Today was an exciting day because we published a big document. My policies were the main ones being talked about in the news, which was nice because it could feel a bit disappointing spending months on something and nobody even mentioning what you'd done. And it also marks the end of a particularly busy period (although there is no such thing as a quiet period in my team). I've got lots of flexi time built up now, so I'm going to take Monday afternoon off next week to meet up with My Friend Sinead. We're going to Do London. I'll take pictures.

Speaking of pictures, Andy's digital SLR he got for Christmas has just arrived. It's very light and lovely, and he's got that boy-with-a-new-toy air about him. The frustrating thing about electronic toys, of course, is that you have to wait for the battery to charge before you can play with it, so he's busying himself cutting an iphone screen protector down to size so he has created a screen protector for the back of the camera. He's gone for a Canon, and it is very light. It's got a posh Canon strap, too, which makes it look very professional.

And speaking of electronics, I got a new phone yesterday because I lost mine at the weekend. I don't usually lose things, and I always feel very irresponsible and scatty when I do lose things. Thankfully it was insured, so although I spent a long time on hold to O2's customer service people calling from an Irish mobile phone, once the planets aligned correctly they did send me a new phone very quickly - we got it all sorted at 7pm on Monday and the new phone had arrived by lunchtime on Tuesday. So that was nice. My new phone is the same as my old phone except shinier because it's newer. That's about it.

Oh and the other news is that I finally sent my thank you card to Aunt Anne. At least it's still January ...