f4f3 | Hello World

*phew*

Well, that was a pretty crowded week...

More, possibly, to post on spending Christmas in Germany (the short version is "Moin! Moin! Ollyboll! Tchuss! Tchuss!", but I suspect that may have to be expanded on).

Yesterday I arrived back on Newcastle, my putative home through 13 years of marriage, for the first time in 18 months. I spent most of the morning there, showing

unblinkered the Baltic and the Quayside, and Grey Street. I also drove past my old house, partly out of masochism and partly to see how the eucalyptus tree I planted was getting on. It's getting on fine, taller than the house, in fact.

The Baltic had a huge show by Yoko Ono, which is worth an entry in itself. Wandering through it I couldn't help wondering how much more seriously she would have been taken as an artist if it hadn't been for her marriage.

In the afternoon we battered back up to Glasgow and collected Merlin and Anna, who were both brilliantly taken care of. Merlin welcomed us like a dog with two tails, Anna ignored us completely.

I barely managed to stay awake long enough to shovel some Ashoka rogan josh down, and watch some 24 on the TV, before collapsing into my best sleep for a week.

My sister and her family came over for lunch, which was great since I don't get to see them as often as I'd like, and then we loaded pets and stuff into Scooby, and tootled up to the cottage.

We'll be here until the weekend. I had an invite to a lovely sounding party for New Year, but I've been here every year since I bought the cottage back in 99, and it's a tradition I love. If anyone's passing, feel free to drop in.

Merlin is curled up at my feet, Anna is taking up one of the chairs, I'm about to cue some nice music via iTunes, and, really, there are worse places to kick back and take a view of the last year, and of the one to come.

So more ruminations later, most probably.