No dogs on the trail? It's an outrage! Oh, and HAPPY NEW YEAR!

While Gail and I have been down in Nottingham our dear neighbours Yvonne and Neil have been touring New Zealand's South Island in a camper van.

I do believe that Gail has been a little envious. Me, not so much, at least not since I read the latest Antipodean dispatch from Yvonne's iPhone.

Yvonne hiking up to Fox Glacier, NZ.

I shall spare you the typo strewn text (no doubt it's hard to use a smartphone keyboard upside down). The gist of the message was that that Yvonne and Neil had hiked up to Fox Glacier but NO DOGS WERE ALLOWED ON THE TRAIL.

I'll be straight with you, Gail has related similarly shocking stories about trails in National Parks in the USA but I'd always assumed she was fibbing in order to make me feel better about having been left behind when she goes gallivanting off on vacation.

Now I am beginning to wonder if she has not in fact been telling the truth?

Back in the UK the weather was dull and wet yesterday when Gail took me for a walk around the Nottingham University campus (alma mater to both Yvonne and my late beloved Human Grandad).

The Southern Alps it is not. But at least I could roam free as I circumnavigated the University boating lake (while being regaled with alarming tales of Gail's misspent teenage years in her home city...)

PS We have now said goodbye to Nottingham and to Human Granny for a few weeks and are heading back to Scotland for Hogmanay.

PPS Wishing all readers of this blog, old and new, all the best for the New Year. Bertie will of course be celebrating at the Blogville New Year's Eve Bash...