A Review of 2011 & Festive Greetings

The year is about to end and we are all preparing for the “Festive Season” and welcoming in a New Year – 2012. I hope it has been a good year for you.

For me the year has flown and has been crammed with activity. This month sees me 10 years retired from the Bank and with the continuing difficult economic conditions across the world I decided to shut down my own Company due to lack of business and continuing costs and any consultancy work I do in future will be in my own name.

Highlights of the year have been many and here I mention some of them:-
*3 Coast2Coast (“C2C”) bike rides:
-Runcorn 2 Hull
-St Bees 2 Robin Hood’s Bay
-Fort William 2 Inverness (Great Glen).
*A C2C walk from Ullapool in the west of Scotland 2 Ardgay on the east coast some 55kms and thoroughly enjoyable and challenging in one day.
*I got to the top of 134 mountains across the UK/Madeira and a special delight was to finish all the high mountains in Sutherland on the top of lonely Ben Hee in July.
*I competed in two long distance races in Isle of Man:
-Parish Walk – 85miles
-End2End Walk – 40 miles.
*I competed in the Welsh 1000m Mountain Race, finishing once again but alas half an hour outside the nine hour time window. My fellow walking friends Geoff and Paul finished within the time with Paul winning the Male Vet 40 Section in a splendid time of 7hrs 24mins.
*I put a lot of effort into the Welsh 3000s Challenge (15 mountains over 3,000ft) and did this demanding walk over two days on two occasions. Alas on the day of the challenge four of us pulled out but Paul finished the route in an excellent time of 13hrs 25mins. So well done by him and encouragement for me to try again in 2012!

I hope you have a lovely Festive Season, health, happiness and continued success in 2012.

Very best wishes, Fraser.

21st December 2011