Shape

There is a bit of me which feels it might be wrong to be discontent when I am fairly privileged. I expect though I am entitled to be a bit down sometimes. With work behind me for 3 1/2 days there was less immediate uplift than normal because the weather was absolutely foul. We have leave booked for Jan/Feb and hitherto have been unable to decide where to seek sunshine or at least the possibility of it. In spite of the longing for celestial illumination we have a budget limited by bookings already made for this year and, frankly, we have been to so many places, we found it difficult to get as motivated as you might expect. At last, we decided on Rome, a city I love and which will probably at least be sunnier than Hampshire. As we discovered on a previous visit, the hotel is painfully expensive but that seems unavoidable. We have booked an opera but I imagine the highlight will be watching trains at Roma Termini.

So now the year in prospect has taken shape. Rome will be followed by Palm Springs and San Diego. This might be our last trip to Palm Springs for some while as we recently received the shock news that Inndulge has changed hands and we do not count on wanting to go again after our already booked March trip. In an unexpected way this might be liberating because it was becoming difficult to leave the rut we were happily in and try other itineraries of which we have many in mind. Two cycles of leave in November might now see us reach Australia for the first time in 20 years, who knows? In the meantime we shall spend one week of June on a Norwegian Fjords cruise. This is a compromise itinerary with exactly the highlights I wish to see without becoming 'fjorded out'.

Unless the price of petrol/diesel passes that of gold - which it might yet - we shall also enjoy a lot more of our own country which means Britain rather then England. That will start in Cornwall in January and continue probably via a series of railway open days and bus rallies amongst other attractions. All this should help me to my now modest target of 5000 images on Flickr sooner rather than later.