Caribbean island life...

I can hardly believe that we are half-way through our four month stay here on Utila, the smallest of the three Bay Islands situated in the Caribbean Sea just off the coast of Honduras, Central America. It feels nice to be at this point of our stay because we are now settled into the pace of island life yet we know that we still have lots of time ahead of us here to kick back, relax, and not have to think about returning to the UK just yet.

Just a week after we arrived, it was my birthday, and Trav organised a birthday party for me with our friends on the dock at EcoMarine. There was a BBQ, lots of drinks, music, dancing - and swimming.

A fun dip in the sea with lovely friends Tara and Christine

My birthday gift from Trav was a ‘princess’ piñata. A piñata is a celebration tradition in Spanish speaking countries but I've never had one before and so I was excited and delighted. Quite by coincidence, I happened to be wearing a purple coloured dress that evening and you can see that so was my piñata! A spooky likeness?

Of course, I gave my pinata a really good beating and everyone enjoyed

the haul of candies she had been generously stuffed with!

As soon as we arrived on the island this time around, Trav was again busy teaching scuba diving and I had lots to do in preparation for the online launch of my latest novel Castaway in the Caribbean, which was scheduled for release on the 26^th March. 

This was the novel that I started writing here on Utila the previous summer. I had the ARCs (advance review copies) to send out to reviewers and guest posts and author interviews to write up for my tour hosts in preparation for my upcoming online book tours.

The book tours are organised by the PR peeps at Candlelit Author Services from April 20^th to 1^st May and by BrookCottage Books from 18^th May to 29^th May respectively. 

From the middle of March, for a full week before the official launch date, Castaway in the Caribbean was available for pre-order from Amazon for Kindle. This was a very exciting time for me, as on the strength of these pre-orders, I saw the book going straight into several Amazon bestseller charts and importantly, in its own genre of travel adventure fiction, sitting at #5. The next few days saw it at #4, at #3 and then at #2 where it stayed for two whole days until it finally and unbelievably hit the #1 spot!

Oh my goodness… I have never had a #1 bestseller before so you can imagine how totally thrilled I was. I’d had #2 with my last book Reaching for the Stars and so really thought that this time too the #1 would elude me. The morning that it happened (it was afternoon in the UK as here on the island we are seven hours behind) I was sitting in one of the classrooms at the dive center, hoping for an internet connection, when I checked the book’s Amazon ranking and screamed. Everyone came rushing to find out who and why and then there were celebratory drinks involved – except of course for those going out diving. I now have a lovely little gold ‘#1 Bestseller’ banner next to my book in the Amazon listings and I’m so very proud. A heartfelt thank you to all of those who made this possible!

March was a heady month in respect of my birthday and book launch but I did also get lots of opportunities to have fun and relax. On one weekend, some lovely friends invited us over to Water Cay, one of the tiny tropical islands just off the north coast of Utila. We went there on their boat, took a picnic and drinks, and had a lovely day. The following weekend, with the weather hotting up considerably, we went to Water Cay again. This time with the lovely peeps at EcoMarine. We took lots of food and drinks and on the way we stopped off to buy freshly caught fish for the BBQ. You can see how much fun we had from the photos!

April brought Semana Santa to the island – the Honduran Easter holiday celebrations - and the busiest time of year on Utila in terms of visitor numbers. Many families on mainland Honduras come to the Bay Islands for their vacation and Utila is a firm favourite. Personally, we found this week to be noisy and so busy that we wanted to keep a low profile, choosing to eat in rather than out, and avoiding the beaches until the island had quietened down again. During this time we were also preparing for our eldest son Ben and his lovely girlfriend Gill’s twelve-day visit with us. They were flying from Edinburgh Scotland via the same route we had done just six weeks before (see my previous post for the details) and we were really excited about seeing them and showing them the island we have grown to love so much.

Our eldest son Ben and his girlfriend Gill arrive on Utila

Ben and Gill are both divers. Ben is an Instructor and Gill has her Open Water certification and so we knew that diving in the clearest waters and on the best and second biggest coral reef in the world was going to be high on their agenda. But when they weren’t diving, we wanted to show them Utila and all our favourite places. We also planned to make a special trip over to one of the Cay islands. Little Cay is another of the tiny tropical islands off Utila, like Water Cay, except that this one is available to rent.

