I left work today full of the joys of spring. I left a bit early, you see (well, is it early? I work an hour extra every day, so leaving 15 minutes 'early' is really just less late), because I have a week's flexi time built up and things are quiet, so it's a good time to work fewer hours (I also arrived late, actually: I went to the post office to drop off Ian's box of brewing kit so got there at 10).
Anyway, I left work earlier than usual, and to my immense delight, it wasn't fully dark yet! I got some bonus daylight! Oh frabjous day! Calloo! Callay!

So full of joy was I that I rang Sam (Andy was driving back from Sheffield and it's illegal to drive and make phonecalls) to share my joy. He was quite good at sharing joy, although he quibbled with me over whether I could be full of the joys of spring or not. He says spring doesn't start until March. What a typical British thing to say, why do they insist on prolonging winter unnecessarily? Spring starts with St Brigid's Day, which was a whole three days ago now, and I'm not waiting until March for it. Otherwise, what's the use of February? Sam says November isn't winter, it's autumn, but I disagree. I know that makes August autumn, but otherwise the system fits quite well.

What we did agree on is that the whole world is nicer when the days start getting longer. Except for in January, what a rubbish month. I'm getting barely 20 minutes of daylight each day at the moment, and I don't even get any daylight through the windows as work because the buildings around are too tall and I'm too far from the window.

Tomorrow I'm off to Rome with Andy. I have to get up at 5am, well before the crack of dawn. I'm supposed to be packing for Andy, and I really did try, but it's so hard to anticipate what he might want to wear. He should be home any minute so hopefully he won't be too tired to cope with picking tshirts etc.

A very happy thing happened this morning. I like to listen to Magic FM in the morning - they don't blabber on like that annoying man on Radio 1, they play a variety of music unlike Capital FM, and they don't depress Andy by grilling all their interviewees about the world's woes like Radio 4. They've been running a mystery voice competition for 19 weeks. At first it was intriguing, then someone got the first of three voices, then I found it very tedious, then someone got the second voice, then since then I have been puzzling over who the third voice is. You see, the prize is £100,000, and I could have a lovely house if I won £100,000. But it was not to be (or Toby): this morning when I switched on the radio, an overjoyed and befuddled man was talking to the presenter, because he had just correctly guessed the third voice. I'm glad he won it, he seemed like a very nice man, and he said the first thing he was going to spend the money on was restoring a vintage tractor which seemed like a lovely thing to spend money on.

Oh, here's Andy, ttfn.

In which we cycle through poo

Andy and I have just been to Godstone for a cycle. It was the first
time we'd tried a route from our new Rough Rides guide to cycling in
the south east so we picked a 23 mile route with a short cut which
makes it 9 miles shorter if we felt it was going to get dark too soon.
Oh deary deary dear. We managed 3.5 miles.

We skipped the first little bit as there was a very steep narrow
descent down a muddy path. We rejoined the route at a downhill
bridleway through a farm. It was godawful. About a mile of cycling
through wet, gooey, thick, sticky cow poo, terrifed we'd lose momentum
and have to put a foot down into the horrible poo river.

By the time we got out the other side our bikes and our legs were
covered in poo and my rear brake had stopped working because poo and
disk brakes don't go well together. So we took a detour back to
Godstone to buy water to clean our bikes, and took the brave decision
to give up. What a lot of effort and time for an unpleasant 3.5 mile
cycle.

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 ... 

It's getting warmer! Hurrah! To celebrate, here's a picture:

Sometimes it gets hot like this, remember?

Which reminds me. Reasons not to like London no. 2: there aren't any snowdrops, daffodils or bluebells.

In which Carolan deserves a medal

So. Following last night's complaint to EDF, by 9:30 the charges had
been wiped from my account. And by 1pm a bunch of flowers had been
delivered to me from EDF to apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Dad, I'm convinced, writing is the way forward.

If Which? were hiring, this evidence alone would win me the job. I am good at complaining.

