I'm still alive

but my laptop isn't, hence the silence. Currently updating from a net cafe in Nuremberg.
I caught a particularly nasty virus that infected and destroyed an ini file and with my recovery disks being in Cambridge, I had no way of resurrecting it. My own fault for not having reinstalled a firewall... :o(
This happened on the day after my last update.
Sadly, this also means that I was unable to work on an other photos which means my backlog is still quite big when it had been meant to be gone by now. Stupid stupid stupid.
Oddly, I never had any problems with virus attacks when connecting via NTL, only via PAYG dialup from Germany. Argh.
Oh well, flight etc. going well, I'll be in Stansted a bit before 8 and should hopefully be able to catch a reasonable train so I can be back around 10. I doubt I'll be early enough to pop in the pub.

Back and a holiday update

Well, have been for about an hour but only just got things sorted and settled down.
The journey was fine until after the arrival in Stansted. Idiotic train people who can't put clear signs up which make me miss my train!

Xmas recoup:
- In a fit of madness (or maybe love?) my parents gave me a hand-written voucher for the antarctic cruise they just had come back from. They'd enjoyed it so much that they thought I'd love it, too (and I'm sure of it). Well, it's next year's birthday and christmas present combined but still, we're talking about 5K pounds here... To same I'm delighted is an understatement...
- Despite my mum's best efforts, I don't think I've put on much weight, at least not much in circumference. Still, I feel like I need a diet, the things I cook for myself tend not to be that rich. Poached carp on a bed of veg on Christmas Eve was nice, the organic, free-range goose on Christmas Day was a lot less greasy than anticipated and rather juicy indeed and the rabbit on Boxing Day was nice, too.
- As I couldn't process any photos, I slept even more, watched documentaries on TV and read a good chunk of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell whiich took a bit to get used to but now I rather like it.
- Actually managed to practise some Tai Chi. Foundation exercises only but still about 20 minutes every day. Better than nothing.

Work tomorrow which will actually be busy. :o(