Gill and Ben are both qualified scuba divers

Trav diving - photo by Ben

Ben diving with his Dad

We’d discussed Little Cay with Ben and Gill and we decided that we would rent the island between us for the weekend during their stay. The island is private; it has a beautiful house and gorgeous white sand beaches with palm trees. It also has an amazing coral reef with the most stunningly colourful coral and sea life. At night, after our BBQ, with the sky black, clear and cloudless, the four of us walked onto the jetty and switched off our torches. Laying flat on our backs and looking up at the stars was an amazing and truly magical experience. One I will never forget. The island website is here.

Little Cay - a private Caribbean island that you can rent!

We had the most amazing time while Ben and Gill were with us on Utila. We had enthused to them so much about the island after our visit last year and we were thrilled when they said they wanted to spend their holiday time with us this year. Now I’m sure they can appreciate even more why we love this part of the world so much.

We had the most amazing time while Ben and Gill were here on Utila

Yoga Update: During the past couple of months, I've also been learning about and practicing yoga. I feel very lucky indeed to live very close to a yoga center here on Utila run by two amazing yogis who are both highly practiced and expertly knowledgeably. I started off in basic yoga class and found it, shall we say, challenging. My stiff bones and writer’s shoulders had almost become a handicap to me, but now, after just a couple of months in during which I've averaged three or four classes a week, I've made progress and I’m certainly feeling much more supple and definitely more flexible. I've upped my practice a little just recently by including Ashtanga Yoga to my routine and finding it even more challenging but equally rewarding. All proving that you are never too old or too stiff to discover the benefits of yoga and I hope to continue practicing even when we leave here. Have mat will travel!

As I write, the first of my book tours for Castaway in the Caribbean has just finished and the next one begins on 18^th May. As with the previous tour, this one will feature interviews and guest posts and reviews and a tropical giveaway bundle of items that I picked up on my travels around the Caribbean. So please do check in with my hosts and enter the free prize draws. Previously, the prize bundle was a tropical island desk tidy, a tropical fish book mark and a shell necklace and I’m delighted to note that there were 485 entries. 

The May tour giveaway has some equally enticing prizes – one being a beautiful mermaid necklace. If you've already read Castaway in the Caribbean then you’d know that in the story our hero’s boat is called The Mermaid.

The May tour start on Monday the 18^th May and each will give you the opportunity to enter the tropical giveaway. I’d be sharing posts from my own social media sites and would really appreciate any shares as I’m looking to offer Castaway in the Caribbean to readers as a summer holiday 2015 read.

With this quest in mind, if you have already read and enjoyed Castaway in the Caribbean perhaps you might consider telling your friends about it and also consider writing a review on Amazon. It doesn't have to be a long review but it would help me to reach more readers and also help readers to find my book. The paperback of Castaway in the Caribbean should be available to order mid-summer for those who prefer to hold a ‘real’ book.

Thank you and please do come back soon for more news of our Caribbean island antics and other writerly stuff. Feel free to leave a comment. I promise to reply!

Love, Janice xx

Return to paradise….

Early in the morning, on the last day of February, my husband Trav and I flew out of cold and icy Edinburgh heading back to our island paradise in the Caribbean Sea.

Utila is the smallest of the three Bay Islands situated just off the coast of Honduras, Central America. After spending three amazing months on the island last year, we were keen to escape from the Scottish winter and get back to tropical sunshine and the lovely friends we have on the island. Our plan this time is to stay for four months.

It’s a long haul journey from the UK to Utila as there is no direct route. Our flights this time were with Lufthansa and United Airlines, a much better experience than last year when we flew with American Airlines. I was particularly excited to fly into Newark International airport in New York. I’ve never been to this iconic city before and it was a thrill to see a close up aerial view of the Manhattan skyline and the Empire State building souring into the grey February skies. In the bay, the Statue of Liberty was clearly visible. As it was the end of NY fashion week, the airport was very busy and departing flights were being delayed due to the weather. It was even colder in NY than it had been in Scotland and heaps of snow lay all around the aircraft waiting at the gates. We hung around the airport, ate a burger (when in NY!) and had a couple of drinks and where shocked to be set back by the extortionate sum of $100! Seven hours later, we were glad to be able to board our flight to Houston Texas.

At George Bush Int Airport Houston Texas - headed for Roatan

Last year we flew from Glasgow to Miami then onto San Pedro Sula in Honduras, where we had an over night before catching two small planes to the island. This time we had an over night stop in Houston before flying on to Roatan early on the morning of the first day of March. Roatan is the larger of the Bay islands and we had planned a two night stop over here at a beach resort hotel. There are no such resorts on Utila, so it was a treat (I had a birthday just a few days away). After experiencing a Scottish winter, I had to pinch myself that I wasn't just dreaming of tropical sunshine and white sand beaches.

