The two Christmas presents sent to the U of K in nothing but cheap giftwrap, have miraculously arrived unscathed, albeit three weeks late. Plopped into Royal Mail bags, apparently gift tags STILL ON! Praise the Lord!

Meanwhile, with the festivities behind us, I am back to the office and working on my output. Spent most of today searching and saving and printing out articles. I've got a four inch thick pile of papers to go through. It's not as dreadful as it sounds. In fact all the stuff I read so far is interesting and well written, which is really unusual! I have also discovered a journal which has the quickest turnover rate I've even seen - so quick that I almost couldn't believe my eyes - from submission to publication only 5 months!!!!! Well you guessed it, it is an online journal but surprisingly, has a very good reputation and the articles published (the recent ones I've read anyway) are all very good.

I have three training sessions lined up for tomorrow and next week. The one that is to take place tomorrow is only 1.5 hours long but it is for the Customs and Excise Department, which would be interesting as it is a large class (50 cadets I was told), and the theme is "diversity" and not gender as such. The brief is, as usual, uselessly vague. As it is only for 1.5 hours I didn't feel justified to spend a huge amonut of time preparing for it. Will see how it goes.