Today I got fed up with EDF because they sent us a letter telling us
off for not paying the bill they invented for us (basically inventing
a new meter reading for 13 months ago which meant we'd owe them £100).
I tried to phone but staff had gone home early because of the weather
(fair enough really). So instead I guessed what the director of
customer service's direct email address would be and sent my complaint
to him, because the letter purported to be from him.

And I got a reply from him, at 11pm on a Thursday, which was very
apologetic and sincere. And suddenly I feel a whole lot happier about
EDF, and even feel a little guilty for complaining. And also
forwarding my email to Which?.

So there you are now.

Reasons not to like London #1

It doesn't snow properly here. The rest of the country is having an unofficial holiday, and I'm not.

After a day watching the rest of the country playing in the snow, it has finally started snowing in London. It's due to snow heavily overnight, so I'm rather hoping I'll get my snow day I missed out on last year. I've still got work to do at home, but it'll still feel more fun working from home than being in the office. Maybe we'll make some soup.

We had a long journey back to London - got here at 8pm on Sunday night, having set off from Holyhead at about 9:30. Mostly our fault, though, for spending 3 hours in Cheshire Oaks and an hour in Coventry. The actual journey was fine, apart from some heavy traffic on the M6. We were glad we took Sam and Melanie's advice and took the M40, not the M1 - it was completely clear, an absolute joy of a journey. And when we got back to our (freezing) flat we had reheated pie and roasted veg, which was very possibly even better than the first time round because it was so wonderfully warming and tasty.

What other news ... I'm fed up at work and shopping for new things - suggestions welcome. Speaking of shopping, I bought a wonderful new coat, 1/3 of its full price, in Kildare Village. It's so cosy and warm and waterproof and breathable and green, I'm glad I bought it. Oh and I bought ski gloves too, which are also lovely and warm and very pretty and they have a sort of wiper blade thing on the thumb for wiping your glasses.

Anywho, I'm off to bed - two duvets and a blanket tonight, it's so cosy. Just a shame the flat is so cold in the morning.

Did you see Three Men in Ireland last night and on Wednesday? That was the best one so far I thought because it's our hunting ground. Apart from the train to Athlone and the trip to the Aran Islands, there wasn't a bit of that journey we haven't been on, and it was very exciting identifying people and places as we watched it. I was a bit sad Castleconnell wasn't specifically featured - they missed a trick there - but otherwise I liked it a lot. Also the bit about Dara being fine with Gryff and Rory teasing the LDYC people. I learnt to sail there, and I don't really like them, so I'm fine with it too.

By the way, that post below isn't an anti-religion post, it's just anti-blasphemy laws. They're silly.

We're packing to leave home so we can get to Dublin on time for our ferry. It's very very icy so we're leaving lots and lots of time to get there, it's a bit worrying. But we'll just go very slowly. It's annoying though to have to give up a whole afternoon at home so we can spend it going very slowly in a small car for hours and hours!

From blasphemy.ie:
From today, 1 January 2010, the new Irish blasphemy law becomes operational, and we begin our campaign to have it repealed. Blasphemy is now a crime punishable by a €25,000 fine. The new law defines blasphemy as publishing or uttering matter that is grossly abusive or insulting in relation to matters held sacred by any religion, thereby intentionally causing outrage among a substantial number of adherents of that religion, with some defences permitted.

This new law is both silly and dangerous. It is silly because medieval religious laws have no place in a modern secular republic, where the criminal law should protect people and not ideas. And it is dangerous because it incentives religious outrage, and because Islamic States led by Pakistan are already using the wording of this Irish law to promote new blasphemy laws at UN level.

We believe in the golden rule: that we have a right to be treated justly, and that we have a responsibility to treat other people justly. Blasphemy laws are unjust: they silence people in order to protect ideas. In a civilised society, people have a right to to express and to hear ideas about religion even if other people find those ideas to be outrageous.


