I am away but I am curious as to how I will see it after seeing so many different places of the world and experiencing so many new and different things; how I change and how that affects how I view places, people and situations will be interesting to see.
January has been a hectic month so far! I have been on a total of 5 planes rides already and I haven’t even left the country! It’s been a crazy month of farewells, souvenir shopping, badge making, packing, and that trip to Canberra for the allusive ‘biometric scan’ which turned out to only involve my two index fingers being placed on a scanner!

Euro, Singapore Dollars and British Pounds... All prepared for the stop overs!

I think as challenging as this year will be I will probably feel relief when I finally sit down on that plane tomorrow! The preparation for this has been madness and it’ll be nice when it’s all finished and all I have to think about is what everyone has been working hard towards this past year, the exchange itself!

Rotary exchange students from all around the globe have blazers of different colours depending on the country they are from. In Australia we are given green blazers. It is a sort of tradition that each student sources a variety of small pins that relate to where they’re from or themselves in some way. They then go on to share them with all of the different people they meet throughout their year away, including other exchange students they may meet along the way! Exchange students will often come home after their year abroad with their blazer absolutely covered! Filled with pins, badges and other nicknacks from their adventures you can barely see what colour the blazer actually is!

For my badges I tried really hard to look for some that related to South Australia and my town of Gawler specifically rather than a generic Australian flag pin. It was really difficult to find but I really wanted to have some distinctive badges so when I couldn’t buy any I had to think outside of the box. My Mum and I thought it would be really unique to make my own badges! We borrowed badge making materials and a machine from some family friends and came up with a whole range of designs on the computer for some small button badges. They are very special as my family have all worked together to produce them! I have over 20 different designs with Gawler printed on them along with different Australian animals, and South Australian icons and trademarks. I also have a badge that has my Rotary district and sponsor club on it (Gawler Light D9500). My family and I have made around 250 badges altogether that I will share throughout my year abroad!

Already stitched to the pocket on my blazer in front of my heart is a small angel charm my work friends gave to me as a part of my going away gift. It is a travel angel that stays with me so that where ever I am, I will never be alone.  One of a few thoughtful little pins and charms that have already started to fill my blazer!
For my going away my Grandparents gave me a beautiful little necklace which is of Saint Christopher, the Patron Saint of safe travel.

I am so blessed to have such caring friends and family. Whilst a year is a long time, you will neither leave my mind nor my heart…