The Paradise Beach Hotel, Roatan. Tropical sunshine and white sand beaches...

Then on the third of March, refreshed and relaxed and with the sea calm and the sun shining down, we took a small boat from Roatan to Utila. The boat journey took around two hours and what a thrill it was to look out for and to spot the familiar shape of the island getting closer and closer.

We had arranged to rent a house in the Sand Bay area, very close to the dive centre and shops and bars and local amenities. Last year we stayed in a lovely but quite isolated little yellow painted house at The Point, which is a couple of miles out of town. It was a quieter spot but a bit of an inconvenience socially. So this time we are in a neighbourhood. Our house, which could be more accurately described as a shack, like all the others close around us, is a traditional Caribbean design. It is made of wood, elevated on stilts, and has an open balcony both at the front and the back. It has a tin roof which is watertight but very noisy when it rains and particularly so when a coconut falls onto it from one of the many towering palm trees outside - which often happens at night and wakes you up with a shock! The windows have wooden shutters and a mesh to stop the bugs flying in but there is no glass. This is to encourage a draft into the house. The downside is that you can hear everything that goes on around you by day and night – people shouting, children playing, babies screaming, dogs barking, cats howling, chickens and roosters calling, loud music blasting and motor bikes revving (there are no cars on the island and so motorbikes and scooters and quad bikes and tuk-tuk taxis the main ways to get about). Personally I’m a great fan of walking or cycling or taking a boat - the island is not that big and most of it is mangrove swamp! The upside of us living a little more inland is that, unlike last year when we were close to the beach, there are no sandflies around to torture us, which means that we can have the doors open and make full use of our balcony and outdoor space without being eaten alive. You win some and you lose some and compromise is king!

In the house, we have two bedrooms, a bathroom with a shower, an open plan sitting room and a fitted kitchen with a large fridge freezer and a gas cooker. It’s very nice. We have electric included in our rent and, although there’s no air conditioning, we have ceiling fans – which are a blessing when the heat and humidity is really high and they are whizzing around distributing the occasional waft of air coming through the mesh windows. It has taken us a few weeks to get used to living so close to other people and to cope with all the social noise – but that is entirely our issue not theirs due to us being used to living in a remote and almost silent part of the Scottish countryside for over 25 years. Now that we are getting used to it all - we love it. Okay, the place might look a little rustic and rough around the edges but that is part of its charm. It is the Caribbean as it should be and the people we live among here are always friendly, helpful and welcoming. I’m sure we are a bit of a novelty to them actually – the white skinned English speaking couple who live in the blue house under the trees - although Trav and I are working on the first two issues by getting our skins darkly tanned and practicing our Spanish!

Our casa - by night and by day - with a flowering banana tree just outside the front door...

Next time here on the blog I’ll be chatting about our first month spent on the island – about life in our Caribbean house and all the action happening down at the dive centre where Trav is working as an instructor. The local night life. Parties on the dock – including my fabulous birthday party - with photos! Weekend picnics at the Cays – tiny tropical islands just off Utila. And I’ll be charting progress on my own personal venture this time around on the island - which is to learn and practice Ashtanga Vinyasa Yoga in order to remedy my poor aching writer’s shoulders, the repetitive keyboard strain in my wrists and fingers and strengthen my stiff and weak lower back – all caused by a long winter spent sitting down at the laptop.

Yoga Utila

Come back soon and please do feel free to leave a comment. I promise to reply!

Love, Janice xx

Castaway in the Caribbean - 99p/$1.48 this weekend only!

Thank you to everyone who has bought and downloaded a copy of Castaway in the Caribbean in the past 24 hrs and to those who have messaged and shared my launch day posts!

Castaway is currently sitting at #3 in the Amazon Bestseller Charts for Travel Adventure Fiction - and I'm thrilled. To celebrate this chart success and to hope for a #2 or even a #1 position - the book will remain at the launch price of 99p or $1.48 for this weekend only - so if you fancy a Caribbean adventure of your own - download soon and please tell your friends!

Love, Janice xx

Fancy a romantic Caribbean adventure?

Launch price 99p or $1.48 this weekend only!

