I've Been Nominated for a Shorty Award!

I had no idea that the Shorty Awards even existed, until I checked my e-mail. I had yet to open Twitter, but the alerts were all there. Twelve of them, all nominating me in the Blogger category.

They hadn't come from just one group or set of friends. People from different forums, who couldn't have been prompted by each other, were lined up in that queue. They each gave reasons for nominating me. I'm not ashamed to admit that I became overwhelmed and just cried.

The official list hasn't registered every person who voted for me. My Twitter alerts now say that there are fifteen, but only seven have made it onto the Shorty Awards list. If ever I needed encouragement to keep on writing, then this is it.

Thank you to everyone who has nominated me so far. Love you all.

Freelance Writers: Are We Dumbing Down the Internet?

The pressure is immense. Forget about the human rights, the history and the literature, concentrate on Justin Bieber. It's what the people want.

Naturally it's not what the feedback is in comments. Ask the readership of any site what they think they want and a variety of topics end up on the list. The scope of curiosity is as expansive as the human mind itself. I can go whole weeks without any one of my friends mentioning Kate Middleton, Beyonce or Lady Gaga. (Ok, maybe not weeks with the latter. She is pretty ubiquitous.) But if I want hits, then they are the subjects to focus upon.

I didn't believe those experienced veterans of internet prose at first. When I joined sites like Suite101, I was prepared to fill volumes of binary text with descriptions of historical events. It was my passion and my raison d'être. I knew that I could make the past live again, if I was only given the chance. I was going to save lives with reporting human rights abuses, waving my Amnesty International membership in the air. All of that education would never go to waste.

Instead I'm writing about Beyonce and Jay-Z having a baby.

Giving the Public What They Want

In my early days at Suite101, I had a wise soul tell me that it's all about the hits. It doesn't matter where you're writing on the internet, you'll never get rich without those likes, retweets, favourites and links. People come; people read; people alert all of their friends. That's the bread and butter of on-line freelance writing.

My first article to approach any measure of success was about Justin Bieber. His fans picked it up and, for a glorious few days, the link was being reposted all over the internet. It's still being read. Months after the news became old, I get a dozen or so Beliebers a week looking in on the article.

You cannot believe how tempting it is to do nothing but write about Justin Bieber all day. The only thing stopping me is, well, I'd have to write about Justin Bieber all day.

The pattern was continued with other articles. Prince William and Kate Middleton visited Birmingham. I wrote about it basically because I had photographs of the riot damage that they'd come to inspect. The hits on that story dwarfed even those for Mr Bieber. They have continued to do so, whenever I've written about royalty.

But only the right royalty. I didn't get very far pointing out, for example, that Britain's prime minister, David Cameron, is related to Queen Elizabeth II. Perhaps Britons have always secretly regretted that whole unpleasantness with Charles I and would love to return to a proper governmental monarchy.

As I gaze down my statistics on every site, the same story presents itself. Write about celebrity and the hits pour in. Write about anything vaguely cerebral and they dry up again. Though I have managed to get away with it with a Wizzley article.

When it was called Studying History as a Timeline, the article was my only real failure on the site. As everything else that I've written slowly rose though the ranks, this one bucked the trend by falling. (On Wizzley, each article is graded according to hits, comments and likes etc.) I changed nothing but the title. Suddenly it's up at 86% and rising. Then again, Anne Boleyn's breasts have always had huge implications for the rest of the world.

Are We Dumbing Down the Internet?

I don't believe that my writing becomes worse or the whole page loses something, when I'm talking about the things I love. Do I really describe television programmes better than I can a pivotal historical battle? I received an Editor's Choice for my article about Torchwood. I barely got any hits on my series about what happened at the Battle of Shrewsbury.

The thing is that it's not just me. Every freelance on-line writer out there is facing the same dilemma. I know because I'm privy to them talking about it on writing forums, where the general public can't see. Experts in so many fields are just giving up, so they can concentrate on the stories that bring the hits.

I worry that we're dumbing down the internet. I worry that our readers are going to let us.

So just to give this blog entry some kind of meaning, let me add an important fact: Jay-Z has already got a track out about his daughter, Blue Ivy Carter. Glory even features her cry. You can hear it right here! Awww!

British Weather: Driving Through Gales in North East Wales

This was originally published on Suite101, but I'd forgotten about the 'no memoir' rule there. As the article reads more like a personal diary than a well-referenced, impassive research story, it doesn't fit Suite's guidelines. My editor pulled it with much regret.

