It Was A Very Good Year

Looking back over 2009, I'm thinking that it has been an incredible year. On January 1st, Allan and I were in Israel. This trip took place just a few months after we moved to the east coast of Florida to establish ourselves in Stuart, a place that would be perfect for retirement.

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This is us at the aquaduct at Caesarea, Israel and the photo below is Allan at the Western Wall.

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We celebrated our 25th anniversary in April. I don't know how he has managed to stay with me for so long but I can say the man is tenacious, and I'm better for it.

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We made a lifestyle change in September to live in Japan. Now I wonder, who else could I have married that would have given me such an amazing life?

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We've toured and sailed around parts of Europe, skied in the US, Canada and now Japan, and been diving in the Caribbean. Our plan now is to see as much of Australia and Asia as possible.

And on December 31st, we're with friends at the Yokota Air Base Officers' Club. We're spending two nights at the AirForce Lodge and after our time here, I want Allan to work for the Air Force. The room at the AF Lodge was twice what we had (for 53 days) at the Navy Lodge, and it was cheaper.
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We had great fun at the party. For $25, we had heavy hor d'oeuvres, entertainment, dancing, midnight champagne, and breakfast.

It was a night with the Beatles (Japanese Beatles - I can't make this stuff up). The group was called Ricky and the Michelle, I don't think they understood that MeeShell is actually a girl's name.

This is Ricky, obviously the John Lennon impersonator, although he did most of the singing. They played a good bit of the Beatles playbook and even a few Wings and post-Beatles Lennon music.

I don't remember Paul or John shouting out "Doomo Arigatoo, wakarimashitaka" ("Thank you, do you understand?") after each song, but that's what Ricky did.

Ricky and the Michelle

They sounded amazingly like the Fab Four. Our table broke out in laughter when they did the clicking and echoing sound effects from Yellow Submarine. I thought Yellow Submarine would be a good name for the group, but my brother John pointed out that they wouldn't want a name that referred to them as 'yellow'. Yeah, he's probably right.

They knew most of the song lyrics, but with the occasional line that they didn't know, they filled in with similar sounding syllables which had no meaning in English.

It was a fun way to end an exciting and wonderful year. I had no idea what was ahead of me on January 1, 2009, and I don't know if 2010 will be as full of surprises, but keep watching, and I'll let you know.

And take a chance this year, it could turn out great!
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As it says on Allan's hat, 'Akemashite omedetou gozaimasu'.