As we enter the final days of 2018, I’d like to take a small moment to reflect on what this year has involved for both Alicia and myself. We have continued to blog, at a slower rate to previous years, but continuing was the main goal. We are excited to have grown our blog for five consecutive years and this year, having over 300k readers visit our pages. As the years pass, our curiosity around learning and development have changed, and I believe this interest is reflected in the blog topics for 2018. Many of them exploring treatment areas for conditions that don’t have large bodies of evidence to support them and management of more abstract conditions.

While I have loved continuing to learn, read, write and explore our profession, 2018 brought a huge change to my life. In June I became a mother and welcomed my beautiful daughter Samantha into the family. She is wonderful, curious, adventurous, persistent and loving. She loves music, walking outdoors and the water. I have thoroughly enjoyed being a mother. It is all encompassing and doesn’t leave much time for me to read, but I hope that as she grows up, that changes a little. So if you wondered why the pace of production had slowed this year - there is a fantastic reason why.

Professionally, I joined the Physiotherapy team at UCSF and am now a volunteer clinical instructor on the DPT Program. I also received my certificate as a fellow of the American Academy of Orthopedic Manual Physical Therapy (FAAOMPT). I hope to continue my involvement in teaching at UCSF and online through this blog.

Alicia came to visit me in San Francisco and we had a lovely time exploring the Californian Coast together.

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Alicia continues to drive her career forward at an incredible pace. How she fits it all in is beyond me. Working at City Baths, teaching for the Australian Physiotherapy Association, teaching on the Masters program at La Trobe University, and on the weekends coordinating a team of physios for a rugby club. Alicia was also selected to attend the Commonwealth Games this year, working with basketball in Cairns, straight after our trip. The most exciting update for Alicia is that she has moved back to Carnamah, in Western Australia, to run her own clinic. I am thrilled for Alicia and know that she will bring excellent care to many people in the North Midlands. You can find out more information about her services on her new website. She will continue her teaching in Melbourne, flying between WA and Melbourne, as well as beginning teaching in Perth.

Thank you to all our readers for their ongoing support and encouragement. We still receive emails thanking us for our contribution to the online learning environment and those messages bring us so much happiness.

Happy New Year and may 2019 be filled with happiness, learning and adventure.

Sian & Alicia