It’s been something of an emotional roller-coaster since my last post. The responses to my news about my brother Andrew’s death has been touching – two comments n the blog here, phone calls from friends, cards and general sympathy have been much appreciated.

Also in the middle of all of this, we welcomed my sister Isobel’s first baby Lara Niamh into the family – arriving just over a day after Andrew’s departure! This lifted everyone of course. Welcome little Lara!

After a slightly fraught Christmas, we traveled down to Potters Bar (Kathy’s family area) and spent a couple of days catching up with the Ainsworths and seeing one or two other friends. This lowered the stress levels before heading back up to Leicester for Andrew’s funeral.

This was a strange mixture of sadness at saying goodbye to Andrew and joy at meeting Lara for the first time. The funeral was as nice an occasion as one could be – there were lots of people in attendance – including old teachers, Scout leaders, cousins, uncles, family friends and some of Andrew’s friends from the rllmuk forum (thanks Paula, Nick and Steve). I managed to stand up with Duncan and make a speech between us without bursting ito tears – not an easy thing. When the curtain drew and the committal music played (the Finale to Saint-Saens’ organ symphony) I just lost it for a while. Afterwards we went back home for the wake, which was much more fun – lots of food, chance to catch up with the old teachers/scout leaders and have a few games on Andrew’s Wii (in his honour of course!).

Then the next day we got up up at the un-godly time of 5.30 to get the train down to London, then fly to Zürich to see the New Year in with Duncan, Rowan and the kids. After a trip to the Tier Park at Goldau to see various animals, climb a big rope-walk climbing frame and have Schweinschnitzel and fries or lunch, we went a very agreeable evening with some of their friends up on the hill. Then back home to watch the fireworks and listen to the clanging bells of the Zug/Barr valley – very atmospheric!

So here I am on the first day on 2007, and I suppose it customary to make resolutions – well here are a couple of mine:

• Make a blog post every day – even if it’s very brief (even just a picture).
• Get a new bike and start cycling to work every day, so I get fit again!

Lets see how I get on….