After seeing in 2016 with a couple of friends in Cape Town, I returned home to Johannesburg ready to tackle another year and start planning my next holiday but…my plans quickly changed and I ended up working in Abu Dhabi for three months and then relocating  to San Francisco.

I have made wonderful new friends and celebrated so many special occasions with old friends (even if from afar).  I have skinny dipped in the Atlantic Ocean; danced all night on the beaches of the Persian Gulf and brunched at Atlantis, The Palm.  I have run around Yas Marina Circuit and drunk gold flakes at Emirates Palace.  I have been a tour guide in Muscat; cruised the Pacific Coast Highway in a Porsche 911 cabriolet; seen the sun set over the Pacific Ocean; run the Chicago Half Marathon and stood on a glass ledge looking down at the city.  I have drunk wine in Napa and Sanoma; had a picnic and taken a selfie in Yosemite; taken a gondola to 11,053ft of elevation in Mammoth Lakes; seen the Northern Lights (from a plane); eaten fish and chips in London; presented a paper at a conference in Barcelona; admired Gaudi architecture; wandered around the Prado and listened to jazz in Madrid.  I have held my niece and partied up a storm with good old South African friends in Holland.  I have eaten Thanksgiving dinner in Seattle; drunk beer in Portland; decorated my first real Christmas tree; celebrated our first 4th July and second wedding anniversary and now started my very own blog!

Wow, what a truly wonderful year it has been – I cannot wait to see what 2017 has in store…

Wishing you all a very happy New Year!