Apologies to those who read it there first and are now seeing it repeated.

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There are times in life when you discover that you are a good driver. Successfully navigating the infamous Horseshoe Pass in a gale was one of mine.

I can't say that I wasn't warned. After spending New Year in Cheshire, I was preparing to leave the next day when the weather report came onto the television. High winds extending to gale force in places was the dire warning for Tuesday 3rd January 2011. My friends looked at my partially packed bag, then back at me. We all watched the television.

"Just so it's out there," commented the house owner with a wry smile, "you're perfectly welcome to stay here as long as you like. Come and live here, if you want to." But it didn't seem so bad. I wasn't planning to depart until the afternoon, when it was supposed to die down.

A Beautiful Day for a Drive in North East Wales

There are few places in the world more stunning than the mountains of North Wales. From the Clwydian Range in the east to the mighty Snowdonia in the West, these pinnacles rise in ever-changing colours, as the seasons progress. The views from the top of them are breath-taking, overlooking places with mystic or ancient sounding names like Moel Llys-y-Coed (Hilltop of the Court in the Wood) or Gorsedd Bran (The Throne of Bran). From the top of the right peak, the wide-eyed traveller can look down and see the contours of Britain laid out as they are in an atlas. From another, I've glimpsed distant Ireland, on a clear day in the summer.

With all of that on the doorstep, it is highly likely that my journey home will involve a detour. I cannot drive past North Wales without venturing into it. However, this occasion felt like one of those rare occasions when I should do just that. Except that it didn't seem so windy, as I left that house in Cheshire. It wasn't even raining and the sun was attempting to shine through the clouds.

It was shaping up now to be a beautiful day for a drive in North East Wales.

How to Drive a Car in High Winds

Later on, the news reports were to talk about 100mph winds lashing at Britain's coastline. I could smell the salt air and see the gulls, but until I drove beyond Connah's Quay, none of this was noticeable. Sheltered by the Wirral Peninsula and the Clwydian mountains, it barely felt like there was a breeze.

But Connah's Quay represents the gateway to the Dee Estuary and beyond that the Irish Sea. Suddenly the weather was pulling at my car, but not too badly.

Once, in the distant past, a policeman friend had taught me some techniques for controlling your steering in adverse conditions. You resist the temptation to grip the steering wheel tightly, because that merely adds in more movement from straining muscles. Instead, thumbs are hooked around the central bar, while the rest of your hands hold lightly. The steering wheel cannot shift then, no matter what force of nature attempts to do so.

I did that and cruised along quite merrily, until the coastline veered away from the mountains and that deadly westerly wind had a clear passage onto the road.

Gale Force Wind Causing Dangerous Driving in Flintshire

Soon I had passed Flint and I could see the sea in misty glimpses out towards Bagillt. But I was mostly watching the car in front of me swerve dangerously towards the curb. It must have struck it, before the driver regained control and continued slowly on. Even holding my wheel as I'd been taught, I could still feel the wind buffeting from the right-hand side.

It was worrying, but not enough to frighten me. Yet the next few minutes saw the pressure build until I had to acknowledge that I was now in a gale. Every driver around me was struggling. We were all crawling along, afraid to do anything close to the speed limit. I signalled to leave the main highway at the next junction.

Before I could turn, even the professionally taught grip failed me and my Zafira lurched towards the side of the road. I pulled back quickly, but it was like wrestling with a beast. I was never so glad as when I entered the sheltered heart of the Clwydian Range again.

Nearly Flying in the Wind in Denbigh

Closeted by soaring slopes, it was easy to dismiss the weather as being a problem only on the coastal roads. The tourist signs said that was an area of outstanding natural beauty. As I followed the route, I was inclined to agree. Then I reached Denbigh.

Whistling down the high street, the gale threatened to lift me off my feet, as soon as I stepped out of my car. I survived about half an hour there, just looking in the nearest shops, before admitting defeat. I intended to follow the Vale of Clwyd back home. What I hadn't anticipated was where that road would eventually take me.

Llangollen's Horseshoe Pass in a Gale

Snaking around the side of a mountain, the exposed, 1,368ft high Horseshoe Pass is frequently closed in winter. It was open today and there was no protection at all from the high winds rushing in from the east.

I was too busy fighting the wheel to be scared. I inched along as slowly as I could without stalling, then paused halfway for a rest. The road can be viewed for miles, as it undulates around the valley. It was deserted. The Welsh had more sense than to be on it.

