As Zoe said on her DA journal the other day, we arrived back from Helsinki just about two weeks ago. It had to be one of the best holidays I've ever had. The food was gorgeous and different (I want a t-shirt saying "I ate Rudolph"), the city was beautiful and the weather was gorgeous.

On our return though I was taken into hospital due to what was originally thought to be a combination of an ear infection and a build up of pressure in my ear from the flight. After another hospitalisation on Thursday, it's now believed to be a condition called trigeminal neuralgia. I'm seeing my GP on Friday and more will be revealed but hopefully it isn't serious.

I've started to put some of the photos I took on holiday into my gallery and will slowly be adding to them as time permits.

At last, I'm back and posting more here on DA.
I know I haven't been around much recently, but after a fairly rough summer, I am back and am posting more pics from the lovely holiday Zoe and I spent in Scotland.

Sorry, I know it's been a while, I've been very busy since Chrimbo. I've had uni work to do alongside all my normal work and haven't been able to take many shots.

Tonight though I had a brilliant opportunity to get some pics. Zoe and my mother sponsor one of the local hockey teams players and as part of that we were able to watch the warm up from the team bench. I asked if it was ok to get some pics and was allowed as long as I didn't use flash.

So, starting today I will be posting some of the shots I got.

Only two a a tiny bit weeks till christmas, I've managed to get all my present shopping done already (I hate the crush close to christmas). I really proud of what I've got Zoe, I'm sure she'll like them all.

On other notes, Zoe and I have renewed contact with the 13th Guards (Red Army) reenactment group and are building up our kit to join them in the new year. I've been reenacting for over 26 years now whilst Zoe has for 6 and we have such a good feeling about this group, one of my old units made her feel left out and awkward as a woman, but the 13th have welcomed her with open arms, she is allowed a combat role and is going to portray a sniper scout, whilst I'm going to be either a grunt or shock trooper.

Work is a bit hectic at the moment and I'm still reeling from the job interview I had a couple of weeks ago, I didn't get the job even though I was the strongest candidate (according to the interviewer) because the HR department had already decided they wanted someone else. I'm determined to get a full time teaching post somewhere by next September, I really don't want to be a cover supervisor with full post grad teaching qualifications.

On Monday, Zoe and I went to see the Kaiser Chiefs play at the Hallam FM Arena. They are far better live than on cd. We were lucky in that at one point the lead singer jumped off the stage and performed from about 6 foot away from us. The support acts were new to me but I liked them both and will probably keep an eye out for them.

The most dreaded day in a teachers life has come again, first day back from holiday. Zoe and I had an action packed week going first of all down to Surrey for her friends wedding, which was really nice but embarassing when I knew none of the hymns sung at the ceremony.
London was really good, we went to the Barbican Art Gallery and saw an interesting exhibition of art from Pompeii through to nowadays. We followed this up by visiting the Tate Modern (which I thought was an abomination on the word art) and going to see Avenue Q, to which say
" the internet has another use...........DA"

Our holiday to Center Parcs was lovely and gave me plenty of chances to take photos which I'll slowly post on here as I get them sorted on my computer. The first three are up already and I'm looking forward to the others, although none of the pics of the red squirrels came out well enough to post. I think little kids should be muzzled and gagged as every time I got within 6 foot of a squirrel this same little kid would run up, point and scream at the poor little rodent meaning no shots.

Well, I'm now back at work and already counting down the days to Christmas Holiday. 45 days and counting (including weekends).