Here we are again. Today we are publishing the latest version of our current website, before going live with our brand-new systems.
It has certainly been a year I will never forget. This time last year we were just two weeks away from the first national lockdown in the UK. For me that meant, no more singing with my wonderful chorus, no more sewing with my fab sewing group, no more Monday morning BarreCore, no more Thursday morning Yoga, and most importantly, no more time with my children, my family and my friends. The children have all been extremely lucky not to lose jobs. My youngest is in New Zealand, so has been quite safe.
I am fortunate enough to live in a big enough house with a garden so that we are not on top of each other all the time. I live practically in the countryside and went cycling every day until July when I started to do the One million step challenge in aid of Diabetes UK. Walking a minimum of five miles a day and achieving up to nine miles a day on Saturdays when walking with a good friend. I loved the experience and really got into walking, but I missed my cycling I have to say and there are only so many hours in a day.
I found it hard to motivate myself to exercise when that finished. I didn’t get back on my bicycle. I walked only once a week. Autumn came, Winter set in, and I, like many other people I have spoken to, found the third lockdown particularly hard, short days, difficult news, which I found almost impossible to listen to. In fact, I have tended to avoid the news for almost all of the last year. I watch the occasional briefing, I read a paragraph of a news item that disturbs me on my phone.
There have been things that have kept me going though, I have been fortunate to have three projects to keep me busy, perhaps too busy to be honest. I have been zooming with my sewing group once a week and we have undertaken to work on several items for a local church. The logistics in themselves have been interesting. So far, we have almost completed a covering for the organ, and a banner four feet wide by six feet tall for the Saint. Using a wide range of dyeing, sewing and embroidery techniques. I have to say I am in awe of the skills of the women in this group, and they have helped to keep me sane with their madness, if that makes sense. Love you all ladies.
Most importantly, I have been working on Mentors for Women, and it has been a much longer and much harder road than I ever imagined it would be. It has been fraught with technical difficulties in the last year, and there was a point in time where I must be honest and say I almost gave up. I think the photograph I have chosen represents the task quite well. If it wasn’t for the people around me and the wonderful people who I am working with who kept telling me I must continue, I think I would have walked away. Now we are finally on the cusp, and I am waiting for the roll out of a new version of the software I use to fix a few glitches so that I can get the application live.
In the interest of moving forward we decided to revamp our old website so that we can publish it on this very special day for women, #internationalwomen’sday. I am very excited about the new website and the way it is shaping up and I can’t wait to share it with you all.
I was lucky enough to get vaccinated a couple of weeks ago, and I think we are all hoping that there is light at the end of this long and very dark tunnel we have been in. I believe the need for mentoring especially of women is greater than ever, and I hope that we are going to be able to do some great things in making this change to the way women can access mentoring in the extremely near future.
The first three elements of our training are all up and running, which is exciting. There are free webinars for members and then experiential training, which for the moment is zoom based, but we hope later in the year to be able to bring those sessions into a real room and add the benefit of being able to network with like minds as well.
I have to say I am also looking forward to the day when I can see my surrogate granddaughter again, hug my boys and the wonderful women they have in their lives, welcome my youngest back from New Zealand, see my family, party with my friends, and remove this lock down girdle I seem to have gained. I can’t imagine what it will be like to go out, and see people, and wear make up and shoes! I seem to have spent the last year in sandals and trainers and training gear, even when I am not exercising. It will take time for all of us to get used to that world out there again.
#mentorsforwomen #mentoring #women
