Marvelous. Just a couple of days after I was saying how great it was to have a laptop and be able to use it anywhere I wanted, it’s decided to die a horrible death on me. It would be working fine and then the screen would get covered with horizontal lines and it would lock up. They’re the sort of lines that make you think “I might as well switch it off, there’s no way it’s going to sort itself out”. Luckily it’s still 3 weeks within the warranty period so I’ve sent it off to be repaired (how much do you want to bet that it works fine for them?). I also backed everything up to my home desktop PC so nothing has been lost and the old cries of “Oh my god! I forgot to back up my photos!” will not be heard from me.

Still, what it means is that I’ll not be doing any updates over the Christmas period as I’ll be in Scotland with my family nowhere near my PC. That’s a good thing. It’s been a long year for me and I could use the rest. My brain has already started to wind down and my work has also gone downhill over the last few days (luckily I’m not the only one). I just need some time away from a computer screen and I can come back re-invigorated. I’ll take my camera so I can record anything interesting that happens and will report back when I return to my spiritual home of Yorkshire.

My main plan over Christmas is to catch up with a few people who live up north but try very hard to avoid anybody else. My brother was out back home the other night and saw some people he knew from school and as he said “the last thing I wanted to do was spend the next hour explaining what I’d been doing over the last ten years” so he kept his head down. And that’s my sentiment. Another reason I don’t use friends reunited, if I wanted to stay in touch with you I would have – and vice-versa.

Luckily though I’ve done all my Christmas shopping already. This time last year I was frantically buying last-minute presents for everybody but due to constant nagging from my girlfriend I finished buying stuff last week (not like in November as most women do). So all that remains is for me to do a half day of work on Tuesday. Go down to the pub at lunchtime with my colleagues. Have some lunch and some alcohol (only a pint mind). Drive home to pick up all the presents and all the kit I need (sad though you may find it, I’ll be going out for a run on Christmas day as I always do). Then I’ll put the guinea pig in the car and drive home to Scotland. Into the unknown.

So have a great Christmas. And if I don’t speak to you before, have a kick-ass New Year (I’m booked into my local Indian restaurant for a curry on New Year’s Eve, so it should be a great night). Take care and see ya…