December was a blast! The first highlight was a trip to Normandy to see a long lost friend with whom I’d gone to the 2010 World Equestrian Games in Kentucky (a total Thelma & Louise trip – it might have been work but it didn’t feel like it).
Hilary (she’s another one) has just come out the other side of the Big C and, given another great friend who’s had a bad time with cancer has also received good news, I’m reminded of the huge progress being made in treating this insidious disease, despite my heartbreaks of the last 18 months.
It was a 48 hour flying visit to what I can only call Chateau Bonkers. It used to boast the best nightclub in Normandy, had a fully operational pub as well as the nightclub when Hils and her husband bought the place, and was once home to the SS. Despite that, it had no bad vibes – I slept in a turret room and can only imagine what those walls would tell me if they could speak, going way back before WW2.
I ticked one thing off my Bucket List – a trip to one of the Landing Beaches (in my case, Utah – pictured) which was incredibly moving. The beach was deserted, the sky blue, but it was impossible not to feel the huge power of history and what had happened there – enforced, no doubt, by having driven through Dead Man’s Corner to reach the beach.
Aside from that it was non-stop chat and laughter, and I can’t wait to go back.
On the work front, Alec hosted a farewell supper for Sam, who has been a lynch pin of Musketeer Events for the last few years – we will so miss her in 2017, although I have no doubt she won’t miss us… her husband has taken a fabulous-sounding job in Australia.
I snuck in a birthday, but given the number I’ve had we can gloss over that one….
Then it was off for Christmas. I am incredibly lucky to stay most christmas’s in a stunning castle, courtesy of some ‘not-quite but sort-of relations’. Every year it is filled to the gunnels with great people, delicious food and more alcohol than is to be recommended. 2016 lived up to expectations 🙂
Riding George, long beach walks with friends, and pub lunches filled the gap between Christmas and New Year – which was wonderfully quiet (bar the monthly White Rabbit contest of course – my surprise White Rabbit website successfully knocked my opponent off his stride!).
And so to 2017. It’s going to be a good one I hope. Time to crack on and do some work!