Right, after a good showing in November, my postings slipped back. A lot. 10 weeks might be a record, but I’m still here.
Christmas was all new… for a start there was the work, which was busy in a strange way – the work peaked in the last three days, after being quite quiet up to then, but when it came it was more than we ever expected. It seemed to take even the guys who’ve been around for years by surprise, which was interesting. I really enjoyed it when it picked up, anyway, which is a good sign.
I spent Christmas itself (I had 4 days off!) at Jennie’s house with her and her mum – a much smaller (in people if not pressies) affair than I’m used too, but it was really good fun… I was given lots of lovely things that have all been used, which is the real test of a good present.
We had second Christmas at K&L’s, then a New Years Eve party up here at mine – was great to see everyone, as it always is.
After a few days back at work at the start of Jan, I was off on holiday to Dubai, to see Mum, Dad and Felix and help them settle in over there… it’s a really interesting and quite strange place – I had a great visit, though it did rain a fair bit more than you’d expect in the desert! I’ll probably go back out in October, which will be good especially to see them settled in their new house.
And my main big news, which most of you lot know anyway, is that Jennie and I got engaged! I proposed up Arthur’s seat in Edinburgh on the 1st of February, and we’re looking at Christmas 2010 for the wedding (which can’t come round soon enough!) – absolutely fantastic news, and I’m thrilled that she said yes. We’re starting to get embroiled in the crazy world of wedding planning, but we’ll be having an engagement party in mid-April to celebrate with everyone… hopefully we won’t be all jaded by the hassle of planning by then! 
I’ve had a nice few days off since Sunday – back at work tomorrow, so not a full week off, sadly.
That’s all for now folks, I don’t really want to write a great long post about things you all know anyway!
Nice photos
. Is Dubai an interesting place to visit, or just somewhere with lots of money for really nice modern buildings? Did you see the Dubai Tower (world’s tallest structure)?
Ant roundabout: I’ll have to show you my book “Roundabouts of Great Britain” (it’s not a great read). Ants are way better than the giant traffic cones that one in Leicester has though.
Sculpture on a wire: Presumably the weight is quite high density. So long as the centre of gravity is below the wire, it should stay there with no problem!
It’s definitely an interesting place to visit… I’m glad I don’t live there at the moment – it’s very American in style, and I hate the whole driving set up they have there. It’s all massive cars, 12-lane motorways criss-crossing the city, having to get in the car and drive 10 mins just to cross the road, etc etc.
It doesn’t really have much culture of its own, beyond a few preserved/restored buildings from when it was a tiny pearl trading town. There’s an interesting museum with loads of photos of its early development from about ’53, pictures of the small town with its first skyscraper, and so on, but that’s about all. They go in for the “bigger and better” approach with everything, which gets a bit wearing, but it is good to see and there’s a good amount to do, in a fairly narrow band of activities, if you see what I mean.
I did indeed see the Burj Dubai – hard not too – it’s nearly finished, and looked cool with all the scaffolding and half-built ness up the top. At about 750m, it’s about 3 times the height of the next tallest tower they have, and there are plans (on hold for now) for another one over 1km high… just because! Here’s a few photos for scale – hard to capture the height in the city, so these were taken from the car coming back from Aidan’s school – not the best quality! There are some flamingos for the spotting in one of them, I think!