Publication of 25 blasphemous quotes

In this context we now publish a list of 25 blasphemous quotes, which have previously been published by or uttered by or attributed to Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Mark Twain, Tom Lehrer, Randy Newman, James Kirkup, Monty Python, Rev Ian Paisley, Conor Cruise O’Brien, Frank Zappa, Salman Rushdie, Bjork, Amanda Donohoe, George Carlin, Paul Woodfull, Jerry Springer the Opera, Tim Minchin, Richard Dawkins, Pope Benedict XVI, Christopher Hitchens, PZ Myers, Ian O’Doherty, Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor and Dermot Ahern.

Despite these quotes being abusive and insulting in relation to matters held sacred by various religions, we unreservedly support the right of these people to have published or uttered them, and we unreservedly support the right of any Irish citizen to make comparable statements about matters held sacred by any religion without fear of being criminalised, and without having to prove to a court that a reasonable person would find any particular value in the statement.

Campaign begins to repeal the Irish blasphemy law

We ask Fianna Fail and the Green Party to repeal their anachronistic blasphemy law, as part of the revision of the Defamation Act that is included within the Act. We ask them to hold a referendum to remove the reference to blasphemy from the Irish Constitution.

We also ask all TDs and Senators to support a referendum to remove references to God from the Irish Constitution, including the clauses that prevent atheists from being appointed as President of Ireland or as a Judge without swearing a religious oath asking God to direct them in their work.

If you run a website, blog or other media publication, please feel free to republish this statement and the list of quotes yourself, in order to show your support for the campaign to repeal the Irish blasphemy law and to promote a rational, ethical, secular Ireland.


List of 25 Blasphemous Quotes Published by Atheist Ireland

1. Jesus Christ, when asked if he was the son of God, in Matthew 26:64: “Thou hast said: nevertheless I say unto you, Hereafter shall ye see the Son of man sitting on the right hand of power, and coming in the clouds of heaven.” According to the Christian Bible, the Jewish chief priests and elders and council deemed this statement by Jesus to be blasphemous, and they sentenced Jesus to death for saying it.

2. Jesus Christ, talking to Jews about their God, in John 8:44: “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him.” This is one of several chapters in the Christian Bible that can give a scriptural foundation to Christian anti-Semitism. The first part of John 8, the story of “whoever is without sin cast the first stone”, was not in the original version, but was added centuries later. The original John 8 is a debate between Jesus and some Jews. In brief, Jesus calls the Jews who disbelieve him sons of the Devil, the Jews try to stone him, and Jesus runs away and hides.

3. Muhammad, quoted in Hadith of Bukhari, Vol 1 Book 8 Hadith 427: “May Allah curse the Jews and Christians for they built the places of worship at the graves of their prophets.” This quote is attributed to Muhammad on his death-bed as a warning to Muslims not to copy this practice of the Jews and Christians. It is one of several passages in the Koran and in Hadith that can give a scriptural foundation to Islamic anti-Semitism, including the assertion in Sura 5:60 that Allah cursed Jews and turned some of them into apes and swine.

4. Mark Twain, describing the Christian Bible in Letters from the Earth, 1909: “Also it has another name - The Word of God. For the Christian thinks every word of it was dictated by God. It is full of interest. It has noble poetry in it; and some clever fables; and some blood-drenched history; and some good morals; and a wealth of obscenity; and upwards of a thousand lies… But you notice that when the Lord God of Heaven and Earth, adored Father of Man, goes to war, there is no limit. He is totally without mercy - he, who is called the Fountain of Mercy. He slays, slays, slays! All the men, all the beasts, all the boys, all the babies; also all the women and all the girls, except those that have not been deflowered. He makes no distinction between innocent and guilty… What the insane Father required was blood and misery; he was indifferent as to who furnished it.” Twain’s book was published posthumously in 1939. His daughter, Clara Clemens, at first objected to it being published, but later changed her mind in 1960 when she believed that public opinion had grown more tolerant of the expression of such ideas. That was half a century before Fianna Fail and the Green Party imposed a new blasphemy law on the people of Ireland.

