2012....... meh

And so we have returned today from a Twixmas sojourn in our little caravan, along with camping friends to celebrate the New Year.  It was a most enjoyable short break until the early hours of this morning, when gale force winds assailed the campsite and at points during the night I genuinely feared for our lives as the van violently shook and shuddered and potentially deadly debris flew around the site.

The weather deteriorated even further this morning as the already gale force winds stepped up a notch and rain came down in horizontal sheets.  Motorhomes and campervans were able to leave, albeit gingerly, but all the caravanners had no option but to wait it out.  Even the most experienced caravan towers would think twice before hitching up and setting out in such high winds and having canvassed opinion from friends on what to do, the advice was firm and unequivocal...... 'stay put'.

Thankfully, after a bravura finale, during which I thought the storm was going to physically lift the caravan off our pitch and hurl us into the sea, the wind suddenly died down, and although it was still raining heavily we decided to make a run for it.  Packing the car and hitching up in the pouring rain isn't much fun at the best of times but we were so grateful that the gales had died down that we didn't grumble much.

The journey home was uneventful but several days of heavy rain have left our steeply sloping front garden sodden and waterlogged, so getting the caravan off the road and up onto its allotted space was an absolute nightmare.  The electric mover couldn't grip the caravan tyres and a combination of the gradient and the weight of the van resulted in the wheels sinking practically up to the axles in mud.  

After 90 minutes of struggling to try to push it bodily into place, our garden looked like the Somme and I was practically sobbing with pain and exhaustion.  Eventually we had to abandon trying to get it onto the garden and put it on the drive instead.  This means that we will have to attempt to put it where it should go later in the week, hopefully with the aid of a few fit and healthy young helpers who can help manhandle it into position.

So, not the most propitious of starts to the New Year.

I am avoiding making any resolutions this year, as they invariably fall by the wayside by the third week in January.  We still have food to eat from the Christmas glut but that's fine in the gloomy, cold, dark days of early January.  At least I shall be drought and famine resistant for the next few weeks.

It's back to work for me tomorrow, or it will be when I have packed up all the guest bed paraphernalia from the workroom, and relocated all the stuff temporarily stored in there for the duration of the festivities.  I'm actually quite looking forward to getting back to it and having some proper structure to my day.  A wealth of Christmas stationery has provided me with the wherewithal to record my creative thoughts and ideas and I've been using some of my festive holiday period to indulge in some forward planning so I will be calling a business breakfast meeting tomorrow morning to discuss work issues.  Small Dog has been informed that her attendance is compulsory and aside from giving me a long-suffering "do I have to?" and "will there be crispy bacon rolls?" look she has refrained from further comment.

It only remains for me to wish all my loyal blog readers a belated but sincere Happy New Year.  Let's hope it's a good one.......