My 2013 Xmas card – this year unfortunately I didn’t have the time to do a more elaborate thing, anyway I think it looks quite acceptable! 🙂

Merry Xmas and a great 2014 full of accomplishments! (and challenges, one can never go on without them, right?)

In my last post I was, oddly enough, not ranting about the cold while heading for my morning practice. Well, that was still in November! 🙂

It is true that, so far, no snow has fallen in Kent (although the alternative is not very pretty, at the moment – I had a quick glimpse on WindGuru for Whitstable and it is definitely not great!), but last week we had a few freezing days, with everything covered in ice and the temperature dropping to -2 degrees C early in the morning.

It was absolutely great! It actually turned out to be one of the best rowing sessions of the year – the clear sky, the ridiculously flat river with no wind whatsoever (and the current was so faint we were struggling to find the direction to place the boat against 🙂 ), and just the fact that I witnessed the sun rising from my single, absolutely perfect! (the pogies I was trying out for the first time also helped… 😉 )

Anyway, enough rowing talk, otherwise I will never finish! I think the most important thing happening in this last couple of weeks was my triumphant return (hehe) to Portugal for Xmas. It is true that I was only about 3 months away, but still it is nice to come home and enjoy the company of family and friends, not to mention great food!

The day I returned was a good example of that – I landed, after a combination of waking up at 4h45, driving 1h30 to the airport (best idea ever! So easy and stress-free…) and hopping on the plane a couple of hours later. Immediately after I was picked up and driven to my old university, where a francesinha lunch awaited (courtesy of the UP SPIE Student Chapter!). There’s no better welcome present than a nice francesinha, well watered up with a couple of beers (Super Bock, of course! 😀 ).

And this last Sunday I ran my 3rd São Silvestre, which happened to be the 20th one. I managed to beat my previous time (45 min something…) by going down to 43:27, but honestly I know that I am able to go lower than this – my breathing failed me completely! (in retrospect, perhaps my initial goal of a sub-40min time was a bit overly ambitious… but that may feature in my New Year’s resolutions for 2014! 🙂 ). Anyway, my thanks to my friend Abel for pushing hard during the whole race, that first climb was quite nice! (a shame that I don’t have a GPS trace for it – I’m on the process of getting myself a running watch, but I’m still in the comparison phase!)

Right, enough for now. Unfortunately, I have about 50 reports to mark (so far, the first three I’ve seen weren’t that bad – am I going softer or is this batch of students better than last year’s? 🙂 ) and a few other things to do. If I don’t come around here soon, a merry Xmas and a happy 2014 for all of my dear readers (me, myself and I! 😀 ).