---

What a boring title you might ask yourself if you have never seen my blogs before. Is he lazy? Perhaps, a little, but the real reason has to do with the theme and nature of my trip. You see all my blogs here on travelblog have been part of one long trip which I started nearly five years ago. It was never my intention that the trip would last this long. So what went wrong?

On a spring day five years ago I decided to start on an overland journey from Europe to Australia, a trip I reckoned that would take me about a year. That isn't an unreasonable estimate in fairness; in fact I think it takes most people a year to complete such a trip. But I found out that I wasn't one of the many, instead as I made my way east I realized that one year was far too little time to see the countries I was travelling through. Turkey itself took me three month to traverse. Now I had based my budget on a year trip, travelling faster and reaching the cheaper regions of Asia earlier than I in actual fact did, so what happened? After eight month I had made it as far as Pakistan and I was out of money!

I decided then and there to revise my plan. I clearly didn't have the money to continue on at this pace but I wasn't going to change the pace either. So what I did was simple. The journey would continue, I would still finish overlanding to Australia, but I would have to do it in parts. I would buy a return ticket back home from wherever my money had run out and go back to replenish my funds. Once I had saved enough I would return to where I left off and continue overland from there. Thus in spirit I was still overlanding, because I never flew or fly forward, only returning home every now and again to fill my wallet. Each time I go home I write one blog about my time back home and these are the blogs called intermezzo, because that is how I see them, as an intermezzo to this giant overland trip I am still on. Thus Intermezzo VII is the seventh interlude on my trip. And how far along am I? Well I left off in Hong Kong, and back to Hong Kong I shall return to finish off China. My best estimate of reaching Australia is another three years with plenty of intermezzos in-between.

And now to return back to what this blog should be about, what have I been up to since returning home? Well, I have visited friends, relaxed and made enough money for another six to eight month stint on the long road to Australia. I saw the end of summer, the fullness of autumn and one of the most magical winters I have experienced. A white Christmas with an unprecedented amount of snow. My sister came over with her three kids and I suspect because of them Santa also decided to grace us with a visit. Up our driveway he came with a lantern and a bag of presents, slogging through the snow. He had left his reindeer at the barn of our neighbours or so he said. He was well informed on what everybody had been up to this year and the children were very impressed, as was I. It was like something you might see in a Christmas film, a snowy field, a red figure with a lantern casting a thin ray of light over the wintry landscape, a pale moon shining through the trees, a cosy open fire, lights in the windows and the trees, presents and good food and wine.

And then it was time for the New Year to start, with a bang as always. Not only a bang, but in flying colours as well. All around us the night sky lit up in greens and whites, reds and blues, gold’s and silvers and much more. We did our part in ushering in the New Year with our own set of fireworks. And there is no better time to wish everyone a great new year as now, even if we already are a month into.

In the meantime my sister has returned home, my parents have gone to South America to visit my brother and I am about to return to Hong Kong. I would like to thank my family for always taking me in and feeding me whenever I come back from my trip and for supporting me despite their worries. I would like to thank my friends for, well just being friends. Some of you I visited other I didn't, some of you visited me and other didn't, but no matter what I know you are out there and I appreciate it. I would also like to thank all those folk who read my blogs and my fellow travel bloggers who have recommended me over the years. It feels undeserved somehow, but it is nice to know you find my writing tolerable, and whether you know it or not I do actually read a lot of your blogs as well even if I don't comment or recommend you in kind (that is the lazy streak in me).

I realize this last part reads more like the thank you's at an Oscar ceremony, but so be it. Let’s say I am practicing for when I get one! My next blog will be on the road.

---