Happy New Year from us in Glasgow….

We had a lovely time in Australia. Christmas day was spent in Kirribilli with my family overlooking Sydney harbour, and at 38 degrees – we spent the afternoon swimming at Balmoral beach… a few days later, for New Years Eve we travelled up the coast to Queensland where we rented an apartment on Kings Beach for a week, which was just wonderful. BBQ breakfast, lunch and dinners on the beach – interspersed with plenty of fresh fish n’ chips from the best fish shop in Caloundra. Lazy days in the sun. Perfect. Back in Sydney, we decided to put our British pounds to the test, and we stayed in a hotel for a couple of nights across the road from the surf at Bondi Beach. With a great pool, bar and terrace on the roof, we spent many a day stretched out drinking daiquiris catching some sun.

To all our wonderful friends who shared their time, spare bedrooms and meals with us, thank you! You really made our trip special. You are all welcome here in Glasgow – anytime you care to visit! I have sent out some photos from our trip, if you didn’t get them, just let me know.

Bangkok was amazing. We stayed at the most wonderful hotel just far enough outside of the city that you felt like you were coming home to an oasis after a day in the smog! The food was wonderful, the tastes, the smells. The people were so charming. The only wish we had on leaving was that we could have stayed longer…. next time.

Back home, things were fine. We were lucky enough to find someone who agreed to look after our apartment while we were away. So thankfully we came home to a clean apartment, with no problems, and beautifully cared for plants. We really are lucky.

We hosted our first cocktail party here the week we returned from our trip, for our new friend Claire’s birthday. The evening went off very well, lots of dancing, drinking and food – and we followed it up by going to a Leigh Bowery party at the Buff Club! Our guests were mostly French, who flew in especially from Paris along with a Spaniard and a Mexican…. truly international!

At the end of January we zipped off to London to visit Milene & Gabriel for a weekend. As always we were treated royally and fed like kings…. fish, puddings, duck, French toast and champagne – guys – you should open a restaurant! For our sightseeing day, we picked Notting Hill and Hyde Park to do some exploring. Picking our way through Portobello road markets, the little Thai quarter, and the gorgeous HOME shops – we also managed to do a little research for our upcoming trip to London with Christine. A cute little hotel on Portobello road surrounded by great pubs and restaurants will be our cosy home for a few nights in June.

February has been actually quite lovely. With temperatures of between 5 and 10 degrees consistently through the month, with only a couple of days colder than that (including just one day of snow), we feel very spoilt considering the bucket loads of snow and icy temperatures we’ve been hearing about in Canada… The days are rapidly getting longer and big blue sky’s are now part of the norm!

We resumed our hillwalking activities just this weekend, and let me tell you, the feet, knees and hips are all feeling it! It was a very long 12 mile walk – up and down hills. Michelle and I split into the normal people group and the crazy people group – the “crazy’s” went straight up the side of the mountain.. (not hill) – I’ll let you determine who went where! Pictures will follow.

We’ve been out and about too. We went to see the British band “Athlete” at the end of January (great!), the musical from Boy George “Taboo” in February (excellent) along with another dance troupe from Belgium performing a show called “Blush” (very strange). We’ve tried a few new restaurants and bars (for research purposes you understand..) all quite successfully. Michelle has been to Norway, California, Bristol, Birmingham over the last 6 weeks, I did a sushi making course, and started a 16 week certificate course in photography (black and white) – as you can see, very very busy!

Already we have some people confirmed for visits this year, starting in a just a few weeks! It’s going to be a great year – the year of the Canadians and Australians in Glasgow! Next week we’re off to Iceland…

Keep your emails coming, it’s nice to receive news from home…

p.s. if you are missing any photos from Australia or Thailand please let me know, because of the virus scare that was going on, a lot of emails were rejected from corporate offices…. and they may not have made their way to you….