#Amazon #Kindle #Bestseller 

Amazon Links:

UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Castaway-Caribbean-Janice-Horton-ebook/dp/B00UEY9UC6/ref=zg_bs_4542588031_3 

US: http://www.amazon.com/Castaway-Caribbean-Janice-Horton-ebook/dp/B00UEY9UC6/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1426094210&sr=1-1

It's Sail Away Day for Castaway in the Caribbean...!

I'm excited to announce my new novel is now available worldwide on Amazon for Kindle!

Castaway in the Caribbean

Today is Launch Day - or as I prefer to call it - Sail Away Day!

The first book blogger review is in - you can read it at The Book Maven Book Blog

Loveahappyending.com has a launch feature page here

The Author's Cafe has a special launch feature here

Links:

Browse Castaway in the Caribbean on Amazon UK

Browse Castaway in the Caribbean on Amazon Dotcom

Castaway in the Caribbean

Vacationing on the beautiful Caribbean island of Antigua, Janey Sinclair is persuaded by her magazine editor boss to do a quick island hop in order to supervise an impromptu photo-shoot for the front cover. With no flights immediately available, Janey is directed to the harbour.

Captain Travis Mathews hates tourists, although he’s not above making a bit of money off a prissy and sharp tongued young British girl when she’s desperate to get to the neighbouring island of Tortola.

After striking a deal, they set off together in Travis’s weather-beaten old boat. When the vessel comes to a sudden full stop in the sea, the mismatched pair end up as castaways on an uninhabited island.

In this fast moving romantic adventure about a vacation that turns into a tropical nightmare there’s more fun than you’ll find in any travel brochure.

A message from Janice:

I was incredibly fortunate to spend most of last summer in the Caribbean, writing and researching my latest novel Castaway in the Caribbean. I found it challenging only in the respect of being continually distracted from the manuscript by the tropical sunshine, the white sand beaches, the warm aquamarine sea, rum cocktails, and the fabulous social scene on offer. Many of these distractions are well documented on my website, blog and Facebook page, if you are interested in reading the details and seeing the photos!

For the purposes of proper research for Castaway in the Caribbean, I travelled to and explored many Caribbean islands and, despite my tendency for sea sickness, I also spent a lot of time in boats. I even got to sail around Tortola, the larger of the British Virgin Islands, in a restored schooner that had been used in the filming of the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

The Virgin Islands inspired me with the modern day setting for this romantic adventure novel because, of this chain of around ninety small islands, islets, cays and rocks in the Caribbean Sea, many are uninhabited.

I eventually settled down to write this romantic adventure story on the Caribbean island of Utila, the smaller of the Bay Islands, just off the coast of Honduras. Likened to the Key West of long ago, Utila is a quaint, unspoilt and laid-back little island. Sitting on the largest barrier reef in the western hemisphere, it is also a paradise for scuba diving, which is exactly what my husband was doing every day while I was busy writing this story. Research is a valuable tool for a writer, so I do hope all the fun and adventure I had in the Caribbean has found its way into the pages of Castaway in the Caribbean.

Janice xx

NEWS: Castaway in the Caribbean available for pre-order!

I'm really excited to announce that my new novel is now up on Amazon for Pre-Order! 

Castaway in the Caribbean

At a special pre-order price of 99p or $1.48

Launch day is 26^th March 2015

Links:

Browse Castaway in the Caribbean on Amazon UK

Browse Castaway in the Caribbean on Amazon Dotcom

Other Amazon sites are available

Castaway in the Caribbean

Vacationing on the beautiful Caribbean island of Antigua, Janey Sinclair is persuaded by her magazine editor boss to do a quick island hop in order to supervise an impromptu photo-shoot for the front cover. With no flights immediately available, Janey is directed to the harbour.

Captain Travis Mathews hates tourists, although he’s not above making a bit of money off a prissy and sharp tongued young British girl when she’s desperate to get to the neighbouring island of Tortola.

After striking a deal, they set off together in Travis’s weather-beaten old boat. When the vessel comes to a sudden full stop in the sea, the mismatched pair end up as castaways on an uninhabited island.

In this fast moving romantic adventure about a vacation that turns into a tropical nightmare there’s more fun than you’ll find in any travel brochure.

A message from Janice:

I was incredibly fortunate to spend most of last summer in the Caribbean, writing and researching my latest novel Castaway in the Caribbean. I found it challenging only in the respect of being continually distracted from the manuscript by the tropical sunshine, the white sand beaches, the warm aquamarine sea, rum cocktails, and the fabulous social scene on offer. Many of these distractions are well documented on my website, blog and Facebook page, if you are interested in reading the details and seeing the photos!

