Things are going well. I arrived in England just over a week ago and it has been a flurry of meeting different people. It was my first time over since 2024 or just a little over two years. 

So it has been a while.

Yesterday was one of the biggest highlights as I saw my Old Man and his Wife for the first time in over 12 years and it was great. Strictly speaking he is my stepdad biologically, but my dad in every other aspect and having lost my mum too many years ago he remarried a lovely lady who I also have a great relationship with.

Of course in those 12 years we are in touch - thanks to the wonders of modern technology, so I am not highlighting any issue, just the fact that we are located in different parts of Europe and it is incredibly difficult to actually get us physically in the same place at the same time. To boot my brother and his wife will be about from Saturday as the are on a preplanned holiday before my old man and I even set anything up.

We will all be meeting together.

In the meantime tonight there is a kind of school reunion that has been organised. Did something similar last time - and I posted on it - but this time there will be one absentee from last time but up to another three people who didn't make it before including my best friend from primary school who I haven't seen since 1988! We did go to the same secondary school together, but we were in totally different groups and inevitably friendships drifted and changed based on those immediately around you. 

Funnily enough the two friends who supplanted him - and one in particular - are the other two who are coming along who weren't there last time; although one of them might not make it or stay long.

So short and sweet today and before you ask it is obviously that I am missing that wonderfully chaotic and unpredictable family life that comes with having two small kids. I have appreciated the peace, but there is nothing like their unabashed and abundant energy - even if it is wearying at times.

As always stay safe and well my friends.