I was shaking as I reached the bottom, though more from exertion than actual fright. It felt like I had accomplished something in the vast scheme of extreme driving. It was probably stupidity.

Still closer to Cheshire than my own home, I finally gave into common sense and stayed an extra night there.

2012: The Start of a Brand New Year

We've all done it - gone off on a rant to which there is no real response. I chose to indulge in mine on January 1st, after the fireworks were long since over and the wine bottles had been emptied.

It was a proper whinge. I told my friend all about Panda, Suite101, the patronising gits at the job centre, deafness, lack of time and stress, all of the burn out things that had been plaguing my life. I moved onto the fact that I used to be so good, so in control, back when I knew myself too well and the world was great.

He let me get it out of my system, then finally gave me his take on the matter. He played That was the River, This is the Sea by the Waterboys and grinned at me.



Perfect answer, Eric. Now let's get on with this 2012 malarkey.

As we kick off into the new year, I'd like to thank everyone who has been reading and commenting so far. It would be a lonely place here, if I didn't know that you were along for the ride.

So far, it's been me blogging about whatever occurs to me at the time. This is bucking the trend of all those experts who say that you should find a niche and stick to it. People don't come anywhere for a mish-mash of subjects, as they like them gift-wrapped in expectation. Is that true? Is anyone annoyed by the fact I leap from computer software to ancient history to modern politics without blinking?

I'd also like to ask what individual blog entries and series you have enjoyed most last year. Naturally this feedback will help me decide what to write about this year. You have influence!

I look forward to hearing your replies.

Happy New Year! 2011 in Review

Greetings to all at the end of 2011; let's make 2012 a brilliant new year. It might just be the turning of a calendar, but it's also an opportunity to draw a line and start again. We can start building on the past - taking the best of it and learning from the rest - and we can use that as the foundation stones for the rest of our lives. Bloody fantastic!

So my year in review. OMG where do I start?

This time last year, I was in a stable job that I enjoyed. Business was booming and I was being told that we'd probably even continue going through the hurricane season. Traditionally, we paused then for a couple of months, this being Mexico and a company facilitating tourism.

But it was a tourism that relied way too heavily on visiting Americans; and that was not something that either the American press nor their government really enjoyed. Not when there was similar weather and beaches down in Florida. The War on Drugs destroyed the business two-fold.

First there were all of the scare stories in the mainstream US press. They didn't take into account that the problems were solely in 4% of the country. To read those lurid headlines, millions were dying all over the country. Moreover, they were Americans! My Mexican friends responded in despair, but what could they do. They were living in absolute peace, never having seen a single murder, let alone a gang massacre, in places where Fox News was telling its viewers there were bloodbaths. The business started to waver.

Secondly President Calderon was promised money and support, if he'd just initiate a war on drugs in his country. It would be good for PR in Washington. But none of that was forthcoming. Is Calderon winning the war on drugs? Kingpins were taken out, the drug families responded in kind; and all of those previous inaccurate press stories started to take on a semblance of truth. The unwinnable war did spread, but still Cancun was safe. It didn't matter. No-one was coming and so the company went under.

It took until the end of July before we were all dismissed. It wasn't just me. The entire company went under and we were all back in the dole queues again.

I'd been there before and I didn't want to do it again. It's not snobbery. It's wishing to avoid the slow, drip-drip erosion of mind and soul, which comes from being told each fortnight that you're nothing, no good and probably on the fiddle. Finding a job in recession hit Britain is like pinning your future hopes on winning the lottery.

You quickly learn that no-one at the Job Centre actually wants you to find a job. It'll put them out of business for a start. There's all that lip service, usefully delivered in an accusing tone with a stern face. You're not looking hard enough. You're not enough. But there's the little things that give them away, like the time they told me to move a job interview because it clashed with signing on. Like the times (note the plural) that they've told me to take my degrees off my CV and never mention them to prospective employers. Like the fact that, as an hearing impaired woman, I'm handed over to a 'special needs' counsellor, who sits in a noisy open office. Like the severe pressure that I'm under never to write on the web.

I looked at my options and I looked at my savings. I decided that I had time to try and make it as a freelance writer. Let's just summarise here as the experiment nearly paid off. At the beginning of October, I thought I was going to be able to make my living reasonably soon; then Google took out my most lucrative site and it felt like it was back to square one. I was still living mostly on my savings.

