Happy New Year! Where did 2011 go?!

Well, I blinked since last writing here and 4 months went by! We've been out and about in the UK since returning from Europe, including York & Harrogate, where we mixed a long weekend in the autumn sunshine with a bit of business. We took a weekend at the Old Bridge Hotel in Huntingdon, trying out their wine cellar and exploring a bit of Cambridgeshire. Lots of weekends and short breaks in the Cotswolds and a couple in the New Forest, add in Christmas and seasonal business interests in the run up to it and the time just flies by. Sadly, we also had 2 family bereavements during that time.

After a lovely, but quiet Christmas at home with the children, we flew out New Years Eve to enjoy 10 days in Switzerland together with family. After a few days we had rather more snow than we are used to there, but thankfully we got home before the really big snow storm that brought many resorts to a standstill, or cut them off altogether like Zermatt.

We took snow shoes and walked the Arolla valley, which was beautiful, with clear blue skies and fresh powdery snow. We also did a bit of cross country skiing at Evolene, which was fun. Add a visit to a spa, some general rambling locally and playing in the snow with the children and a good time was had by all.

We're now home and busy wading through brochures and websites trying to decide where to go for a last adventure before I return to work on 1/4/2012. I want to have spent at least 6 months of my year off overseas, another 3 weeks and I will have achieved that. We might end up literally sticking a pin in a map whilst blindfolded but I would like to trek the Himalayas, just unsure if the altitude will agree with me after only getting to 5200 metres on Kilimanjaro. We'll see but we have to decide soon, as we want to be away for most of March.