Saasdia Travel Gid

Happy New Year everyone! As we’ve closed the door on 2024, I’m doing my annual reflection post which also coincides with my blog-iversary (5 years today!).

To start off the review, I’d like to say a massive thank you to everyone who reads, subscribes, comments or encourages this blog. I love having this creative outlet and supportive community as part of my escape from work and life – it’s truly a blessing for which I’m grateful. I don’t do this blog for followers or to make money, but for enjoyment – so it’s amazing that I had over 420,000 visitors in 2024! It blows my mind.

So, with another year under my blogging belt, let’s wrap up 2024. Overall 2024 was a pretty stable year. There were no major life events to report, and my work has been my focus, to the point it’s been overwhelming and my work-life balance has been non existent for long periods during the year. I spent more time at home, working on my house and garden at weekends, but did still manage a fair bit of travel. Here’s the traditional monthly run down.

January

January was spent at home and quiet, recovering from Christmas, and working hard. My project is still ongoing, but with a “Go Live” in 2025, 2024 has been a crunch year. It’s been so stressful and to be honest I’ve had days where I’ve come home and felt completely overwhelmed, and times this year where I’ve just had to go off grid to concentrate on work.

The only trip away from home was a much needed ‘change of scene’ weekend in London, where we explored wonderful Shoreditch. Even though it was cold, we had nice light, crisp weather and had fun playing mini golf and eating our way around this area of the city!

February

My birthday in February is normally a cold affair, so this year I said no to that and booked a flight to the Middle East, visiting Dubai. We spent a week there staying at the Shangri-La, and visiting everything from the Miracle Garden, to Aya Universe, and the insane Dubai Mall. Whilst I really am glad we visited, and would definitely recommend experiencing Dubai at least once in your life, I probably wouldn’t choose to go back.

March

After my birthday it was all work focus again, until l found myself nearing burnout after 4 solid weeks with no days off including weekends, so I decided to head to Morocco for a long weekend to see my husband while he was away on work. We had some lovely sunshine to escape British winter and stayed in the most magical hotel – The Oberoi. We enjoyed exploring Marrakech and its magic, from the souks to the palaces and the museums, it’s a really special city.

April

April was all about utilising bank holidays for some short trips – across the Easter weekend, I visited the south of France with my friend, staying in Nice and nipping along the French coastline to numerous places such as Eze, Villefranche and Monaco. It was on this trip that I offered my friend of 15 years a job in my team. I didn’t know if mixing friendship and work was risky, but the reality is she wants to support me so much she goes above and beyond to do that. Thank you to the chairs below for being the spot we agreed our plan!

I also spent some time at home with my parents, and we took a trip to the National Memorial Arboretum which was a really special place. It was around this time as well that I started tracing my paternal family tree – it’s been my major project outside of work this year and has taught me to be a semi-professional DNA geneticist tracing my unknown paternal tree via DNA matches! It took me absolutely months, but I traced it and am proud to have done so.

May

I tend to always do a 10 day break in May, before the school holidays hit and while the weather is nice. This year I couldn’t do that because of my work commitments, but I managed to still squeeze in quite a bit of travel. In early May, my husband took off on work again and I went along with him to Gothenburg in Sweden for a long weekend. It was such a low key, refreshing, unexpected break and one of my favourite of the whole year.

After only a day back at home, I then had a work conference in Amsterdam and stayed on for the long May bank holiday weekend to visit a friend. Whilst there, I visited the famous cheese market in Alkmaar and spent some more time exploring the Jordaan and Nine Streets area of Amsterdam itself.

June

In June, it was my turn for some work travel, when I headed off to Barcelona for a conference. I added on the weekend before and a day afterwards to have 3 days exploring the city – I saw and did so much, but the highlight was definitely La Sagrada Familia. I didn’t instantly love Barcelona and it is really suffering from over tourism, but after a week there and getting off the tourist trail, I really fell for it by the end of my stay.

July

July was spent working super long hours and then largely pootling in my garden at weekends. I’ve really enjoyed my gardening this year, having spent the last 2 years trying to tackle it like a jungle. It’s finally under control and I’m enjoying seeing many of my plants flower for the first time.

August

August started as July ended but in the middle of the month, we embarked on a truly exciting adventure for a week at the Olympics. We enjoyed numerous athletics sessions, some volleyball, canoeing and water polo. It was super special and an experience of a life time.

September

After the Olympics, it was back home and throwing myself in to work – with long hours and lots of issues on my project it really wasn’t fun. At weekends I had to do a bit of work, but I also completed a number of minor house projects – mainly a re-vamp of the living room, dining room and hallway!

October

October was another month of work, work, work but I did manage to make time one weekend to go and watch an NFL game at Wembley in London with my husband and parents – we saw the Jags win for the second year in a row, this time against the New England Patriots.

I also managed a blog buddy meetup this year with Tricia from Travel through my Lens. It was so nice to meet her and get to know her and Terry on their way back to the US following a number of years living in France.

November

In November, I spent a weekend in London for a change of scene at wonderful Battersea, and also managed to squeeze in a visit to The Tower of London in the lovely autumn sun.

Then finally, after a solid 13 weeks at work with no leave since the Olympics, it was time for my longest trip of the year. November brought the freezing weather to England, so we escaped it for a couple of weeks. For 2024, this was with a trip to magical Malaysia, where we visited Kuala Lumpur and Langkawi island. I fell in love with the country, and I can easily say it was one of our best trips ever.

December

After a few weeks back at work, I had holiday to use over the Christmas break. I therefore ‘broke up’ for Christmas earlier than I ever have before, and on the 18th December headed to Hamburg for a festive treat – a German Christmas market. Germany will always be my second home and I loved every second of being back. Plus Glühwein is always a winner.

I rounded the year off with a lovely time with friends and family over the Christmas break, and as I type this I’m preparing for a New Year celebration with my family. Hopefully back to work won’t be too bad in a couple of days’ time!

So there you have it – 2024 for me was a year of more travel, but also more time at home than I have had since the COVID lockdown. I’ve absolutely loved ‘nesting’ this year – working on my house and garden has been a real joy, and I feel I’ve had a good balance of home and away. My work-life balance has struggled more this year than it has for the past few years, and will only get worse in 2025. With my major project ‘Go Live’ in July 2025, I am not taking any extended holiday periods for nearly 8 months – I’m on countdown already for that long trip!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year and prosperous 2025.