2016 started off pretty slowly, and by May I was getting a bit bored. I never learn to be careful what I wish for though, because after that things picked up at an alarming rate. And sadly, it wasn’t all good. This year has had some of the biggest lows and punches I’ve ever experienced. Having said that, I’ve made a conscious decision to finish the year as strong as possible.

And like I said, it’s not been all bad! Here’s a summary of what happened.

January

I started the year at home surrounded by friends and cats, which is just the way I like it :) The end of 2015 was super busy as we’d been to Vegas (see A week in Paradise, Sparks fly and That time Buzzfeed saved my life), and then gone to London and Sussex, so it was great to start the year at home as we’re normally at a party.

The rest of January was spent working and hanging out with friends, plus a trip to the local windmill to stock up on flour. I took one of my friends’ boys to see a Dick Whittington pantomime, and bought him a light up windmill (or as he called it, a wind turbine).

In slightly more highbrow entertainment, Joe and I went to see Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap, which was great and kept us guessing till the end. My boss also bought us all tickets to a brilliant classical music concert and dinner (see 9 days in pictures for more).

One of the biggest highlights of the year was going to a talk at The National Videogame Arcade. Masayuki Uemura, one of the original creators of the NES (Nintendo Entertainment System), gave a thoroughly informative and interesting talk about the history of Nintendo, the NES, and a lot of decisions Nintendo made. It was long (3 or 4 hours!) but definitely worth it.

February

Another quiet month. Some of the highlights included going to the opening of my friend Saz’s pop up art gallery, seeing Deadpool at the cinema, and celebrating Valentine’s Day.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BBw–rir6RS/?taken-by=madebyjenni

I also had an interview with Brightpod published: http://blog.brightpod.com/how-marketers-stay-productive-jenni-brown-of-cronofy/

March

We had some university friends come to stay for Joe’s birthday weekend, and we went out for a big restaurant meal and drinks. We went to see Mad Max: Fury Road which was back at the cinema for one showing, and saw The Glass Menagerie at the theatre. I also went to my first ever hackathon, Hack24. It was a brilliant weekend; I took photos, volunteered, made our team’s video, and did an interview. Our team came second in the challenge we did, and I made 120 cupcakes to sell for a local homeless charity for the event.

April

In April Joe’s parents came to visit for a weekend and we went for food and canal walks. I went to the Zelda Symphony concert in London with a couple of friends (a yearly tradition and a definite highlight), and spent some time visiting my friend Alex. This involved everything from going to a Joseph Joseph flash sale to drinking Prosecco in a hipster bar with a running club.

I finally got a new phone, a Samsung Galaxy S7 which I love. It oversharpens photos when zoomed in, but other than that no complaints :)

Joe spent a weekend away with friends, so I went to visit some old friends in Leicester and Silverstone. It was non-stop with two young kids around, but we went to Warwick Castle and saw a narwhal tusk, which was amazing. I also made creme egg brownie:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BD0Fh4tL6YU/?taken-by=madebyjenni

May

In May we hosted our first BBQ of the year, saw Eye in the Sky because we had free tickets, saw X Men because X Men, did a lot of board gaming, and started a new joint website project for a client.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BFPXLBor6TL/?taken-by=madebyjenni

I also made a load of board game themed cakes and biscuits for an NSPCC charity event our local gaming shop held:

https://www.instagram.com/p/BF86X3qr6SQ/

June

For our first holiday of the year we went to Kiev and Chernobyl. It was an amazing trip, made all the more so because we didn’t know what to expect from either place. I haven’t blogged about the trip yet (largely because it took me six months to edit and upload the photos – I took a ridiculous amount), but for spoilers check out the Kiev album and Chernobyl album.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGcLhf_L6U7/?taken-by=madebyjenni

June was also the gaming group’s birthday, so I made a cake people could put their own amiibo on and take photos.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BGy77UOL6WD/?taken-by=madebyjenni

The political turmoil of Brexit was going on around me, but I was caught up in my own personal “Jexit”…I had to decide whether or not to leave my job at Cronofy as I got offered a job by people I’d previously worked for. As if that wasn’t enough, June was also the month Joe’s dad was diagnosed with terminal cancer.