For the purposes of proper research for Castaway in the Caribbean, I travelled to and explored many Caribbean islands and, despite my tendency for sea sickness, I also spent a lot of time in boats. I even got to sail around Tortola, the larger of the British Virgin Islands, in a restored schooner that had been used in the filming of the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie.

The Virgin Islands inspired me with the modern day setting for this romantic adventure novel because, of this chain of around ninety small islands, islets, cays and rocks in the Caribbean Sea, many are uninhabited.

I eventually settled down to write this romantic adventure story on the Caribbean island of Utila, the smaller of the Bay Islands, just off the coast of Honduras. Likened to the Key West of long ago, Utila is a quaint, unspoilt and laid-back little island. Sitting on the largest barrier reef in the western hemisphere, it is also a paradise for scuba diving, which is exactly what my husband was doing every day while I was busy writing this story.

Research is a valuable tool for a writer, so I do hope all the fun and adventure I had in the Caribbean has found its way into the pages of Castaway in the Caribbean.

The Virgin Islands inspired me with the modern day setting for this romantic adventure novel

  

I even got to sail around Tortola, the larger of the British Virgin Islands, in a restored schooner that had been used in the filming of the original Pirates of the Caribbean movie. Do you recognise the above rock formation from the opening scene in the movie?

Researching Tortola – The British Virgin Islands

Janice Horton writes contemporary romantic fiction with a dash of humour and a sense of adventure. Look out for Janice’s new release for 2015 Castaway in the Caribbean and her Amazon Kindle bestselling books Bagpipes and Bullshot and Reaching for the Stars and her fun Voodoo Romance series of novellas. Her nonfiction guide to online promotion How To Party Online is recommended reading by publishers. Janice is a senior editor at the award-winning Loveahappyending Lifestyle Magazine (LLm)

No Kindle? No problem. Amazon provides a free to download Kindle App for all devices.

Pre-order today at the special price of just 99p or $1.48 and read on launch day when the ebook of Castaway in the Caribbean will automatically download to your device.

Looking back affectionately at 2014…

2014 has been the most amazing year for us. It was the year that my husband Trav and I decided that we didn’t need a permanent home anymore - we just needed a phone and a suitcase in order to live out our dream of travelling the world while at the same time still being able to be in contact with our loved ones. This was the year that we sold up, packed up, and took the leap to achieve our dreams.

This time last year, Trav and I had just enjoyed our last Christmas and New Year in our cottage on a Scottish hillside where we had lived for the past 25 years. We originally bought the place as a derelict shepherd’s bothy and it had taken us a full 25 years to renovate it to the condition it was in when we sold it in January 2014!

Over the years, among the renovating, rebuilding, plastering, extending and painting, our three sons grew up in something of a rural ideal. There were no visible neighbours in our remote part of the world but, typical of our Scottish lifestyle, we were still part of a strong village community and so we made lots of lovely friends and there was a good social life to be had. There was the village hall for harvest festivals, SWRI meetings and the like and, just six miles away from our tiny village is a slightly larger one, with a good school and some shops and a pub or two. Our boys spent their young lives with dogs and hens. Sledging down snowy slopes in the winter and playing freely in the countryside in the summer holidays, pitching tents and camping out in the forest opposite our cottage in true swallows and amazons style.

Our country cottage on the hillside

The kitchen - before and after the 25 year long renovations..!

With our boys all grown up and leaving home, there seemed little point in Trav and I staying in a family size nest. It was of course an emotional time for us when we put the cottage up for sale, as there were so many wonderful memories over so many years connected to the place, but we had a longing to travel and explore the world. Trav and I have always prioritised our one or two week holidays and mini-adventures over the years - which was probably why it took us 25 years to renovate the cottage - but this year we have made a real start on our traveling ambitions and by being careful with our budget and by planning our time, we've been fortunate to travel far and wide in 2014.

January: We packed up and moved out of our cottage and handed the keys over to the lovely couple who had bought it. Staying in Scotland, we moved downhill to a rented lodge house by the side of the river. It was an equally beautiful place to live and I love the sound of the river rushing by and taking walks along the riverbank.

Views from our new place down by the river...