5. Tom Lehrer, The Vatican Rag, 1963: “Get in line in that processional, step into that small confessional. There, the guy who’s got religion’ll tell you if your sin’s original. If it is, try playing it safer, drink the wine and chew the wafer. Two, four, six, eight, time to transubstantiate!”

6. Randy Newman, God’s Song, 1972: “And the Lord said: I burn down your cities - how blind you must be. I take from you your children, and you say how blessed are we. You all must be crazy to put your faith in me. That’s why I love mankind.”

7. James Kirkup, The Love That Dares to Speak its Name, 1976: “While they prepared the tomb I kept guard over him. His mother and the Magdalen had gone to fetch clean linen to shroud his nakedness. I was alone with him… I laid my lips around the tip of that great cock, the instrument of our salvation, our eternal joy. The shaft, still throbbed, anointed with death’s final ejaculation.” This extract is from a poem that led to the last successful blasphemy prosecution in Britain, when Denis Lemon was given a suspended prison sentence after he published it in the now-defunct magazine Gay News. In 2002, a public reading of the poem, on the steps of St. Martin-in-the-Fields church in Trafalgar Square, failed to lead to any prosecution. In 2008, the British Parliament abolished the common law offences of blasphemy and blasphemous libel.

8. Matthias, son of Deuteronomy of Gath, in Monty Python’s Life of Brian, 1979: “Look, I had a lovely supper, and all I said to my wife was that piece of halibut was good enough for Jehovah.”

9. Rev Ian Paisley MEP to the Pope in the European Parliament, 1988: “I denounce you as the Antichrist.” Paisley’s website describes the Antichrist as being “a liar, the true son of the father of lies, the original liar from the beginning… he will imitate Christ, a diabolical imitation, Satan transformed into an angel of light, which will deceive the world.”

10. Conor Cruise O’Brien, 1989: “In the last century the Arab thinker Jamal al-Afghani wrote: ‘Every Muslim is sick and his only remedy is in the Koran.’ Unfortunately the sickness gets worse the more the remedy is taken.”

11. Frank Zappa, 1989: “If you want to get together in any exclusive situation and have people love you, fine - but to hang all this desperate sociology on the idea of The Cloud-Guy who has The Big Book, who knows if you’ve been bad or good - and cares about any of it - to hang it all on that, folks, is the chimpanzee part of the brain working.”

12. Salman Rushdie, 1990: “The idea of the sacred is quite simply one of the most conservative notions in any culture, because it seeks to turn other ideas - uncertainty, progress, change - into crimes.” In 1989, Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran issued a fatwa ordering Muslims to kill Rushdie because of blasphemous passages in Rushdie’s novel The Satanic Verses.

13. Bjork, 1995: “I do not believe in religion, but if I had to choose one it would be Buddhism. It seems more livable, closer to men… I’ve been reading about reincarnation, and the Buddhists say we come back as animals and they refer to them as lesser beings. Well, animals aren’t lesser beings, they’re just like us. So I say fuck the Buddhists.”

14. Amanda Donohoe on her role in the Ken Russell movie Lair of the White Worm, 1995: “Spitting on Christ was a great deal of fun. I can’t embrace a male god who has persecuted female sexuality throughout the ages, and that persecution still goes on today all over the world.”

15. George Carlin, 1999: “Religion easily has the greatest bullshit story ever told. Think about it. Religion has actually convinced people that there’s an invisible man living in the sky who watches everything you do, every minute of every day. And the invisible man has a special list of ten things he does not want you to do. And if you do any of these ten things, he has a special place, full of fire and smoke and burning and torture and anguish, where he will send you to live and suffer and burn and choke and scream and cry forever and ever ’til the end of time! But He loves you. He loves you, and He needs money! He always needs money! He’s all-powerful, all-perfect, all-knowing, and all-wise, somehow just can’t handle money! Religion takes in billions of dollars, they pay no taxes, and they always need a little more. Now, talk about a good bullshit story. Holy Shit!”

