That was 2012

A lot happened in 2012.  Rachel passed a load of GCSEs and left school.  Teresa's mum and Auntie Joan died.  Between us we travelled to Berlin, USA, Rome and Spain (twice).  And we went to the Olympics.

We began the New Year in Kent, seeing in 2012 at Teresa's mum and dad's with fireworks to finish.  January and February were relatively uneventful, but in March, I had a hearing appointed at the European Patent Office in Berlin.  Normally, hearings are held at the EPO in either Munich or The Hague, so a hearing in Berlin was a little unusual.  Since the hearing was scheduled for Monday morning, I took the opportunity to go for the weekend and do some sightseeing.  I flew over on the Friday afternoon and stayed in a hotel a few hundred yards from Checkpoint Charlie.  The weather was not ideal for sightseeing, but I managed to visit the glass dome at the top of the German parliament building and the dome at the top of one of the cathedrals to see Berlin from above, and to walk the streets and visit a couple of museums.

In May I went to US for a week.  I flew to Phoenix and spent a couple of days in Scottsdale before undertaking a long drive (about 8 hours) along the US-Mexico border to San Diego.  Just before I left for US I had picked up some trial contact lens - the first time that I had worn lenses rather than glasses for about 10 years.  I was still getting used to wearing them - increasing the number of hours I could wear them at a time.  However, I did make use of them in Scottsdale as the hotel had a nice swimming pool.  It was nice to be able to have a swim and see well!  I also wore my lenses for most of the road trip to San Diego - so my vision could not have been that bad!  I am still wearing contact lens at weekends, although still wear glasses when I need to see properly!

Unfortunately, a few weeks before I left for the States, Teresa's mum was taken into hospital.  Just after I arrived in Phoenix, she died.  Later in the year, Teresa's Auntie Joan died.

Rachel spent most of the first 5 months of 2012 revising for her GCSEs, sitting her exams in May and June.  She did really well, getting the grades that she needed to start college to study child care, which she seems to be really enjoying.  As a reward for all her hard work,in July after she had finished her exams and whilst Dominic and Teresa were still at school, Rachel and I spent a few days in Rome, flying out one Saturday (after Teresa, Dominic and I had got up early to watch the Olympic torch procession come through Chelmsford) and coming home late on the Thursday evening.  Whilst in Rome we visited all the sights - St Peters, the Vatican, Colosseum, Spanish Steps, and the Forum.  We also managed to eat some lovely food, and also to stop for much needed drinks in lots of lovely locations.  The weather was a little on the warm side - what you expect if you go to Rome in the height of the summer when all the Romans - including the Pope - had left for the summer.

Coming back from Rome, and it was time for the Olympics and Paralympics.  We managed to get a lot of tickets - some in the ballot and some in the daily resale of returned tickets.  Our Olympics started the morning after the Opening Ceremony with swimming tickets.  There were no finals, just qualifying, but the atmosphere was great.  A brilliant way to start the games.  After the swimming, we made our way into London for some food (it was a bit expensive at the Olympic Park) and across to Horse Guard's Parade for the beach volleyball.  Another great atmosphere, although it did go on very late (especially as we had started very early in the morning to get to the swimming on time).  It was a long first day, and we were quite glad to have the next day off.  The following weekend we went to Greenwich to see the show jumping.  It was very wet through most of the competition, although that didn't seem to affect the crowd or the competitors too much.  One thing that I will remember about the show jumping (as well as seeing the GB team's first round of a gold medal winning performance) was the sound of hundreds of camera shutters going each time a horse went over a fence.  After the show jumping, we decided to go into the Maritime Museum where we ended up sitting in the restaurant watching Andy Murray win a gold medal in the tennis on the TV.  Throughout the rest of the Olympics, I saw men's and women's basketball, men's hockey, men's handball, water polo and athletics.  On the final day of the Olympics, we had tickets for the mountain biking which was held near Southend.  Rachel was not able to go as she had flown off to Spain with one of her friends for a weeks holiday, so we took one of Dominic's friends.  We drove to Leigh on Sea and walked to the venue.  It reminded me of Harry Potter and friends going to the Quidditch World Cup - there was an ever growing number of people walking across fields to a sporting event at a venue that was completely hidden from view until you arrived.  It was a lovely day, a perfect way to finish off our Olympics.

But then came the Paralympics.  We managed to get tickets for Teresa and I to go to the Opening Ceremony.  It had its moments, although it took a very long time for all the athletes to come into the stadium.  I then went to a couple of athletics sessions - including seeing David Weir win the second of his four medals, and Oliver Pistorius win the relay.  We then finished off our summer of sport with the men's wheelchair basketball final at the O2 - which we got to via a ferry along the Thames.  Quite a way to finish.

Since we had missed a proper summer holiday (not for the first time in the last few years), we decided to make up for it with a trip in the October/November half term.  We decided to go to Barcelona.  We were not able to go until the Monday as I was at Wembley watching the New England Patriots take on the St Louis Rams in the NFL.  We arrived in time for paella sitting outside at the harbour on Monday afternoon, and continued with great food and great sightseeing, including the Sacre Familiar and the Nou Camp, home of Barcelona FCC, somewhere that Dominic was really keen to go to.  I also managed to have a ride in a cable car up the mountain overlooking the city.

Since returning from Barcelona, I have made an effort to try and lose some weight, managing to lose around a stone to 12 stone,10 pounds.  I know that ideally i will lose a little more - I am aiming to get down to 12 stone in the New Year and then try to keep at that level.  Watch this space!

In the meantime, back at work I have spent a lot of the last 2 months working on out IT system in preparation for installing Outlook and Exchange in January and February.  It looks as if the start to 2013 will not be as quite as the start of 2012.