Its been a while since the last one of these, and after such an awesome sail around the coast and into Cape

Town we are going to struggle to keep the interest  of those adrenalin junkies amongst  you.  So just settle

In for some chill out time, after all that’s what all this cruising is supposed to be about.  Jacky and I had

A very special celebration just after xmas and it was a dilemma as to what to do and where. It would have been great for Jacky to have come out and seen some of South Africa, but we would not have been amongst

Our family and friends. So I decided to fly back to UK and celebrate things back home. Travelling on the coach from Heathrow going across the top of the forest it felt as if I had just been away for a long 8 week

Vacation and not nearly 2.1/2 years, and it was lovely to be back amongst my family for Nick`s  and Jo`s

Birthdays and Christmas day.  New year celebrations where spent in Lymington with J and Clare and friends.

  So now for the big event on the 8^th of January it was our 25 wedding anniversary and one week later it would be our fifth birthday’s. Nick and Jo had bought us tickets to see a show in London on the night of

The 8^th and we went up their by bus, our hotel was booked in Knightsbridge and from Victoria that meant

We could take a walk down the Kings Road Chelsea for one last chance to find a dress for the party organised on the 12^th, That is the beauty of a trip to London for us country folk the shops are far better

Stocked with interesting goods and so the lady was not to be disappointed. The show was very good

Hotel was great right in the middle of everything infact we spent the whole two days walking everywhere

We needed to go.

 And so to the party, on Thursday evening we had  two calls from people one to cancel and the other

To warn us that one person had been ill but was hoping to be fit to come, so we were a little apprehensive

That everything would be in place and everyone would cancel due to sickness, But on the night it was only

A few that could not make it. We had a fantastic evening with friends and family  Jacky and Jo looked

absrelutly gorgeous and the party was a great success.  Thanks for all those great presents, we now have

enough champagne for the next big occasion.

Beautiful ladies awaiting their carriage to the Ball.

 We had made the right choice having our 25 wedding anniversary at home with friends that had known us for a long time their where even a few that had been at the wedding at Sopley Church. So many friends had

Supported us through the last few years with out that help and support we would have found things very

Difficult to keep everything together.  So this is a big thank you to all of you who have been their for us.

 Being that we are the York family even after Nick`s then Jo `s birthday, Xmas day, New year, wedding

Anniversary we still had our two birthdays on the 15 and 16 of January, this gave us the excuse to disappear

Over to Normandy for a few days by ourselves. Anyone that has visited France knows that they keep very

Social hours for work and the  early part of January is not a time when anything is going on so virtually everywhere was closed. But we did manage to get B&B in a beautiful Chateau with a lovely French couple.

Once again my French was tested and found to be wanting.

The back of the Chateau.

We spent our time visiting the Normandy seaside ports and also went to Mt Saint Michelle which had virtually no one else visiting.

 So that was it the little vacation was over and it was time to go back to work in windy Cape Town and get

That poxy boat ready to sail back to UK.  Jackies term of affection  for my other little diversion in life.