Last year we were walking on a beach on Christmas day in shorts and a tee shirt. No chance of that this year! Those not in the UK will have seen the reports of the wonderful weather here. We have been lucky as the weather hasn’t got in the way of us moving around and we have seen many rare views of Scotland and England, Ben Nevis with a light dusting of snow down to sea level; still cold reflections in Loch Linhe; and snow storms in Kew Gardens, London.

Andrew’s graduation day in Edinburgh was a lovely crisp day will blue skies and a biting wind. We were able to enjoy the day to the full mainly indoors. There was lots of pageantry, lots of unpronounceable names (many of Edinburgh’s students are from overseas), good food and good company. We ended the day at the Malt Whisky Society with excellent food and great whisky to round off the evening.

We were in the highlands when the first big snow dump arrived. We got off lightly and were able to admire the scenery but it was cold, sometimes -5°C by day and that was warm. A few mealtimes were spent in various pubs for lunch or supper and catching up with friends. Then off to Davids mother in Suffolk, she is forgetful but still very cheery in her own home. We enjoyed sharing lunch with the Spanish class pupils that she meets with on a Monday. We helped get all her cards away which gives us an excuse for our Christmas letter being delayed!

We will be in London for Christmas day with Rebecca. Andrew plans to fly down to join us from Edinburgh on Tom Bawcocks eve (Dec 23rd). London City airport has been achieving a better record than Heathrow so we are hopeful he will make it OK. Its all change on Boxing Day with Andrew back to Edinburgh to get ready to go to Syndey, Australia and we will go to Jim and Alison in Epsom before heading back to Scotland for the Hogmanay celebrations. Andrew has a 3 month visiting researchership with the University in Syndey making some of his PhD work available through a high end mathematics computer programme.

Kirsty will spend Christmas in New Zealand. Her job at the lodge at the end of the Milford Track will end in April. But not before she has walked a number of the fantastic walks in the area. Her Christmas letter had lots of photos from high peaks and long tracks. She works 10 days on and 4 days off which allows good access to the area’s wonderful countryside.

When we return to New Zealand in early February we will have a few maintenance tasks to attend to and then our thoughts will turn to saying goodbye to New Zealand and the friends we have made there. Normally the cruising yachts leave in the middle of April and we expect to join them this year. We will cruise Vanuatu and the Solomons before heading to Darwin by mid July. Then the choice will be to go up to Thailand for Christmas 2011 ready for the Red sea in March 2012 or head to South Africa and up the Southern Atlantic. We need to make our minds up by March so that we can confirm whether we want to join Sail Indonesia. They have sorted the paperwork out for that part of the world and most of the cruisers use the rally as the easy way to check into Indonesia.

So we will keep you all posted, but in the meantime have a wonderful Christmas wherever you are in the world and a very happy new year.