"So this is the New Year...

...and I don't feel any different." Thank you, Death Cab for Cutie, for proving once again that every occasion has a melancholy song to accompany it.

Not much to report from Buckley Towers, other than that pre-Christmas was pretty hectic, early 2008 looks set to be just as busy, and the last two weeks have been a wonderfully welcome break among friends, relatives etc. We headed off to Belfast in the car (and complete with cat) on 21st December and generally vegged in my parents' new house for the next 9 days. Christmas itself was lovely, it was good to see people again and I even managed to see some school friends for the first time in almost 10 years. The jury is out on whether my football skills have improved at all in the last decade. We got back from Belfast just in time to see Jo's brother Martin for an evening, brother James for an hour and then zipped down to Cambridge for an impromptu New Year's celebration. Cracking stuff, though the mileage was pretty high... a dent in our collective resolution to be yet more ethically conscious this year :(

This break was also unusual in that they haven't got any internet connection yet, so I had to go cold turkey for almost a fortnight. It's good to be back in electronic contact with the world, although I haven't yet dared look at my email. I'm now relishing the chance to sit down in front of a computer to organise things, write some code, buy things, plan buying more things, get back to work, scan another night-climbing book and write inanities (like this). Sad but true.