In normal circumstances, I could eke that out for months by buying as little as possible. But these weren't normal circumstances. Once October hit, I'd have server fees, car insurance, car tax, two major family birthdays and Christmas. Even shopping around and being as careful as I could, those would still hit a massive hole in my savings. I had to face facts and sign on. It has been just as awful as I knew it would be. The Job Centre hate every article that I write on revenue sharing sites. They've thrown everything at me to stop, up to and including threatening to stop my benefits. This is despite the fact that they know I'm making no actual money yet. The potential is still there.

This is where I find myself on the eve of 2012. My assets are thus:

• Wizzley. So far there are nine articles, one of which earned me an Editor's Choice award. They're all getting lots of hits, but none have translated into earnings yet. It's a really friendly site that I want to see survive.
• Suite101. So far there are 127 articles, two of which have earned me an Editor's Choice award. Between August and October, I thought this was going to be the place that secured my dream of being a paid freelance writer. My income was steadily growing. Then it crashed under Panda. The admin are making huge promises about revamping the whole thing. They're hoping that it's going to bounce back and, by this time next year, it will be returned to its former glory. I have my fingers crossed on that.
• The House That A Girl Called Johnny Built. So far there are 50 articles, some of which have been getting a huge amount of hits. But this isn't yet translating into income from Chitika. I've asked for help from their support desk and swapped e-mails with a really friendly, encouraging lady. But her only advice was to keep on writing. It'll come eventually. My main asset here is that, if I keep writing, I'll be able to apply for affiliate blog posts next August.
• Jo's Library. I have 38 book reviews here, all with links to Amazon. It has translated into some sales, but not a huge amount. We're talking a couple of pounds, not even enough to buy myself a book! Again, it's a keep going and hope for the best situation. All that I've read says that the more articles you have, the more likely someone will find one, the greater the chance that they will click on your link and do their shopping on Amazon.

In short, I've written 224 articles since the end of July, across four different sites. I'm freaking exhausted. I'm grasping every straw of hope as it comes; but fortunately, some of those are really big straws.

Let me pause here to mention sareyva. This amazing woman has held my hand every step of the way. I might have written 224 articles, but she's taken it upon herself to both read and proof-read 224 articles. The reason that they're all so free of typos is because I awake to daily PMs from her correcting them. She does more. She encourages me. She stands behind me and tells me that she believes in me and that I can do this. Every single day. Sareyva is the antidote to the Job Centre's poison. She's the person who ensures that I know I'm not alone in this; and that someone has faith in me. If - when - I finally get my big break and succeed, then Sareyva is owed half of the credit.

I'm so grateful to her. I've told her often in PM that I appreciate all that she does, but I want to put that somewhere public too. I don't ask her to do any of this proof-reading for me, neither do I expect it, but I'm so desperately glad that she volunteers to do it. I owe her a bigger debt than I could ever pay. She's simply an unbelievably compassionate, wonderful person. I wish her all the best in her life and I'm inordinately grateful that she's in mine.

There's my family, particularly my parents, who've ensured that I won't starve and will keep a roof over my head. I'm still paying my way, as I did when I was getting proper wages, but the safety net is there. My real world friends have done their best, but distance, degrees and ill health have kept much of their attention elsewhere. I don't blame them for that. My issues are not the bigger deal here.

I also want to give a special mention to Miyamashi, who gives me a break from all the writing by RPing with me three times a week. He's there for a chat too, should I ever need to vent. He's a great friend and I can't wait for him to regain internet access. I miss him lots. Then there's BrookeStardust, who's bent over backwards trying to publicise my articles, find people for me to interview, ferret out obscure writing jobs and, on one occasion, chucking me a tenner for petrol in my car. Moreover, BrookeStardust is one of life's shining stars and a brilliant friend. All hail too the unstoppable Orangepunch! Amongst her many talents, she's pretty much single-handedly run my MangaBullet club this past month or two! That's been a huge relief for me, as I was severely running out of time each day.

Beyond that, I'm in a lot of great communities. The Twitter EHC gang, who so vividly bring my characters to life. Well, my characters should read their characters now. They own them. Guns and Games! Everyone there just buzzes with activity and I love stepping amongst them. Canting Away! My Runescape clan, who really know how to party in pixels.

So, as 2011 draws to a close, I'm stressed and tired, but still hopeful. I think 2012 might be the year when it all comes together; and I really can't wait!

Happy New Year everyone!

How I Stopped Search Engine Hijacking in Firefox

I love Firefox. It's my favourite browser of them all. None of the others even come close in my esteem and estimation.

