Tonight was my first outing in the double with Lou since, ooh, errr, about October. So, much time has passed since I have been in a boat that small, let alone been responsible for steering it!

As I am fairly sure I mentioned in blog posts earlier in the year, 2012 is the year I am trying to make myself calmer. This basically means that when a situation is angsty or stressful, I just take a deep breath and get on with it. The effects have been noticed – a friend at work said I ‘seemed much calmer’ than at the same point on my previous project. I asked Mr. W whether he had noticed a change – apparently not. I chose to interpret this as he had just adapted to the change and re-baselined my know freak-out levels accordingly.

The first steering of 2012 went okay. It was quite dark and there are lots of trees growing out of the river, so this made me wary. There were not too many other boats which was a blessing but I still had moments of stress. The outing overall was quite good for a first return. I am determined to tackle the calm steering. With hindsight, I think I am actually much better than this time last year – there is just so much further I have to go!