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Happy 2017!



So - new year already and back to work the day after tomorrow - eek! Amanda and I have just been chatting on the phone and said the same - while we don't mind going back to work (the routine and absence of chocolate / cake / booze etc. will be a good thing!) - we do mind going back to the 5am starts. No one needs that in their life - if only there was a way to live somewhere nice, have a stimulating job and not have to get up at the crack of dawn everyday. Answers on a postcard please.


The holidays have been lovely - we've seen lots of friends, managed to get out and about enough but not too much, entertained and relaxed - just what was required. I will admit that while Christmas Eve and Boxing Day were a perfect mix of family and friends, in anticipation of a Christmas Day with 50% of the family playing Scrooge (Glenn and Abi) I threw a massive strop right from the start and was particularly grumpy. I tried to shake it off with a run but even that didn't work and so it was a day to forget more than anything else. Next year we are definitely going to do something different, even if its just me resetting my expectations!  Less said the better really.


New Year has been a lovely mix of drinks at Simon and Elizabeth's last night with lots of people we were happy to spend the evening with, home by 10pm and in bed by 11. Perfect for us. We lay in bed and listened to the fireworks (we can never actually see anything from our window despite the really loud bangs) and then went to sleep without too heavy a head this morning. Today it was the ritual drive to Sandbanks for  lunch and a windy (this year very wet) walk along the beach. We were joined by Simon and Sharron as well as Simon and Audrey - so nice to see them now back from France and looking forward to a new beginning back in the UK. They are now planning on a new flat, new job and new opportunities closer to family and friends. We are all very pleased to have them close again and it was particularly nice to see how much the girls had missed them.


So who knows what 2017 will bring. 2016 has been good to us in many ways - we have our health and happiness which above all else is what counts. My new years resolutions are simple - more time for friends and family, more relaxation and more of what counts, whatever that is. The girls have grown up so much this year. It's becoming obvious that soon we will be losing them to teenage angst and all the fun that brings. They are still at the age where we can have and hold them close for a while longer so that's definitely part of the plan for this year.

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