Internet Explorer is just generally too clunky, slow and ridiculously open to being hacked. (I know website coders who deliberately add crap in for IE users. It's revenge for the hours of extra work that you have to do, in order for your website to display in IE.) Google Chrome is tracking everything that you do. Safari and Opera are just too unfamiliar; and none of the others have even made it onto my radar.

So when Firefox started to fail me, I pulled out all of the stops. Then I fixed it.

What Went Wrong with Mozilla Firefox?

It might be easier to tell you what went right during those horrible days. However, the very annoying things were these:

• My toolbar search engine was hijacked. It was displaying results from search.insiteapp instead of Google etc.
• Javascript failed on some sites. For example, the Adwords traffic estimator tool wouldn't load.
• 404 pages redirected me to advertisement search engines.
• Watching BBC iplayer whilst playing Runescape caused a) one of them to crash or b) blue screen of death and the whole computer crashing.
• Application data folder disappearing from my files list.
• Advertisement pages opening up in separate windows, as I browsed the internet.

There were a few other things besides, but they were the biggies. It was patently time for drastic action. It just took me several weeks of taking drastic action (running CCleaner ad nauseam, flushing dns, updating Java, updating Foxfire, altering the host's commands, tatting in the Firefox open source code, the usual) to find the one that worked.

Preparing to Start Again with Firefox

When all hope has gone in fixing your computer in any other way, you reformat it. That really is the last resort beyond which is scrapping it and buying/building a new one. I hadn't reached that stage, but I was about to embark on the browser equivalent.

The problem was solely with Firefox. I ventured (highly temporarily!) back into Internet Explorer, where I learned that the issues with websites were all gone there. That confirmed it was the browser not the computer. I'd need to reformat Firefox.

Preparation Check List:

• Save your bookmarks. Top toolbar -> Bookmarks -> Show all Bookmarks. In there is an option to 'Import or Backup'. Choose to 'Export Bookmarks to HTML', then save them on your desktop.
• Make a note of your toolbars. If you're anything like me, you have toolbars from your favourite sites. Top toolbar -> Options. Write down or screenshot everything that is ticked. You'll want to restore them from source later.
Download Firefox, but don't install it. Make a note where the exe set-up file has gone. If you're using Windows 7, then it'll default to your C:/ download folder.

NB You are about to lose all of your automatically remembered passwords. If you don't think you will be able to remember them later, then go through your sites and find out or change your passwords there.

Once I'd done that, I uninstalled Firefox fully. It won't work if you merely update Firefox, or if you uninstall but leave your personal data and settings. That box needs to be ticked that removes all trace of Firefox from your PC.

Frightening, isn't it?

Using CCleaner to Remove Residual Firefox Registry Files

I've mentioned before that I can't live without CCleaner. This was another moment when it came into its own.

Once Firefox was ostensibly gone from my PC, I ran CCleaner's main cache cleaning tool. Once that was totally devoid of any gunk, I switched to their registry cleaner. It took three wipes through before all of the deep-seated registry errors were cleared, but they made very interesting reading.

My Firefox profile had some corrupt keys in there. If I had tried reinstalling Firefox now, it would have looked the same as before. CCleaner made sure that wasn't about to happen.

Once the registry error finder was returning empty, I reinstalled Firefox.

The Return of Firefox in all its Glory!

I opened up my downloads folder and found the set-up exe application, which I'd downloaded earlier. I clicked on this and went through all of the options on the wizard. Firefox was back and all of the issues were resolved.

• Toolbar search engine no longer hijacked.
• Javascript running perfectly on websites it couldn't before.
• 404 pages not redirecting to advertisement sites.

I then took the time to import my bookmarks (same place as you exported them) and to start the rounds of downloading all of my toolbars again.

Discovering the Initial Source of the Search Engine Hijack

While doing that, I discovered something very interesting. I play Runescape, so their toolbar has been a feature of my browser for a while. After I'd navigated to their site to reinstall it, I received a pop-up (my previous Firefox had been set to not allow pop-ups, hence this hadn't shown the first time around):

Every box there had been ticked by default. That explained the initial search engine hijacking.

Everything else had probably been damaged in my attempts to remove it without access to those settings afterwards. By loading Firefox again from scratch, all of the default settings were restored. This allowed things like the javascript to run again properly.

Rediscovering the Missing Firefox Application Folder

My guess is that none of the above had hidden my Mozilla profile folder. It was more likely to be a firewall error. Perhaps there had been a dodgy file alert once, that I was too busy to explore, so I just clicked to isolate the thing until later.

