We’re now back from 8 weeks in Tenerife, avoiding the worst of the severe strains of the UK winter. We added to our enjoyment with Spanish classes on the terrace, taught by a young Russian woman in a small class including Germans, Austrians, Dutch and Finns. As usual, we stayed at Mar y Sol in Los Cristianos and met up with many friends from previous visits, both staff and guests.

One of the highlights was having a haiku (poem) retweeted by Jack Munroe – *fame*. It received a large number of views via LinkedIn as well. What is new is how most people come to the blog via Twitter. The second most common route to the blog is via search engines, and dear old LinkedIn is dropping to third.

The next book is 14k words in, and I am now being followed by the EU Commissioner for the Regions and by BIS in the UK. As ever, in the blogs I am following a professional line of being honest and ethical while not breaking confidences. Recent topics included reducing carbon emissions and on housing economics.

However, the most read blog so far this year is on press reports of rumours that the planned connection between HS2 and HS1 will be axed. This relates to one of my dear lost causes – promoting the idea of an overnight train between Manchester and Paris. One day… 🙂

Happy March everyone.