1999 |
2000 |
2001 |
2002 |
2003 |
2004 |
2005 |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
2011 |
2012 |
2013 |
2014 |
2015 |
2016 |
2017 |
2018 |
2019 |
2020 |
2021 |
2022 |
2023 |
2024 |
2025
November's Journal
January's Journal
31/12/2024
December! Entry written late, as usual these days. Sorry about that! Still,
lots to regale you with before I move on to 2025. Herewith the highlights, not
that anyone reads this any more (do email me if you do).
Hoboy! Well, the holiday in Europe was amazing. We took a train to
the coast, an overnight ferry to the continent (recommended, although not the
wakeup call at the far end), and then trains to Basel. We overnighted there
with friends of Rel's and even went for a run into and back out of Germany in
the morning. Then it was trains to Rome. As we headed eastward and southward
the human noise on the trains got louder and louder in a most amusing fashion.
Once in Rome our AirBnB place was fantastic, the food we bought and went out
for was brilliant, and the city (and the Vatican) really rather extraordinary.
I won't bore you with everything we did, but I think with all the walking and
general looking around we did we got a good feel for the place, not to mention
we got a few runs in and around the city, as well as a bike hire so we could
cycle the length of the Via Appia, too. After all of that exhausting-sounding
stuff we headed north again for a night in Florence (somewhere I felt totally
at home in within minutes of arriving) in a lovely boutique hotel, did another
run in the early morning, and then took trains up to Pertisau in Austria. We
have been there before (to cross-country ski) but this time it was still dry
and relatively sunny, so we were able to hike the mountains, run around the
entire lake, and even swim out in the rooftop pool in the dark and look up at
the stars. The hotel we stayed in was phenomenal, especially for the food and
our room. After a few days there we had to head home via Paris and the Eurostar
and reenter mundanity. It was an absolutely cracking vacation though.
Back at the ranch there was the remains of the Q4 OS patching to do, usual work
stuff, and a trip to see Rel at her home rather than she coming to me. December
started with my last official half marathon of the year, in Manchester where my
parents live. Given the weather and the elevation of a course I hadn't seen
before there was no way I was getting sub-1:30, but I gave it my all anyway.
After that there was a week at home and then we were off to Bristol and Cornwall
with Rel's mum to see things and then relatives down in the south west. Another
week of work and then suddenly it was Christmas and I was back on a train to
Rel's part of the world to see her and her family. After a nice few days there
I was back at my parents' for post-Christmas quiet time, my mother's birthday,
and ordering them a new television. Something I'll be setting up for them
when I head there for my January visit.
Rel and I journeyed home on New Year's Eve and settled in for the night with an
Indian takeaway and television and were in bed and asleep long before the new
year happened.