July

From here on the year was a massive struggle. I was extremely depressed and trying to hide it from everyone at work and just carry on as normal. I just wanted to hide away generally, but I had a lot of social commitments, including a college friend’s birthday in Manchester, three musicals (including Mario and Cats), and a family trip to Sheffield.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BIYX9TgA9yL/?taken-by=madebyjenni

I started driving lessons again. I had an interview published with Media Shower: http://mediashower.com/blog/expert-interview-series-jenni-brown-of-cronofy-on-developing-a-marketing-strategy/

I decided to take the new job offer, and it turned my whole life upside down. I gave up a lot of my social life I’d previously taken for granted, trading it for a lot of very early mornings (see Hello 5am), and commutes that can be 2 hours each way. There was no bad decision; both jobs are/were amazing opportunities, and I’m very lucky that I’ve worked with and had the mentorship of some incredibly talented and successful people.

August

I was bored of how my bedroom looked, and I could never find anything, so I did a mini room makeover. We bought and put together bookcases, I got rid of my old desk, took down old posters and put up some Vegas photos and a framed 1984 print from my friend Hannah, and stuck a load of inspirational postcards on my homemade notice board.

We went to see Chicago at the theatre. It was a first night performance so it wasn’t that great, but it’s one of my favourite musicals so I still enjoyed it.

Knowing I probably wouldn’t get any time off work in September, at the end of the month we went to Sussex to visit Joe’s dad, who was in hospital recovering from breaking his hip. The week was mostly spent travelling back and forth to the hospital, which was a long drive from their house, and spending time with Joe’s dad. This was the last time I’d ever see him.

September

In September I took (and passed) my driving theory test. It was a big deal, not because of the test itself but because of the intense level of anxiety I had. I beat it, and that was far more important to me than the test itself…which I passed once before when I was 18!

I did very little in September except work. The new company I work for launched at the end of September, and everyone was putting in very long hours to get everything done.

October

Despite all the underlying stress, which by this point was building up from a variety of sources, October was a good month. An old coworker got married and we went to his wedding, which was lovely despite the thunderstorm (!) Three close friends have their birthdays close together, so I threw them a party and made a unicorn-themed cake.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BLWPT1Bh7Tv/?taken-by=madebyjenni

We also had a mini Halloween party that involved lots of gaming :)

November

This was the month when everything really stared to fall apart. Totally unexpectedly, an old school friend died of cancer. A friend had a miscarriage. Joe’s childhood family cat died. Joe’s dad passed away at hours before we were due to go down and visit. I was double booked for funerals. Just being there are then going back down for the funeral was truly horrendous…made more so by the fact we had flu. I covered it in not very much detail here: The week that lasted a lifetime. I’m still grieving and dealing with everything, and it’s still very raw. I’m hoping one day I’ll be strong enough to talk about it properly.

Black Friday was the blackest Friday ever.

December

One of my best friends came to stay and we went to a StreetPass Christmas party. I skipped three other Christmas parties because I just wasn’t feeling up to them, and went to the work Christmas meal. I also had a quiet meal out with friends. The real turning point came when we went to Norway for my 30th birthday. I’m yet to blog about the trip, but as with Ukraine the photos are on Flickr waiting to be written about…here’s a small spoiler:

We went to see Star Wars, finished buying Christmas presents, and had a ‘Nottingham Christmas’ before heading down to Sussex to spend the holidays with Joe’s family. We spent a lot of time relaxing, eating, playing computer games, chatting, and opening presents, and now we’re back at home with some very clingy cats. Meal prep and house organisation have begun and are going well so far.

2017 is set up to be a great year..we’ve booked trips to Amsterdam and Paris, planned some more city breaks, and have tickets to a few concerts, theatre performances, and a cirque show. Maybe it’ll be the best year yet! Fingers crossed ;)

How was your 2016?