It's been a while since I posted - December has been manic! The picture above is the front of the London Evening Standard - one of the free papers they have here. And yes, -6° made front page news! What I thought was the funniest part were the posters with headlines saying "The BIG freeze tonight!". I suppose that it is cold for London, but still. I don't think any of them would survive a day in Saskatchewan in December!

Moving on. As I said, December has been a very hectic month. Very busy at work with work in general and loads of Christmas parties. I had 3 Christmas parties for work alone and then a bunch of lunches out with clients. It kept us going I suppose but I felt battered by the end of it! I can't even begin to explain how much English people drink. But it's a cultural thing - as odd as that sounds. Going to the pub after work is as common as taking the tube.

Needless to say I was happy to have a couple days off at Christmas - just to get a break from it all really! I went out to Surrey to spend Christmas with Lou and her family. And as far as my first Christmas away from home, it was the best it could be!

We spent Christmas Eve at the pub - an English tradition from what I understand. Then Christmas day we went over to Lou's cousin's cottage (which was beautiful by the way) and just chatted over champagne and canapés. Then we went back to her's for a proper Christmas dinner. It was good but not near as good as back home.

An added bonus was that Mom got the family a webcam and I had a bit of a breakdown when I saw them! I think it was more than likely because I haven't physically seen Mom and Dad in close to six months. It was nice though - it almost felt like I was there. Not quite, but as close as we could get. Seeing all of you on Christmas Night was also a weird occurence - waving hello to everyone was a bit odd! But I managed.

I'm now back at work - and it's slowed down. There's very few people in the office so it's quite quiet. But I'm sure next week it'll start to pick up.

New Year's Eve is this week - a few friends and I are going out for dinner and then heading to the bridge to watch the fireworks. Should be a pretty tame way to ring in the New Year, but I'm happy with this choice!

Miss you all and hope you had a great Christmas and an even better New Year's!