16. Paul Woodfull as Ding Dong Denny O’Reilly, The Ballad of Jaysus Christ, 2000: “He said me ma’s a virgin and sure no one disagreed, Cause they knew a lad who walks on water’s handy with his feet… Jaysus oh Jaysus, as cool as bleedin’ ice, With all the scrubbers in Israel he could not be enticed, Jaysus oh Jaysus, it’s funny you never rode, Cause it’s you I do be shoutin’ for each time I shoot me load.”

17. Jesus Christ, in Jerry Springer The Opera, 2003: “Actually, I’m a bit gay.” In 2005, the Christian Institute tried to bring a prosecution against the BBC for screening Jerry Springer the Opera, but the UK courts refused to issue a summons.

18. Tim Minchin, Ten-foot Cock and a Few Hundred Virgins, 2005: “So you’re gonna live in paradise, With a ten-foot cock and a few hundred virgins, So you’re gonna sacrifice your life, For a shot at the greener grass, And when the Lord comes down with his shiny rod of judgment, He’s gonna kick my heathen ass.”

19. Richard Dawkins in The God Delusion, 2006: “The God of the Old Testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction: jealous and proud of it; a petty, unjust, unforgiving control-freak; a vindictive, bloodthirsty ethnic cleanser; a misogynistic, homophobic, racist, infanticidal, genocidal, filicidal, pestilential, megalomaniacal, sadomasochistic, capriciously malevolent bully.” In 2007 Turkish publisher Erol Karaaslan was charged with the crime of insulting believers for publishing a Turkish translation of The God Delusion. He was acquitted in 2008, but another charge was brought in 2009. Karaaslan told the court that “it is a right to criticise religions and beliefs as part of the freedom of thought and expression.”

20. Pope Benedict XVI quoting a 14th century Byzantine emperor, 2006: “Show me just what Muhammad brought that was new and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached.” This statement has already led to both outrage and condemnation of the outrage. The Organisation of the Islamic Conference, the world’s largest Muslim body, said it was a “character assassination of the prophet Muhammad”. The Malaysian Prime Minister said that “the Pope must not take lightly the spread of outrage that has been created.” Pakistan’s foreign Ministry spokesperson said that “anyone who describes Islam as a religion as intolerant encourages violence”. The European Commission said that “reactions which are disproportionate and which are tantamount to rejecting freedom of speech are unacceptable.”

21. Christopher Hitchens in God is not Great, 2007: “There is some question as to whether Islam is a separate religion at all… Islam when examined is not much more than a rather obvious and ill-arranged set of plagiarisms, helping itself from earlier books and traditions as occasion appeared to require… It makes immense claims for itself, invokes prostrate submission or ‘surrender’ as a maxim to its adherents, and demands deference and respect from nonbelievers into the bargain. There is nothing-absolutely nothing-in its teachings that can even begin to justify such arrogance and presumption.”

22. PZ Myers, on the Roman Catholic communion host, 2008: “You would not believe how many people are writing to me, insisting that these horrible little crackers (they look like flattened bits of styrofoam) are literally pieces of their god, and that this omnipotent being who created the universe can actually be seriously harmed by some third-rate liberal intellectual at a third-rate university… However, inspired by an old woodcut of Jews stabbing the host, I thought of a simple, quick thing to do: I pierced it with a rusty nail (I hope Jesus’s tetanus shots are up to date). And then I simply threw it in the trash, followed by the classic, decorative items of trash cans everywhere, old coffeegrounds and a banana peel.”

23. Ian O’Doherty, 2009: “(If defamation of religion was illegal) it would be a crime for me to say that the notion of transubstantiation is so ridiculous that even a small child should be able to see the insanity and utter physical impossibility of a piece of bread and some wine somehow taking on corporeal form. It would be a crime for me to say that Islam is a backward desert superstition that has no place in modern, enlightened Europe and it would be a crime to point out that Jewish settlers in Israel who believe they have a God given right to take the land are, frankly, mad. All the above assertions will, no doubt, offend someone or other.”

24. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, 2009: “Whether a person is atheist or any other, there is in fact in my view something not totally human if they leave out the transcendent… we call it God… I think that if you leave that out you are not fully human.” Because atheism is not a religion, the Irish blasphemy law does not protect atheists from abusive and insulting statements about their fundamental beliefs. While atheists are not seeking such protection, we include the statement here to point out that it is discriminatory that this law does not hold all citizens equal.

25. Dermot Ahern, Irish Minister for Justice, introducing his blasphemy law at an Oireachtas Justice Committee meeting, 2009, and referring to comments made about him personally: “They are blasphemous.” Deputy Pat Rabbitte replied: “Given the Minister’s self-image, it could very well be that we are blaspheming,” and Minister Ahern replied: “Deputy Rabbitte says that I am close to the baby Jesus, I am so pure.” So here we have an Irish Justice Minister joking about himself being blasphemed, at a parliamentary Justice Committee discussing his own blasphemy law, that could make his own jokes illegal.

Finally, as a bonus, Micheal Martin, Irish Minister for Foreign Affairs, opposing attempts by Islamic States to make defamation of religion a crime at UN level, 2009: “We believe that the concept of defamation of religion is not consistent with the promotion and protection of human rights. It can be used to justify arbitrary limitations on, or the denial of, freedom of expression. Indeed, Ireland considers that freedom of expression is a key and inherent element in the manifestation of freedom of thought and conscience and as such is complementary to freedom of religion or belief.” Just months after Minister Martin made this comment, his colleague Dermot Ahern introduced Ireland’s new blasphemy law.

Look! Sam updated his blog roll to point to my new blog! I am very pleased, it means people can indeed find me if they like, since I've only directly mentioned it to five people. I'm not anti-readers, I just don't want someone to google me at work or something. Since there's only one CG I'd be quite easy to find.

Ian has been working hard to fix my post formatting after Sam's complaint, but sadly it looks as though I can't make my posts wide enough if I post from my phone. So you'll just have to put up with any variation.

I'm at home in Castleconnell now, resting after a busy week. We arrived in Llanfachraeth on Tuesday evening last week. On Wednesday we took a little trip to Bangor so I could try to buy Andy a present (to make up for most of his pressies now arriving) but couldn't find what I wanted. It was a little sad visiting Bangor - never much of a metropolis, there are a lot more boarded up shops now than when we left. It was cold and wet, too, with no students around. But the University was still there (although Merfyn is retiring soon). I visited a new bookshop, where I found a copy of David Roberts' book about the University (I'm afraid I was too cheap to buy it - it's £30) and, most bizarrely, a calendar with lots of members of Friends of Treborth posing naked in Treborth. I nearly bought a copy just because I didn't think people would believe me otherwise, but I didn't.

Andy joined me once he'd been to Tesco and Majestic. He asked where to park, and of course my natural reaction was to say 'under the Union' as that's where we always parked. Fully expecting it to be closed, I thought I'd just check while I was waiting for him to arrive, and lo! it wasn't going to close for Christmas for another half hour. So we got to see some sabbs and lots of staff, which was lovely. It was our first time back in that building since we left, and will probably be our last as it'll be knocked down soon. My office looks very different: Tom is much neater than me, and it is definitely a boy office now. It was lovely to see Pat, Teresa, Dawn and Alison too as we hadn't seen them last time we were in the area.

Andy's rellies mostly arrived that evening. Meals with 18 people are more like feasts, taking several hours by the time everyone has received their food, sat down at the table and actually eaten. It was good fun but very exhausting having that number of people around, particularly on Christmas Day. Andy and I did most of the cooking, which was fine; what was stressful was the fact that each person came in at least twice to offer to help! Very kind of them, but saying "No, we're fine" 32 times is a bit wearisome, so eventually we recruited Matt to ward off any further offers of help. But the meal turned out very well - the duck in a turkey, or durkey (apparently one doesn't call it a turdey or a turd) was delicious.

