Happy New Year 2018!

It's 2018!  A year that promises some really good things, including 3 completely awesome holidays (Sri Lanka, USA and Vietnam), and 3 sets of family visitors to China.  Exciting times.

Matt and I are now back in China, trying to settle back in before school starts tomorrow.  We are struggling with the jet-lag, and it doesn't help that I am feeling quite unwell.  I hurt my arm dragging my very heavy 2 suitcases across London during rush hour to get to the airport, and now have sharp pain all down my right arm and the right side of my back, that ibuprofen doesn't seem to be touching.  I also have the standard, post aeroplane-pre school sore throat, and am slowly losing my voice.  So a bit of a disaster really since we got back.  The cats have helped - they, especially Snowball, are being very clingy, needing to be close by at all times.  Sooty is even now sitting on my lap as I type - he never sits on us, so he must really have missed us!  They are such cute little creatures - we missed them too.

The week after Christmas flew by, as it always does when you're enjoying yourself.  My week was filled with walks in the forest (the ice-y photos - we had such fun crunching the ice.  Such a satisfying noise)...

Boxing day was spent at Nanny's house, eating bubble and squeak - my favourite meal in the world.  It's even better than Christmas lunch!  It was a lovely day catching up.

On New Year's Eve, I took the train to Matt's parents for the usual party.  It was great fun, as always.  Our friend Andy was visiting from Newcastle, and it was great to see him.  Matt's cousin's new puppy Buddy was there too.  He's so cute!

I was meant to meet my friend Annmarie for ice skating in Winchester one day, but unfortunately she was unwell and couldn't come.  This was a real shame, as she lives in America, and I don't get to see her very often.  Still, we shall visit her when we are in California in the summer.  Instead of the tickets going to waste, Mum said she would skate with me.  We ended up really enjoying ourselves - Mum is much better at skating than me, but neither of us fell over, which was good since it was very busy!  Dad was the official photographer.

Matt had a nice day out in London with his family, then a few days of relaxing while they all went back to work.

On my last day at home we went to Christchurch, one of my favourite places, for a walk and lunch.  There had been so much rain that the water was really high.  It was very cold!

I left for the airport on Thursday for a 9.30pm flight, not realising that it would take me through the centre of London at rush hour!  Not fun.  But still, I met up with Matt fine, and we were soon on our way.  We both managed to sleep for most of the flight - the first time I've been long haul and not needed to watch a film. We made it home by 6pm on Friday to be greeted by the lovely cats.  They love their Christmas presents!

School tomorrow, and hopefully we will both be feeling a bit better - Matt's back has just gone.  We are exhausted, but it will be good to see the kids again.