By this time a year ago I had visited Japan, Taiwan and Hong Kong and already was in Chiang Mai Thailand doing a massage course. Life nowadays is more mundane and I doubt I could maintain the readership of the blog the adventures of the six months of travel attracted. I do miss writing it and for 2011 you may see the occasional further missive when I have interesting things to write. I will be carrying the camera around a bit more as well.
What I have been doing is occasional interesting work with the theatre design consultants Charcoalblue, working on my flat, helping my mother move to Welwyn north of London, decorating her Swansea house, and looking for full time or further freelance work. The highlight was spending time in Stratford testing all the systems which had been installed in the new theatre there (with the added bonus of nice food, views of the river, and good company). Since returning from my travels I have not been on a holiday away … even in the UK never mind a weekend in on mainland Europe.
Thankful I am still fit and enjoying getting out of the house. I have my mother to inspire me, at nearly 80 she is walking miles each day and often swimming or country dancing. I swim, bike and have even started running a little again. Although it does not bother me much I am coughing again, the warmth / diet of the travels were the first year I did not cough in the last four. The lump in my throat has thankfully reduced in size and I am seeing my third specialist about the cough but am resigned to living with it from now on.
It is a good time to think of my many friends spread across Britain and the world. I wish you a happy holiday/Christmas and a good 2011 ahead. Christmas will be quiet; family meeting at my sisters next weekend, a couple of days at my aunts, all followed by some voluntary work. I am unsure where I will be for New Year, probably my regular Sunday music pub The Neptune. My resolutions for next year are; of course to get a job/jobs, to stay fit, to be more sociable, to take more photos, to be more creative, and to get back to travelling if only around the UK and Europe.
