*A year in pictures - 2013 edition*

Round about this time last year I posted a "year in pictures" so thought it was probably a good tradition to keep up. This year hasn't produced so many good skating times as 2012 did, so I might just include a few non-skating things in here too for good measure.

The main reason for doing this is to give me a way to look over the year and remember that it wasn't all doom and gloom, as much as it felt like it at times.

For those who don't know me in real life, by the way, I had my thyroid surgery on October 31st (right hemi-thyroidectomy - and for the record, I was NOT impressed that it ruined my halloween plans), and got the positive results I was hoping for - no cancer - yay!! So it definitely could have been a much, much worse year. I recovered much more quickly than I thought I would and continue to do so. I've been told it's likely I'll have some swelling in my throat for up to 6 months, and I'm under strict instructions to moisturise my whole neck twice a day for at least three months! This is to prevent it healing "tight" and leaving me without a full range of movement in my neck. Couldn't have that, could we?? You need to look behind you to skate.

My thyroid's currently showing just on the border of underactive, but
not enough that the consultant is concerned. He said we'll just re-test in three months' time to see if there's any change.

As with last year, if I've used a picture of you and you really object, just let me know and I'll remove it.

The year wouldn't be complete without at least one skating camp, and we did two this year. The first was Braehead, where we were taught mainly by the beautiful Mark Hanretty:

We had SO much fun at this camp, mainly off the ice.

And we happened to be in the area when Ant n Dec's supercomputer was there - and put our Zucas to a new use - seeing over the crowds!

Mostly though, our time was taken up with this:

In June, I had surgery on my wrist (It still wasn't working properly after I broke it last October) - that was fun, I'm sure you can imagine.

But it was soon back to the fun and games when I helped marshall at a Children in Need event held at our rink, organised by iceskatinginfo.com:

That's me, between the man in yellow and the bear. Some of you may know the man in yellow as the "ice mouse"

And in August we went to our second skate camp of the year, at Sheffield, and held by the NISA Adult Development Group:

September was the month of injuries. There was the time I possibly broke a rib (though more likely just badly bruised) and Coach A had to do this to me in order that I could actually skate at all. It certainly improved my posture, seeing as I could neither bend nor breathe!

Then, of course, there was the icing on the nasty 2013 cake - thyroid surgery. On Facebook, I captioned this: "I totally win halloween this year":

But it was soon made better because I'd recovered enough in time to see my favourite band, 30 Seconds to Mars. Best. Night. Ever. 

The beautiful Jared Leto

And just to round it off, Bitstrips kept me sane. Or should that be INsane?