Internet

I'm back, she shouts with glee! Being without the Internet is rough when you're living in your own country and can keep up with family and friends easily, living without when away from home is torture. Mines been down for ages, intermittent at best before that. What did we do without the net, seems difficult to remember a time when it wasn't around. When computers were massive walls of whirring machinery that needed lots of men to keep them going. We saw them in high tech movies, not in real life.

But anyway, there's a lot to catch up on. The trip to Nepal and the associated photos and video, the afternoon spent at the Dubai Rugby 7s watching New Zealand win the tournament and the other more mundane things that make up life here. The social calendar is looking a little stretched with the Christmas do's coming in thick and fast. This weekend there's a baby shower, a house warming, a ball and something else I know I've forgotten to take into account.

The photos from the celebrations at the end of the Dubai 7s. I thought it was appropriate given the celebration I had, a small dance around the room in fact, when I discovered I was once again connected.

This will be my first Christmas away from New Zealand, away from my family and friends. Another first in this year of firsts, one I'm not really looking forward to. I'm a bit of a Grinch when it comes to Christmas so I suspect I'll be spending my day lazing, reading a book and generally chilling out. I'll catch up here sometime tomorrow, for now I need to get some sleep. It's been full on lately and I need to catch up, not to mention that I have a head cold and feel a bit miserable.