Happy Christmas

Hi, reader

Christmas has come and gone and I hope it was a good one for you.

I had a mostly quiet Christmas, wandering around Valencia and relaxing at the apartment with the cats I'm taking care of.

Christmas day started with a Zoom call to my son, Mum, brothers and sisters and some of my nieces and nephews. It was good to see everyone enjoying their Christmas morning.

Later on Christmas day, I drove back to my friend, Kelly's, house for a Christmas dinner with Kelly and her friends Lauren and Michael.

The big surprise I had was how much Kelly had transformed the house in the 2 or 3 days since I'd last been there. The electricity and solar panels were working, and the main rooms had been cleared of all clutter. The house now looks amazing.

Christmas dinner was so lovely and I enjoyed the low key meal the four of us shared. Kelly cooked three menus: meat, vegetarian and vegan. It was delicious, and we followed up our meal with a card game by the light of the log fire. Lovely.

Later in the evening, I played Chess online with my son, Hugo. This photo was taken by his Mum in Phuket.

And now the dust has settled on Christmas, I once again face a big challenge. Louise will return to her apartment this evening, and it'll be time for me to move on soon. The temperature is still pleasant enough here in Valencia, but I'm aware that I need to do my journey in reverse, heading further north into colder climates. 

I believe there are now tight border restrictions, certainly for getting from France to the UK. I haven't investigated what's happening at the Spain/France border yet. But when I'm near Calais, I'll need to do a track and trace form, a COVID test, book a ferry to Dover and organize whatever COVID isolation requirements are in place for once I'm in the UK.

I'm not looking forward to this journey much, but I shall have to approach it as a series of challenges that can be met one by one, 

I might make a few blog entries along my return journey to Wales, but I think mostly I'll be focused on surviving, keeping warm and getting to my end destination.

Thanks for reading,

Brian