Happy New Year!

My goodness, here we are again, at the beginning of another year. The last twelve months seem to have gone by in the blink of an eye but I cannot remember a year in which so many changes have happened in my life in such a short time. It seems extraordinary that in a few days time, it will be exactly 12 months since I saw my house in Plazac for the first time and now here I am, living in it, and for over seven months too!

But as everyone knows, my plans didn’t all come successfully to fruition in 2012. My adventure flying MYRO almost the whole length of France in questionable visibility and arriving safely at my intended destination, a tiny grass strip in the middle of nowhere, was followed by the massive disappointment of an accident on take off that mercifully left me and my passenger uninjured but MYRO badly damaged. But this disappointment was more than offset by the support I received from the amazing new friends I have made here and with their encouragement I determined that I would only allow this to be a temporary setback. And that’s how it’s now turning out as I have since got back onto track with the purchase of a replacement aircraft, a French built 582 X-Air, that I plan to be flying early in 2013.

Sadly, I was let down badly by one person in 2012 who I had thought was a friend but turned out not to be, but the warmth, generosity and goodness shown to me by others who have since become true friends has more than made up for the spitefulness demonstrated by the one other.

I hope and believe that 2013 will be an exciting year for me and I look forward to sharing whatever it brings with my friends both here in France and back in the UK and also with my family. I doubt that everything will go to plan, things never do, but that won’t be important. What I’ve learnt as I’ve got older is that sharing the ups and downs with your friends and loved ones is what really matters. So as well as wishing everyone a happy, prosperous and peaceful 2013, may I also wish you all the good fortune of being able to do exactly that with those close to you in the coming year.