Aargh I seem to be getting a cough - I blame the climate - I need to live somewhere warmer than here!

Apart from that life is good - I am so proud of how well the Newport Orchestra played on Sunday - the best ever I think! No dodgy moments! I can't believe how much we've improved in a year!

Had a fantastic weekend doing the first two of my seven Christmas concerts for the season (my weekend's desk partner Alan has 10 this year!) the orchestra was great - the 3 choirs were amazing even the 100 kids in the youth choir were lovely (to quote the Giraffe from Madagascar - they are so cute - from a reasonable distance). Though I did nearly die about 15 times on my way to the bus stop - it rained and froze so the path was solid ice as was the car park, the steps, the road even the grass. It would have been funny (OK it probably was funny as I was sliding along holding on to railings and road signs) but I had my viola with me and I didn't want to break the viola or myself!

I have now managed to persuade Blogger to speak to me in English which is lovely and we’re communicating so much better now!

I've decided to start blogging (not blocked from work - yet) again and hoping to somehow cleverly link it in to facebook (blocked form work) so that I get less nagging from 50 nationalities of friends about whether I'm still alive of not (yes that's you Douloids!). One of the many small issues is that Blogger is convinced that I'm German (easy mistake to make in fact it's happened to me many times) so I'm going to try and make it understand that I'd much prefer it to talk to me in English if it doesn't mind and that isn't all too colonial or something. Now do I need to click Jetzt Speichern or Post Veröffentlichen?