Kung Hai Fat Chow - or something like that

Yes, our New Year has been and gone, so we will no doubt be looking forward to a happy and prosperous 2011 for all of us. A healthy one too. There is one little laugh about this though; the snows have melted and we've had a wonderful white Christmas for the first time since I or anyone else can remember, And then . . . . .

Up comes the influenza scare again! Probably fewer people died of swine or bird flue last year than have died anyway from old age and smoking. We live to breathe in another Wawickshire spring morning and set out on on a bit of a ramble in the countryside near Rugby.

All thingsd being good and equal, a great New Years Eve was celebrated in the back garden - along with fireworks and rockets that had been judicioiucsly left in the spare roon from Guy Fawlkes night.

As has been mentioned, we had a tip of snow when in London. One amazing thing is that London never gets dark, even at midnight in winter. We took a couple of photographs from Clarence to show this. I suppose that the eerie light is exaggerated somewhat by the low level cloud.

Jeeves has made a start on the boat renovation and taken some 'before and after shots'. Luckily there is still plenty of water available and once lit and roaring away, the wood stove keeps the interior of the boat very cosy. Most work is cosmetic, but with best efforts will see us cruising again in the first Spring weather.

Oh! And we might treat her to an outside coat of paint. Haven't quite deiced what livery to apply yet.