2012 in review

[lnr]

A not very quick and somewhat random review of the year (so far :), in varying detail, with lots of links to photo albums on Facebook.

January: Saw in the New Year with a fantastic 60th Birthday Party for dad. Had our first fun baking with Mike's Green and Black's cookbook - Brownies! Later we also tried cheesecake, fudgecake and buns (aka cupcakes) - all yummy. Had a sunny but windy walk from Ely to Waterbeach.

February: There was snow, then we had a lovely Valentine's weekend in Stamford at the William Cecil Hotel. Started logging our walks on Everytrail.

March: Mum and Dad came to visit for St Patrick's Day and Mother's Day (which conveniently were the same weekend). We went to visit Wimpole Hall and had a very lovely lunch at Alimentum (who now have a Michelin star!). Walked two more legs of the Icknield Way Path (Stetchworth to Kennet and Kennet to Thetford - completing the eastern end of the route).

April: For Easter weekend we took a three day trip to finish the western end of the Icknield Way Path - Ivinghoe Beacon to Baldock Then we headed to Congleton for Mike's birthday, and spent another lovely 3 days walking (The Cloud, Biddulph Grange gardens, along the canal to Macclesfield).

May: The highlights of May were family related. Evan and Gina came to visit for the weekend and we had a trip out to the Raptor Foundation in St Ives. And we finished the month with a family weekend in Northern Ireland - complete with heatwave. We stayed in a lighthouse, visited the Giant's Causeway, and I even swam in the sea at Brown's Bay - and got sunburnt feet. We had a great time and took lots of photos.

June: UCU Congress managed to be interesting, fun, and stressful in fairly equal measure. Alison had a fantastic Hen Do involving making chocolates and punting with a bat expert and bat detectors - brilliant. This was (not entirely surprisingly) shortly followed by Mobbsy and Alison's wedding which was fantastic. Lovely to have Chris stay for a few days too - though we'd rather he hadn't had to have his car written off!

July: Our first bit of excitement for July is finding out that I'm pregnant - though we didn't want to tell anyone about it at this stage. Very happy indeed. This did mean some time of finding excuses not to drink at special occasions, starting with Evan and Gina's Ruby wedding. I helped Becky and Stu move into their new house together. Had a fantastic time at Laura's hen do with a dance lesson, a cocktail master class, and much good company late into the night!

August: This was another month of lots of walking. Along the Roman Road from Horseheath back to Wandlebury, and a random route from Newport to Haverhill. Our summer holiday was a week and a half in The Lake District - where we were joined for a lovely couple of days by Mum and Dad - and took the opportunity to tell them our news, and to ring Evan and Gina too. All delighted :) Once we got back we also called Em, Steph and Pete, before telling the world via Facebook, LJ, Google+ and anywhere else I could think of :)

September: This month got off to a perfect start with Pete and Laura's Wedding - absolutely lovely! Followed by a lovely weekend in The Peak District. We had a lovely meal out at CB2 for our Wedding Anniversary - and I also had a Glucose Tolerance Test to check for gestational diabetes - all normal. Heather's HenFest was a glorious success.

October: seems to have been a quiet month. Sally's 30th birthday ceilidh was the highlight, we had a nice little bike ride, and while Mike was away at John's Stag Do I had some friends round for port and cheese and trifle. Also much clearing out of books and DVDs and so on, which was satisfying if not very exciting :)

November: A fab walk around Wandlebury taking photos of the autumn leaves in the sunshine. Started logging pregnancy as a greengrocer with each week's weight/size comparisons. Mum and dad visited for a fantastic birthday weekend - Em joined us for a birthday tea on Friday night, we spent a fun a day out attempting to visit places in Essex and failing on Saturday, and went out to lunch at the King William IV in Heydon on Sunday. We had a fab weekend in Bristol for John and Heather's Wedding which was lovely - despite the rain. I was elected unopposed to the Cambridge UCU committee. And I finally joined Instagram - I'm trying to post around one photo a day - and found some inspiration in a frosty morning at the end of the month.

December: Had a lovely day off for Christmas shopping with Mike, which coincided with a really heavy frost, so we had a fab walk to town taking lots of photos. Passed a second Glucose Tolerance Test - so definitely not suffering from gestational diabetes - did suffer quite a bit from heartburn though - cutting out coffee and sleeping with all the pillows in the world is helping. Headed up north for a really good Christmas in Mirfield and Littleborough - the Strictly final on the telly on Saturday night, a family Sunday Lunch with roast goose followed by friends round on Sunday, a quiet day and a trip to see the Hobbit on Christmas Eve, a fab Christmas Day at Steph and Dave's with the little ones, a boxing day tea back at mum and dad's with Jo visiting too. Absolutely lovely! And yesterday we were invited round to Mobbsy and Alison's for a lovely roast dinner and an afternoon of board games.

We're planning to finish the year off with a quiet day today, and by cooking ourselves a lovely dinner to celebrate New Year's Eve tomorrow. It's been a good one. I can't promise to write as much next year, but it's definitely going to be fun!

[Other years in review: 2011, 2008, 2007, 2006, 2005, 2004, 2003.]