That time of year draws close once again. So before we disappear for a couple of weeks through the South of Wales for Christmas and into the high country of Scotland for New Years I thought we should say "Merry Christmas and have a Happy New Year".

I have just finished up with my work Christmas outings, first one was an official work one were we took the day off to go wine tasting and sampling at Venopolis, by the end of the wine we were walking the street with our boss in a Santa outfit, all of us in either Santa hats or reindeer antlers. We than headed to the London eye at night time, with bottles of champagne. A couple in the next capsule got engaged at the top, of course there we were cheering in our Christmas outfits. Finally we moved on to a restaurant to eat and exchange £5 secret Santa gifts. The next night was the social clubs organised outing, we had been pre-organised into groups and given a musical which we had to sing a song from. We were given, Saturday Night Fever, and my group had chosen Tragedy by the Bee Gees. So embarrassment aside, my impersonation of John Travolta went without a hitch. A good evening. Now we have Carmens to look forward to which are in the New Year.

We have had a pretty eventful year all round. Both Carmen and I finished up our Masters in the beginning of the year and quickly joined the mass exodus or the 'brain drain' to head over to the UK. Arriving, we crashed at a cousins of mine before he got sick of us and found us a flat to live in. After an initial three months of temping, Carmen found herself a full time job at a pharmaceutical company, she is very happy with the actual job but there seem to be a few rough bits around the edges such as the travel time to and from work each day.

After Carmen slipped into her new job, I did a shifty into her old temping position, last week they offered me a permanent position as a financial analyst, which I have accepted and started on Monday. I am very happy with the new position and things are looking up.

And of course there has been the exploring of London, England, UK and the begins of the rest of Europe. Highlights include La Tomatina in Spain, were I managed to throw lots of tomatoes at Carmen. Oktoberfest was a fun event, both with a great group on the bus trip and with the impressive scale of the event and beer consumed. Our whirlwind tour of Scotland also leaves fond memories, it was fun, interesting and I even got go for a swim with Nessy.

To all our friends, family, people we have meet over the last few months, we hope you have a great Christmas, as my Dad says, Christmas isn't about the giving of presents, its about the receiving. So I hope you get lots in your stockings. Thanks to those who have kept in touch and we look forward to catching up again in the New Year.