What a difference a year makes

Facebook threw up  memory today, this post from the blog last year, in which we were eagerly anticipating the start of our travels.

We left Sanday one year ago, come the 14th. It is difficult to credit. Only 12 months!

Since that post we have set sail (even if using the Channel Tunnel), visited France, Spain and Portugal, travelling thousands of miles. We have begun to think in Kilometres and Euros! Sold a camera, bought a new one. Lost our house buyers, found new ones. Sold a house, bought a new one. Sold a van, bought a new one. Lost a  mother and gained two cats. Started a new brew of sloe gin. Developed some very un-Orkney-like sun tans… Doesn’t sound like a lot if you say it quickly but it feels eventful. It has been a big, big year for us. 

I wonder what the coming 12 months will hold for us. Germany and Belgium seem likely but who knows where we shall wander and what we shall see or experience.

Just one thing – I should like the coming year to hold a lot more knitting and spinning than the year past has done! And more good restaurants…

Our first big experience of  the year happens on the anniversary of our departure and does happily involve a great deal of food. It is our first experience of the Maison Celle village fete, an event initiated some years ago in order to bring the French and British populations together in convivial style. It is going to be difficult for me as I find socialising difficult at any time but at this event, I have to socialise in French. Oh, and all that air-kissing… I just hope that I don’t get tipsy and start telling Frenchmen how handsome they are.