The weather in Wales was dramatically different to anywhere else: very clear blue skies and completely flat calm on the first two days. It was a bit cold, but at 6 degrees much warmer than Ireland or Yorkshire, and no snow or frost or ice at all. I was very keen to swim and the water looked very inviting on the 23rd and 24th, but it got windy on Christmas Day and there wasn't really an opportunity between all the Christmassy activities and the cooking. By Boxing Day lethargy had set in and anyway the weather was much worse.

On Sunday we got the ferry to Dun Laoghaire, where we met Mum, Dad, Ian, Pippa and Leavy. We headed to Rockspring to see Granny and Grandpa. Phelie, Brian and Jenny stopped by too which was lovely. Grandpa's second volume of memoirs has been printed and bound. I was fascinated to discover that Mum's year in Nigeria when she was little should have been two years, but Grandpa got caught up in a huge controversy over the appointment of a new vice-chancellor of the University of Lagos and was sent home. I'd link to articles about it, but it is all archived content in old newspapers which you have to pay for. There's a whole academic paper on the subject here. Mum was on the front page of The Times because of it.

After meeting Isolde and Tony for a quick drink at Lamb Doyle's, we headed home, where we opened lots of lovely presents, then ate delicious pie. We're due to have more pie (game, this time) on New Year's Day, yum.

It's wet and cold here at the moment so Mum, Ian, Andy and I are sitting in the big room in front of the fire, each of us with our own laptop. Ah, the modern world.

Oh how I love Wales. We're cruising along the A55: we've just passed
Conwy so we're on the best bit, that bit that hugs the coastline until
near Bangor. I love this road, and I'm very excited to be in North
Wales again. I'm going to Bangor tomorrow for the first time in a long
time - we didn't visit at all in the summer.

I was very brave and drove the first half of the journey, on the M62
over the Pennines. It wasn't too bad really - it was quite foggy at
the summit and the outer lane was narrowed by the snow on the verge
but it had been well gritted.

We were relieved that Ian's parcel finally arrived at lunchtime, in
heavy snow. We thanked the delivery man profusely but it didn't stop
him feeling very hard done by - he told us he was giving up now, so
the big pile of parcels in the back of the van wasn't going to get to
their owners today. Thank goodness we got ours at least.

Andy threw stuff at me and made me press send before that was
finished ... -6 overnight, very icy. He's harassing me again so I'm
off to sleep.

How Christmassy: we've just watched Home Alone 2. Andy was in fits of
laughter - I'm not sure it's quite that good.

To Wales tomorrow, all being well, but before then we've got -6

Andy and I are in Yorkshire at the moment, where it's rather snowy. It hasn't snowed yet today though - the sun is very blue, so we've just been out for a walk. Most of the snow on the roof is melting, the icicles have melted and the snow on the ground is too powdery to make a snowman. I threw some at Andy instead.

We're hanging around The Barn today. Andy's doing some work, I'm updating my CV and Andy's car was being serviced. It's all done now and we're quite relieved to find it doesn't need a new exhaust. Think we're going to go over to Matt and Rio's later for dinner. We visited them yesterday and watched the awful but entertaining GI Joe film. We really struggled to suspend our disbelief, it isn't even slightly credible. There's a bit in it where they decide that the plane can only be operated by voice command, and that the commands must be in Scots Gaelic because the guy who built the ship was Scottish. Yeah, right. They used the wrong word for 'fire' though - they went for teine, which is (like the Irish tine) the word for the noun 'fire' rather than the verb. Nice try.

We're hoping to head to Wales tomorrow if we can, since we now don't need to get a new exhaust fitted, but it depends on Ian's parcel arriving. The stupid company waited 10 days to tell me that what I had ordered was out of stock. I nearly cancelled but then they assured me they'd get it to me by tomorrow at the latest. But from looking at the tracking code, they've arranged for it to arrive tomorrow at the earliest instead. Hopefully it will turn up (it's being sent by courier) but we're worried about leaving the house in case we miss the delivery. All very frustrating. Better than Andy's presents, though, which he's just not going to receive now until after Christmas. I've really gone off internet shopping.