Or maybe it hid itself out of terror at me employing the Hands On Imperative. Who knows?

But while I was dealing with all other annoyances, it was time to hunt that down again. That was easy enough! Just follow these steps:

• Open the main toolbar and select 'Help'.
• Click 'Troubleshooting Information'. (This is the stuff that geeks will need on forums, if you're ever rushing for assistance there. You're not right now, so just know that it's there.)
• Under 'Profile Directory', select 'Open Containing Folder'.

Your missing folder will be open again! But you'll need to find out where it was hidden, before you can return it to its place in the directory. You can see the address in your browser window:

Now trace back to the exact folder which isn't displaying. For myself, that was 'users'.

• Click on the first hidden folder. (i.e. Users)
• Right-click anywhere on that page.
• Select 'Properties' from the pull-down menu.
• Untick the box saying 'hidden'. (You don't want all of the sub-folders, just the main one.)
• Press OK.

Your folder should now be displayed in the directory, where you wanted it to be.  Hurrah!

Happy Solstice to Me

Repairing all of this has left me with a Firefox browser which isn't annoying to use. Taking the time to really sort it out was my Yule present to myself.  I'm now feeling very smug and pleased with it all again.

Happy Holidays everyone!

Happy Solstice and a Merry Christmas

I'd like to wish all the best of the season's greetings to those reading this blog. However you celebrate it, and for whatever reason, I'm sending my blessings to you this midwinter. Woot! The sun is coming back! We have tinsel and slightly longer days; not to mention a dram or two in the glass.

Here is my favourite 'carol' to give us a little background music. I know it's this time of year whenever I hear it.



As a Pagan, my own festivities are with the Winter Solstice. But this Sabbat chimes with the Christmas celebrations going on all around me, so that works too.

I didn't think I'd be doing much this year. I'd obviously be joining my family for Christmas Eve and Day, but otherwise there would be articles to write. I even mumbled a quick apology to Arianrhod, in advance, that I'd probably spend Yule working. I was wrong.

On December 20th, one of my closest friends paid me a surprise visit and stayed for a couple of days. We feasted, drank and swapped gifts, as is traditional at this time of year. More importantly, we chatted and put our respective worlds to rights. It was good for both of us and laden with peace and goodwill.

The Wiccan Yule is also a time for reflection - looking back over the last year and our lives in general - musing in relaxation and without censure. It helps us know where we are and highlights where we wish to be. It's a review and a sinking of deep roots. It's a kindness to ourselves; as well as a lovely and fundamentally vital period of down time in an otherwise hectic year.

My friend and I did this. We toured all of our old haunts and looked at photographs, remembering the past in laughter and one or two good tears. We shared our stories, as we recalled them, collectively piecing together our memories. It was both fun and a necessary retracing of our steps. Most of all, it reminded us that we'd once been in situations that had appeared insurmountable and the end of the world. A decade or two later, we'd not only survived, but could look back in fondness for the people we'd been, the people we were and the people we would one day become.

Once he had returned home, it was time to move from the Paganism into the Christianity of my family (without, it must be said, much in the way of discernible difference). There was still the tinsel and the tree; there is the music and the memories; there's the food, the drink and the sharing.

Christmas Eve is traditionally the Grand Tour of my extended family. My parents and I moved from house to house, always greeted with an open armed welcome. Drinks were pressed into our hands after the hugs; food filled our plates. Some of these people I only saw last week. One or two, I only see at Christmas. It was great! The conversation flowed (until some idiot puts the bloody telly on, which instantly shifts me from partial deafness into full deafness and counts me out of any further participation), catching up on each other's lives, laughing, joking, reaffirming the close bonds that bring us together.

Today is Christmas Day. It began, as they always do, with my Dad bouncing around like Tigger. I love how excited he is by the whole festival. He burst into my room just after 8am with a hearty, "He's been!" Santa Claus had indeed been. I had a pile of presents waiting for me downstairs, alongside those of my parents. We opened them in ooooohs and thanks.

Now I'm catching up with my on-line friends (and cyber family). Several fora have my contribution in cheers and season's greetings. There's such a great atmosphere everywhere.

Later it will be nuclear family time. I'll be travelling to my brother's house to engage in more hugs, gifts, drinking and feasting. No doubt I'll wind up being very merry by midnight tonight.

How are you spending your Midwinter? Season's greetings in love to you all.