BEEN A BAD BLOGGER....

First off, Happy New Year all, hope 2007 is brilliant for everyone... Sorry about the radio silence ... We sorta had a bit of a crazy end-2006 and a crazier beginning-2007. And when I say crazy, I mean pull-out-all-the-stops nuts, and not in a fun way. Both halves of TeamWilliams have been ridiculously busy at work. Pete's working on a new project, and I'm in the thick of covering the NKF trial, which leaves me no time even to scratch my nose... Completely mad. Finally had a weekend off after working 12 days straight (and then of course had to use it doing other work-related shite. Bleah). The weather's been weird as well.... Rain, rain and more rain. There were flash floods just up the street from the house again this week (coz its near the reservoir that runneth over), and the weatherman's being far from optimistic about the rest of the week. I don't ever remember January being this wet. And for the first time ever, Pete's actually COLD. Temperatures dipped to the low 20s today, which is very strange. So, in any case, I will try my best to post from time to time if things let up from time to time in the eight weeks that the trial is scheduled to go on for. Or I will try and convince Pete to do his share of blogging. Erm. Okay, I will just try. Okay, so here be updates: Christmas was pretty quiet. Did the family thing at mum's on Christmas Eve, and then everyone played charades while counting down to midnight so the kids could attack the presents under the, well, money plant... We didn't quite put up the tree this year. There was such a huge pile of pressies though, that no one lamented the lack of. Oh, but back to charades - high point of the evening, Pete attempting to act out Puff, The Magic Dragon and Power Rangers... It was HILARIOUS. Ruben's attempt to mimic a bat hanging upside down for Batman was classic too... Everyone pissed themselves laughing. Ooh, and we now have an enlarge Canon family of four. Pete got the EOS 30D, and got me the EOS 300 and photography classes. Very cool. Now I just have to somehow find the time to attend them. I got him a whole bunch of accessories as well. There's so much camera paraphernelia in the house now I feel like I married a photographer and not a graphic designer. Sighs. He's been taking the new additions out a lot and has taken some amazing shots... Some of them were taken here - in Little India and stuff, though some came from his recent jaunt in Kuala Lumpur... Amazing stuff. See for yourself. Almost makes me forgive him for splashing out... New Year's was quiet though. I never can stand the madness and the crowds, and I was feeling slightly crook, so I was quite happy to count down to 2007 at home. Did not need the drama of what was out there in any case. Pete took me to a lovely dinner New Year's Day though, which was nice, and then we had cocktails at the bar (mental note to self: Go back to the Mezza9 for the steamed fish again). It was nice, and, to me, a somewhat more meaningful way to start the year. What else... Hmm... In between the craziness of work and trying to keep the house together, we've been trying to plan our upcoming trip to Ireland for Eoin and Hilary's wedding in March (can't wait, guys!)... The plan right now is to stop off in Birmingham for a couple of days to see Gwen, Andy and Lorc, and then fly down to Galway and explore the west coast a little before the big wedding weekend. We're still deciding what happens after, but a couple of ideas - mostly centred on fishing - have been tossed up, before we finally shoot down to Cork to see Pete's mum and the rest of the crew. What happens after that is even more up in the air.... Ideas are most welcome. Pete was suggesting dune bashing in Dubai (since we were thinking of flying Emirates anyways) and a side trip to Muscat (oh, they have a BRILLIANT deal for internal travel, starting from US$50 per internal stop). Or we could fly KLM and do Holland.... Or Vietnam en route home... I donno at this stage. If anyone has any creative options to share, please do. We're also thinking of a little getaway end January, to celebrate TeamWilliams 2nd (quick huh?) anniversary... some place modest we reckon, since the Europe trip's likely to really add up. We've been looking at Thailand, Malaysia, or ducking back to Bali.. But again, ideas and suggestions most welcome.. Meanwhile, looking forward to Lil's trip out here over Chinese New Year - feels like she's been gone forever. There's been a bit of chatter that the girls should all duck down somewhere, but lets see how that goes... Methinks that is about it for now... More soon. Hugs, Art