I too enter this year with even less optimism than you I think. My life is about to change dramatically as I am about to lose my spouse/best friend/ companion of 60 years and my home of 45 years. Life has a funny way of upending one's plans and it is our job to deal with whatever it presents as best we can with dignity and grace. And make new plans, in time. It seems to me you have two already so that's a start. One foot after the other!

Others above have given you very good counsel, I have nothing useful to add. At this stage for me life is about putting one foot after the other, remembering the good things from the past, the lessons learned and having no regrets. I spent a mere two weeks in Japan quite a few years ago and would return in a heartbeat. You will not regret a journey to that wondrous country, I can assure you. Happy New Year to you Tom, may it be a better one for us all.

I am so sorry Tom and deeply shocked. I have no sage advice to give you, just a listening ear as always and a big hug. Life will go on. Remember the good times and there were many. No regrets.

A very thought provoking post!

Oh I forgot to say that's it's also been my great pleasure to meet you through the pages of this blog and to form a strong if unusual friendship beyond it, even into meeting several times in real life and I still cherish the occasion when your Ferrari was parked in my driveway for a day or so. Such cachet it earned me with the neighbours!

Congratulations to you Tom. A tome worth archiving for future generations, if as you say they can find it. Laughs. The wisdom of the world as I call the internet is a pretty crowded place and not always easy to navigate. It's been my pleasure to read it for almost all of those years, although we don't always agree and I've been shot down in flames in the comment section of this blog on occasion. Raises her glass to another 15 years and wonders what the tone of it will be by then. Hopefully not still angry.

Well it will be cool in the champagne cellars at Epernay, if I recall correctly. I've enjoyed travelling with you and Mrs P II on your honeymoon, especially to many places that I recall fondly. Enjoy the remainder of you trip.

One of my favourite cities to visit too. It's also a good city for getting around on foot. I've been there half a dozen times over the years and once spent a month at language school in Florence, doing a homestay with a lovely Italian family. We never seemed to run out of things to see in all that time.

I think your friend is very misguided and achieving nothing by his stand. It's also rather patronizing on his part by putting all the "blame", as he would call it, on you. Apparently he does not believe that the future Mrs P2 is capable of making her own decisions. I would love to be there to celebrate this joyous occasion with you and wish you both every happiness.

Happy New Year to you Tom and congratulations!

Congratulations. An incredible achievement.

As one of your online friends, although we did meet several times in meat space as you so charminglv call it, I enjoyed this post. Would you believe I was looking for the like button to click for a few seconds till I came to my senses and signed into Typepad? you do like to pigeonhole your friends with fancy sounding names, don't you? Although you always have miscategorized me. Laughs. I think I am a Left Liberal while you push me far more to the Left into the Marxist camp I fear. I'm lucky you are so tolerant and of course lucky to be your friend!

I’m not the erudite reader you are but I read this many years ago and count it amongst those books which made an impact on my life. It’s certainly a book that I think everyone should read in their lifetime. I’ll be interested to see what else you are going to recommend and wonder if I will have read any of those. Laughs. When I think about the books I have touted over the years to anyone who would listen it is an incredibly eclectic collection. Oh my latest touting is When Breath becomes Air by Paul Kalanithi, a bit close to home for me, but a very different look at what makes life meaningful.

Carcassonne is one of my favourite places in all of France. Unfortunately when we did the tour it was only available in French and while I can still read French relatively well, my understanding of the spoken word leaves a lot to be desired. Fortunately my daughter is fluent and she filled in any missing details for me later.

Laughs!

Do you know that in Australia Tax Freedom day was April 12th this year? We are both living in the wrong country! However the discrepancy is so great I think they must calculate it differently.

June 10th for us Canadians, well that was in 2015 and it's been creeping later every year so I am sure 2016 will be no different.

Merry Christmas to you and your daughters, Tom.

Testing, testing, testing.

I'm sorry your Philadelphia sojourn was so messed up. I really loved that city with all the independence hype and of course the very splendid Rodin Museum which wasn't on your agenda. When I visited the Declaration of Independence in Washington DC I was strangely moved by the whole experience and Philadelphia was a similar experience for me. You sound quite nostalgic now the journey is over. What an achievement! Those wide open roads were built for Speranza and I'm sure she enjoyed every moment of it too. Especially the admiration!

One wonders if you will ever wear your collection of Tshirts again when you get back to the UK. But perhaps you'll have acquired an American attitude on this trip. Tradition be damned! I love the American "why not" attitude in the face of 'You can't do that", because some outdated "tradition" dictates one can't.

Thank goodness. California will keep for another visit, perhaps not with Speranza but there will be lots of muscle cars for hire next time. I hope that's not an insult to Speranza, comparing her to a muscle car, although we all know she is in a higher class.

I hope you appreciate that I photoshopped the garbage can out of that photo! The OS moved it out of the way for one photo but put it back before I took this one. Shakes her head. He doesn't do photography but he does garbage quite well.

Those places look familiar! A lovely day indeed. It was good to see you again and show you a few of the highlights of this lovely city, my adopted home. Bon voyage.

That "island" made by your route lines is actually known as the Cascade Loop minus a tiny bit on the coast and a very well known tourist drive. You can google it. I've never driven it but it is said to be very beautiful. I think taking the longer route would probably be more scenic. Maybe it won't be more scenic than where you have been but it will certainly be spectacular. You'll go past Mount Baker and Lake Chelan and the North Cascade Highway sounds very scenic. Frankly I would ask the locals when you get to Wenatchee, they'll be better able to give you advice than me. Don't worry about time, as long as you get to Vancouver in time for dinner. Planned for around 6.30pm give or take. :) Crossing the border can be a tedious delay as the Canadians return from their cross border weekend shopping sprees, but hopefully it will go smoothly.