Happy New Year

 

 

Em and Dan

 

 

Ok so not quite New Year, although it will be for my lovely  friend Lu in New Zealand in a few hours time, bless her, not seen her for 5 years or more, but NZ is a bit too far for me to travel.

I had a fab Christmas with another great friend Em, and her partner Dan and Em's mum and Dan's parents, way too much to eat, seemed to do nothing but eat both days, Em and Dan did an amazing job with the food, really was superb, just need to get out cycling now to burn it all off! I managed to not get carried away with the drinking, which I am pleased about, after recent events I am not that interested in drinking, certainly not to excess, so that has got to be a good thing.

Can't believe there is only one day left of 2014, will be so good to see the back of it, it really has been a rotten year, started off awful and has ended pretty grim, actually  that's not strictly true, as I feel really good now, just bit of a rubbish time up until a few weeks ago. I do feel very positive about 2015, I have loads to look forward to, and now I only have myself to look out for so it should be rather good.

 

Boxing Day

Gin Cocktails

 

 

Despite what I said earlier about drinking, I did visit a Gin Distillery, ok so I was only the driver and I had a non alcoholic Cocktail, but I did buy some Bombay Sapphire Gin and very nice it is too, the site  in Hampshire is well worth a visit, have a look at http://distillery.bombaysapphire.com/

 

 

Crosby Beach

 

 

Last Sunday was one of those perfect winter blue sky days, heavy frost, very cold and not a cloud in the sky, so I jumped on the train to the other side of Liverpool, just up the coast and had a lengthy walk from Bootle past Liverpool Docks and onto Crosby Beach. Was a really fab day, and it brought it home to me so clearly that this is what I enjoy most, out exploring with my camera, I don't need all the grief that I have had in the past year, I have some great friends and I have a great hobby so I am really very lucky. The main reason for going to Crosby, apart from it being really rather nice, but was to see some statues on the beach, around 100 of them in fact! They are life size cast iron figures by Sir Antony Gormley, and they are really rather good. There is something rather haunting about the way they stare out to sea and appear to be walking out into the water as if driven by some unseen being, calling them, reminds me of the Eloi in HG Well's "The Time Machine" well worth a visit, some details here  http://tinyurl.com/kan5mxm

 

The Talbot, Bootle

 

 

No I didn't go into The Talbot, Bootle is not the most salubrious of places and it does seem to have its fair share of dodgy pubs, although the people are great, they just don't have time for people with more money than sense.

 

A very Happy New Year, see you in 2015!