And a happy new year from me!

Overcoming our grinch-like tendencies, not least owing to the persuasive capacities of N who organised tickets for the party in the Town Hall and a table for ten of us, we had a lovely evening with friends.

The band were very competent, and played a series of "family favourites", with plenty of options for dancing (of various types), and the company was good. Everything was well organised, with facilities to leave bottles, and black bags to take your own rubbish away. Well done A and N, for doing their bit to get us all together there. So for once, we were up for the bells!

Earlier on, we'd had a pretty quiet day. We had to pop to the shops, and then Mr A made a delicious galette for dinner, which we paired with some seabass.

I plodded on reading Kairos, which will be my first book of 2025. And we made the decision that the weather at the beginning of next week looks bad, so we will have to head down the road at the end of this week. Although I'm always sad to miss time up here, once the decision had been made to focus on a weather window on Friday / Saturday, I actually felt relieved. There's no profit in squeezing out a last couple of days here when I'm anxious about getting down the road in tricky weather. Not least because we will be back!

Farewell to 2024. As often, I've got distracted whilst writing a 31 December blip and gone back and looked at some previous years....

It hasn't been too bad for me professionally. The atmosphere at work hasn't been great - not locally in the School, but in the wider University, given everyone is worried about money across the whole sector. There will be a strike ballot soon, but I'm very sceptical the turnout threshold for strike action will be reached, to be honest. I'm looking forward to my new role, starting in April, and expecting it to make me very busy, but in a good way. I'm already looking forward to the "finding out" period, which starts in earnest next week. Meanwhile, I've now done twenty years with my current employer (quite staggering, really....), and we are already half way through a decade (the-not-so-roaring twenties....). 

The nonsense with the Bond Building rolls on, endlessly, and we are still not "over" the great fire of Leith. We have no idea when the building will be finally fixed (it's complicated....), but we recently reached something of an accommodation with it, having had some electrical work done (and safety checks made) that makes me a whole lot happier.

And above all else, Tain has been very very good us. We are lucky to have a group of friends, through swimming and beyond, who don't look on us as people dropping in and out at our own convenience, but as residents, albeit part time. Our time here for this holiday is almost done, but the new year is just about to begin.