It's here it's 2010, cheers and yamas to everyone who follows or endures more like, these ramblings.......
How's it been back in old Blighty?? It's been very cold, it's been snowing, then cold again, then more snow and more cold and so it goes on.
Cold and snow aside it has been lovely to see everyone, Middleton is always a lovely place to come back to. The snow has actually been very pretty and picturesque to see. OK it causes traffic and travel chaos but when you don't have to get up to go to work it just doesn't matter (sorry!)
The diary has been full with socials and visits, then there's the shopping for "going back and going away" in addition to the shopping extravaganzas Mrs D has been on, to get a well earned shopping fix. When she was was not shopping and escaped from domestic bliss there was an attempt at building a snow man one day - see above pic - this was sadly short lived ( desperately so for the snowman) as the snow according to the expert was not the right stuff for building snow people.
We've had a good live music fix, been to one or two parties and the big event was my youngest son Tom finally wedding Caz - see above pic. They had a lovely day in Skipton and afterwards in Silsden. They were carried through the day on the excitement and emotion of it all. They have worked so hard and waited so long for the day and it all went brilliantly for them. We wish them all the very best for their future together.
Where are we now then?? Well the clocks a ticking for our return journey to Corfu on the 8th February and most walls in the house here are covered in a sea of lists of things to do and get before we set off.
So is that it I hear you ask, off back to Corfu to beach bum around over the summer again?? No I'm afraid not. We have a little adventure planned down under for a few months.
We are back in Corfu for a couple of weeks to see the house is OK, the bathroom is still standing and of course catch up with friends before we disappear again. We then leave for Christchurch, South Island New Zealand on the 21st February. We have planned to have roughly a month on the south island, a month on the north island and a month on the eastern side of Australia. With routes, flights, cars and digs booked everywhere, we only hope it all falls into place.
We hope to catch up with some bits of NZ we missed, some bits we saw in the wet and hopefully are dry this time and any other bits we see along the way. In Oz we fly into Melbourne, drive the Great Ocean Road to Adelaide. Then we fly to Alice Springs, drive to Kings Canyon for a couple of nights then onto Ayers and the Olgas for a couple of nights before flying up to Cairns. From here we hope to see the Great Barrier Reef, then drive the gold coast road to Sydney then back into Manchester via a night in good old Singapore. We are then home in Middleton for a couple of weeks before we set off to Corfu in the car - as long as it tests again - for some more DIY, looking after visitors and a bit of beach bumming around.
There are a few other things in the pipeline for later in the year but more on those later. One thing at a time as they say. Well time to sign off and check Mrs D has not got lost in the sea of lists upstairs.
Y'all keep in touch now.........................................