February: We grabbed a late-deal bargain Caribbean cruise and left for Barbados almost immediately. We flew on an airplane called a Dreamliner and the ship that we sailed the Caribbean on was called The Dream. It was all very dreamy and I had to pinch myself to find out if it was all real. Trav and I visited Barbados, Antigua, St Barths, Tortola in the British Virgin Islands, Grenada, St Vincent, the ABC islands of Aruba, Bonaire and Curacao. We spent my birthday in the lush tropical rain forests of Dominica. As we sailed away to our next port of call at sunset, I was treated to a birthday dinner celebration with Trav and the lovely new friends we'd met on-board, whom I hope will remain our friends for years to come.

It was while we were sailing off Tortola in the British Virgin Islands that I decided to set my next novel there and had the idea for ‘Castaway in the Caribbean’ which is to be published in March 2015.

March and April: Back in Scotland the weather had improved considerably and Spring flowers were blooming. We had family and friends to visit us and we enjoyed lots of lovely walks along the riverbank with our wee West Highland Terrier, Polly.

May: We grabbed another online bargain holiday and back to the Caribbean we went - this time to the Dominican Republic – a place we have been once before and we really love. While we were there I had my hair braided. What do you think? Boho-chic or Medusa...?

Fun in the sun on the Caribbean island of Dominican Republic

June: No sooner were we back from the Dom Rep than we were packing our suitcases again in order to visit our Son #2 in South Korea. This was a very exciting trip and a very long journey. We flew with Emirate Airlines from Glasgow to Seoul via Dubai. You can read more about this fabulous country and our amazing adventures there in my blog post here.

Our flight path to South Korea

South Korea - where our son lives and works as an English teacher

July: August: September: For three whole months in the summer of 2014, Trav and I took our most exciting trip ever. We flew from Glasgow to London and to Miami on our way to the Caribbean Island of Utila – the smaller of the Bay Islands off the coast of Honduras, South America. We went there for the scuba diving, as Trav has always wanted to swim with whale sharks. This was something he was able to do during our fabulous time on Utila, together with achieving his Dive Master qualification. Along the way, we had the most fun ever and we met some lovely new friends. You can read more about our adventures on Utila here and in the following three blog posts too.

Utila, Honduras - a paradise found!

Also in September we heard the surprise news that our son in South Korea was getting married – on that very day. This is the official wedding photo of the happy couple. As you can see, they didn't stand on tradition as the groom wore his Cure t-shirt and the bride carried a lollipop. Young love!!

The newly married Mr and Mrs Horton

October: We were home again to Scotland to see our family and catch up with friends. Son #3 picked us up from the airport as he had passed his driving test while we were away. He had decorated our bed at home and bought us presents to welcome us back. I think we were missed!

A wonderful welcome home!

November: Off to visit friends who live in the Kingdom of Bahrain. We traveled with Emirate Airlines again from Glasgow via Dubai. This was a fabulous and rather exotic trip. We got to catch up with our dear friends Sue and Pete and to go sightseeing and to live the life of ex-pats – if only for a short while! I've written a 'Snap Gap' feature on Bahrain for Loveahappyending Lifestyle Magazine and also a detailed blog post on the places we visited both in the city and the desert, which you can read here.

The sights and experiences of the Kingdom of Bahrain

  

December: What better than a winter break in Tenerife in the Canary Islands? But this trip was all about work as well as pleasure as Trav was there to complete a dive instructor course and I was going to work on the edits for ‘Castaway in the Caribbean’. We did have lots of fun in the sun too of course and we also managed to catch up with friends we hadn't seen in a while.

The Christmas decorations were up but the sun was shining in Tenerife as I managed to fit in work and catching up with friends. I had drinks with my friend Cami while Trav spent his days with Mary and Neil at Amarilla Divers.

And the year to come?  Well, I expect it will be even better than 2014…!

You might be wondering how I can possibly say that when we have just had the most amazing year in 2014 – but you see in February 2015 our first grandson will be born in South Korea. Aaron Thomas Horton is due at the very end of February - probably while we are travelling in the opposite direction - as Trav and I are booked on a flight to America on the baby’s due date. However, we do plan to visit South Korea again in the summer of 2015 to get to see our son and his lovely wife and their new baby son.

And that’s how I know that 2015 is going to be a fabulously fantastic year!

I hope that your year is both fabulous and fantastic too and that all your dreams come true. Please do follow my blog and pop back from time to time as I post from around the world. I love to read your comments and I promise to reply as soon as I get an internet connection. You can always catch me on Facebook and Twitter too, in the meantime.

Happy New Year everyone!

Love Janice xx