Great British Escapades: Happy Old Year

Have you ever noticed how sometimes life seems to be a competition? One thing which has struck me this year is how eager people seem to be to compare and compete on levels of misery - "I work longer hours than you do", "I had less sleep than you did", "I'm more stressed than you are" - and being happy and relaxed can feel like a bit of a crime, as if you're not doing something properly.

Someone once said to me that they "wish they had a stress free life" like we did - well I hate to shatter that illusion but although we don't work the regular 9-5pm we really are incredibly busy and there are plenty of times when we are very stressed - usually when another book deadline is approaching, and we have two of them in the next 12 weeks - eek!

On the upside there are many, many times when we're incredibly busy and not stressed at all - I love the fact that we get to work together and spend lots of time together exploring the outdoors - for me that's what life is all about. I would absolutely hate a life where we both went off to different offices 5 days a week, enduing a long commute and only seeing each other at evenings and weekends when we'd most likely be tired and snappy - there's no job title or salary that can compensate for spending time with Steve and having fun. (Of course I do drive him nuts on many occasions and he's probably quite pleased to see the back of me when I head off on one of my work trips to the far end of the country!)

So, here's my round up of this year's adventures - it's not a competition at all but if it were I absolutely and sincerely hope that you have had a 2017 that was happier and more fun than ours and that 2018 is lined up to be even better. As Helen Keller said "Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all"

January