This photo depicts probably the most dominant aspect of 2017 for me, as I spent the vast majority of the year working in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia – I have been part of a fantastic team that planned and launched a new low cost airline for Saudi Arabia, called flyadeal.

I started on the project in September 2016, and I took this photo at Jeddah airport as I boarded a flight to Dubai on 20th December 2017, leaving Jeddah for the final time. It was great to look back and see one of our five aircraft as I climbed the steps; I have some wonderful memories of my time in Jeddah, but it’s time for me to move on.

However, just before I greet the new year, and pursue new opportunities, I’ve been thinking about some of my highlights and key events of the past 12 months. It’s been a year in which I hit a new decade, and found that 60 is the new, um, well I’m not sure, but so far so good. I also had the pleasure of seeing my eldest son Jamie get married to his beautiful Rachel, against the backdrop of the fabulous city of Edinburgh.

The happy couple!

Predictably, travel has played a major part of my 2017, I took some 51 flights involving 8 countries, although by far the most frequent route was between Jeddah and Dubai, as I sought to get back to Mrs E as much as possible. Flights throughout the year included business trips to Manila, in the Philippines, and Salt Lake City, in the US, both of which gave me great blogging material!

A fantastic home from home

The Salt Lake City trip provided some of the most stunning views of the year

On the personal travel front, we managed to enjoy two trips to our Gabiano home, and one to Cyprus, it’s always great to get back to these places, I hope we manage to repeat this in the year ahead.

A particular highlight of these trips was the visit we made to Lake Como to celebrate Mrs E’s birthday, a wonderful place that definitely deserves returning to.

Breathtaking Lake Como

Agiou Georgiou, an oasis of calm and ruggedness, near Paphos

Gorgeous Gabiano

Trips back to the UK however have been somewhat rare in comparison to previous years – in addition to the Edinburgh visit, I only managed one weekend back, prior to this current visit for the Christmas period. I blogged about the weekend visit back in July, and this became, and still remains, my most viewed post – 57 Hours and so much to do!

Enjoying a great day out in Oxford

My interests in blogging and photography were ever present during the year, I posted 25 times, and spent numerous hours trying to battle with the complexities of photoshop, yet feel I’ve only just scratched the surface – definitely something for me to develop further during 2018.

A slightly photoshopped view of Dubai Marina

Coming to Dubai in 2018 – the Ain Dubai ferris wheel, on Bluewaters Island

So as I look back on an eventful, work filled 2017, I also look forward to what I hope will be a less hectic 2018, that sways the balance between work and family very firmly back to the family side of things.

Thank you to everyone that took the time to read my posts, make comments and even follow; cheers, and Happy New Year!!