Neglect

I’ve started to neglect this blog somewhat through a combination of circumstances. I have been really very busy with visitors over the last few weeks and while I love having visitors it does tend to fill my non-working time with activities galore which leaves much less time for internet browsing. Work has been moderately busy over the last while which means that I can’t spend as much time on posts as I had been in the past. And there is the small issue of having lost our 3G USB key so I cannot blog from home for the moment.

I’ve also been grappling with some personal issues regarding Christmas time which has been making me pensive. I know some people are not fans of a lot of family time at Christmas but I rather enjoy it. Maybe living away from my family for most of the year heightens this enjoyment. I love lazy days where we light fires, read books, venture out for walks in the cold crisp air and make mulled wine for sip in the evenings when we indulge in excessive amounts of movie watching.

This year I am in Tanzania and my leave is restricted in cruel and unusual ways. Air tickets are also expensive little suckers in the festive season. I could only take one week of holiday and more or less two days of that would be spent travelling. And I still have so much of Tanzania, never mind the rest of Africa to see.

And so it comes that I am going to spend the season of scarves and warm drinks, pudding and roast turkey, in an exceedingly hot country. James says he’ll stay too so that I am not alone (although he will go home for two weeks beforehand - he gets his ticket paid by work and he has much more leave than I do, which he may spend in any way he cares to) and one of my best friends is currently looking into the possibility of being out here at that time too.

It should be a nice Christmas, if odd, and although I’ll miss my family and pine after a bit of cold weather I’m going to make the most of it. And as for those two weeks when I’ll be by myself when James goes home – I suppose I’ll soldier on and use it as a good opportunity to plan surprises for him on his return.