Well, belated compliments of the season to one and all. Whatever season you  may find yourself experiencing.

Being home has been generally fantastic, with spots of less-than-fantastic. Christmas dinner was the high point. My mum finally gave in to some subtle manipulation and agreed that a Proper Turkey Dinner (with mother’s amazing potato stuffing) would be a good idea, and she also had the great idea of having my gran over as well. But gran wasn’t well enough to leave the nursing home, so we brought the dinner to her! We cooked the whole lot up at home and packed it all into baskets. Even after a 40 minute drive, everything was still hot and delicious and my gran had a lovely surprise and ate loads for once. After dinner all of my aunts and uncles and some of my cousins turned up as well, and there was music and singing and eating and drinking and laughing, all in a little visiting room in a nursing home.

I’m really glad I bought small presents for my family, because mum bought my brother and me a book each, so it meant we all had something to open. I bought the brother Chomsky’s Hegemony or Survival, and mum bought him whatever the latest Ross O’Carroll-Kelly adventure is called, and me Jostein Gaarder’s Secret Mystery. I have about a bazillion books to read before I go home, but last night I took out A Little Princess to read (again). I suppose it’s like scrambled eggs… comfort reading. Not that reading scrambled eggs comforts me in anyway, but eating them…. ahhh.

Except it’s getting dark already at 3.20pm.