Wow, it's been a while. I won't try and fill you in on the past six months. But the last two weeks have been very busy indeed. Firstly, I ran a marathon. And I actually ran the whole thing, too. Excuse me for being a wee bit boastful :) It was the Loch Ness Marathon, which goes along the eastern side of the loch and finishes in Inverness. 10 degrees, sunny, and crisp wintry light. It was all rather surreal by the end, when I was hobbling along at about 8km an hour. I had to choke back tears at the [View Full Entry]

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Hello, Here's the latest weather report from Uxbridge. I woke up to the sound of a lawnmower. I opened the windows and hung my washing outside. A ladybird with crooked spots landed beside me while I was reading the newspaper. I checked on the seeds I planted: the sweet peas are going gangbusters, a shoot of basil and another of chive are struggling through, and there are three hairy purple loops emerging in the tomato pot. On the walk into town, there are crocuses where there was bare dirt. Kids have ripped up daffodils and left them drooping on the pavement, [View Full Entry]

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Photos from February 21. [View Full Entry]

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Europe is blanketed with snow and I have been having more adventures. So sit back and enjoy the ride because, as London transport services have been saying a lot recently, this might take a while. We went skiing in Slovenia because a) it was cheap b) it was easy to get to and c) I like the name of its capital city Ljubjlana. So Kate caught a train from Austria, I caught an EasyJet flight from London Stansted, and by 9pm on Thursday we were both at our hotel in Podkoren, near Kransjka Gora, overawed by a metre of snow and [View Full Entry]

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Happy New Year. I hope you have less trouble working out where to start than me. Being a festive season grump, I wasn't expecting much from Edinburgh's infamous Hogmanay party, where Kate and I ushered in 2009. Kate went a day early, via her ancestral town of Strathaven, near Glasgow, where she bought a nice postcard of a lamp post. I dashed to catch the express train after work, and arrived at 8.30pm with the city already throbbing. Through some nifty footwork Kate had secured us cheap tickets for the street party. I met her under the ferris wheel at 9.15pm [View Full Entry]

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Photos from a trip to England's middle, which has left me far too tired to write anything. Hopefully I haven't posted so many photos that the page won't load. Happy New Year to all. I hope your Christmas presents were as awesome as mine (Mint Slices and Furry Friends, if you were wondering). [View Full Entry]

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Hello there. Happy Christmas. Sorry it's been a while. You'll be pleased to know that the world has lost none of its magic since I stopped gallavanting around and started being serious and professional. I've had a string of visitors (sorry but I'm about to impose a two-night only rule on staying at our house) and have visited such exciting places as Milan and, er, Somerset. The latest visitor has been Kate. In fact, she's still here, and still giggling. These are some photos from our trip to Wales last week. The plan had been to go walking in Snowdonia, one [View Full Entry]

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Pictures from Notting Hill on Bank Holiday Monday. I'm still rubbing the smoke out of my eyes. [View Full Entry]

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Poor Nice, having a name like that bland English adjective. Sparkling would be a better name. A city that's not quite classy but extraordinarily fun. I arrived late at night to a raging party at the hostel. As a result I woke up with what felt like a hedgehog in my throat, unable to make any sound other than a high-pitched croak. Tant pis. A slight cold wasn't going to stop me from hitting the beach. But first, I had to buy a swimming costume. It's at least two years since I wore a bikini, and yet my tan is fantastic... [View Full Entry]

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I took the tube to the Barbican today. Forget the Museum of London, forget St Pauls. My mission was these two pictures, to remind Mum and Dad that if they don't see their daughter very often, they only have themselves to blame... [View Full Entry]

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