The BIG catch-up

Yikes! Has it really been 3 months since my last post? That is pathetic. No wonder I have been getting complaints about not keeping it up-to-date. I apologize to my tiny faithful audience.

So much has happened in three months I’m not even sure where to start. I’ll try to break it down month by month.

NOVEMBER
Charles and I took a belated summer holiday for two weeks. We decided to keep it on the cheaper side this year. We mostly just wanted to lay on a beach somewhere and play in the ocean because we had no summer to speak of here in London. We also thought it would be nice to mix in a little culture so we found a really great package deal to Goa, India. Without going into too much detail it was a good trip. Relaxing, great food, decent beaches, wonderful people, colorful and interesting landscapes and incredibly cheap. We didn’t rough it, but we were far from luxury. We brought one small backpack per person for the entire two weeks, stayed in budget accommodations, took public transport for the most part and ate a lot of street food. We both got very sick for about three days each (Charles especially), but we left with fond memories and an absolute love of Indian food. More India photos.

A week after we got back from Goa we hosted our third annual Orphan Thanksgiving (the weekend prior to the actual day). We had a few English, Canadians and Americans for a total of 14 people. I think the party was a big success.

Then, as a special treat for myself I flew to California and surprised my family on Thanksgiving by showing up at my sisters house in San Luis Obispo. It was a total surprise and I loved every minute that I got to spend there. Everybody but my grandma was there so I made a special trip down to LA to see her and my aunt, uncle and cousin before I flew home.

DECEMBER
This month started out slowly, but really picked up the second half. Several work Christmas parties and lunches for me and a great night out at an annual party one of our friends hosts in central London.

Then I had two weeks off! We went to Ischgl, Austria for the first week to go snowboarding. Christmas was a bit uneventful except for the 7km nightime tobbagan run that we did. We got lucky and had a lot of snow and a lot of blue skies.

For NYE we had very little planned an no expectations. Just a walk down to the local pub to share a few drinks with a few friends and then back home after midnight. As luck would have it we ran into another friend who was at a party around the corner so we tagged along and ended up having a really great time. I think unplanned NYE’s with little expectations are always the best. Less stressful and usually much more fun.

JANUARY
The new year has been pretty good so far. We checked out a few museums that we had not been to yet and saw a very cool photography exhibit. Other than that, nothing of real interest to report. I’m not good with new year resolutions so I will just say, hopefully I will be better at keeping this blog up-to-date, but I can’t promise anything. Cheers!