2007 - Cosy Castle - Oj

December: this was the night I was given a 'special pass' into my company's Christmas do, and the night Jo was heading out to a party of her own.

2007 - Cosy Castle - Oj

December

2007 - Cosy Castle - Oj

December.

2007 - Cosy Castle - Oj

December.

2007 - Deep Space

December: another amusing bit of photographic terrorism by Matthias... "Dave...don't...Dave...I can't...I can feel my mind...going".

2007 - Earth - Bob

December: Bobby gets down Sumo style with the people in da house.

2007 - Retrospective - Stu (my Boss)

December: I'm into my 3rd month of being at the new company, in my new job and I'm still loving it, largely thanks to my boss, who is a top bloke. This is an image of him in younger years...

2007 - Bristol - Company Christmas Do

December: the official line was "You're a Contractor so you're not officially invited to the Christmas do." My boss was furious about this, considering how much Jason and I have been busting a gut over the past few weeks. Somebody higher-up said, "Get him and Jason to come along... I'll back them up if there's any queries."

So Jason and I walked in, and I was overwhelmed by the size of the place, the sheer number of people, the quality of the venue, the large numbers of "staff" employed by the venue to keep us entertained.

2007 - Bristol - Company Christmas Do

December.

2007 - Bristol - Company Christmas Do

December.

2007 - Bristol - Company Christmas Do

December: there was a proper dodgems circuit in the middle of the place. Fantastic, as I personally believe the Health & Safety Executive should be hunted down and "got"...so to find drunk people and dodgems together was a great thrilling sense of freedom from the normal molly-coddling rules of business.

2007 - Bristol - Company Christmas Do

December.

2007 - Bristol - Company Christmas Do - Jason, Lilly, x, Alli

December: when Jason and I went in I said, "Jason, I tend to get a little party-happy when I start drinking and quite often accept whatever comes my way, so stick close and make sure I keep a lid on that side of things." He nodded and agreed. Half an hour later he was bladdered, popping up from time to time with a delightful drunken smile on his face.

2007 - Bristol - Company Christmas Do - Stu (boss), Djr

December: it's not often you get a boss that you can treat like a mate and party with in full mental style. It was a great night.

2007 - Bristol - Budokan - Garry G.

December: another 6-monthly reunion over a bowl of Thai Green curry (I didn't go for sushi, because since working at the big F in Bath, I'm spoiled by the quantity and quality of sushi available, in fact I'm eating it most lunchtimes since Oct 8th).

Garry is still at the Agency; we discussed his plans for the coming few months, possible changes on the horizon for him. I told him what I'd heard from NGT...it looks like the Agency has mismanaged the virtual conferencing service in a pathetic state of decay.

2007 - Bristol - Djr, Oj

December: it was time to play Murder At Sharky Point again; Jo had invited round several people from her work place. None of them had done a murder mystery before but they were great, really got into the swing of it. Jo got into the swing of terrible make-up to create the character she was playing (Ms Elderich).

2007 - Cosy Castle - James

December: otherwise known as Colonel Farquar.

2007 - Cosy Castle - Oj, Kate, James

December: otherwise known as Ms Elderich, Miss Carletti and Colonel Farquar.

2007 - Bristol - Watershed Cafe - Philippe T, Claire

December: it's the week leading up to Christmas and every night seems to be filled with social juggling. I get an Email from Philippe T out of the blue saying "he and Claire are in England, and now in Bristol, for a few days..."

I drop everything to meet them. I've not seen either of them since they left the UK and emigrated to Canada about 3 1/2 years ago... my God, how much has changed in our lives; but the two of them don't look any different. It was a fab night together in our old haunt, The Watershed.

We made plans to reconnect in Montreal, around the end of July 2008 to go to a 3-day trance techno festival out in the middle of nowhere. Awesome.

2007 - Bristol - Watershed Cafe - Djr, Philippe T.

December.

2007 - Bristol - Watershed Cafe - Manu.

December: another member of the former Joe Cubas cafe staff.

2007 - Bristol - Watershed Cafe - Claire

December.

2007 - Cosy Castle

December: the temperature has dropped significantly over the past several weeks; getting out of bed at 4A.M. hasn't been happening because it's been so cold... and made less possible by the large amount of socialising taking place (following a month of Heroes and uploading pictures out of hours at work). This is a view of the East edge of Bristol, locked in thick frost.

2007 - Jesmond Dene

December: despite not doing my 4A.M. in the morning routine for almost a month now, I was still keeping up with targets thanks to certain periods of quiet in Bath ;o).

Friday, end of the working week, Stu, Jason and I went out for a massive curry. Said out goodbyes and went seperate ways: the whole company was shutting down from the weekend before Christmas until the 2nd of Jan. I caught a local train to Bristol TM, then on to Parkway where Jo collected me. We were shuttling one of her work colleagues North, so took him with us as we went to get Kelvin...he had flown across from Madrid in Spain. By 5pm we were all blasting north. The roads were eeriely deserted, and the weather was cool and calm for the duration. By 9.30 P.M. we'd long-since dropped off Jo's colleague in Darlington and arrived in Newcastle... Jesus Mound.

I woke up early next morning and took a solo walk, descending into the ancient mystery of the Dene.

2007 - Jesmond Dene

December: something about this view said "space invaders".

2007 - Jesmond Dene

December: I did my typical circuit, passing by the waterfall that has been my musing point for over 20 years now.

2007 - Jesmond Dene - Djr

December: I strode through the Dene with a broad and beaming smile on my face. My work contract had recently been extended for another 3 months (+20) and I was abruptly on the verge of completing Yellow Dawn...transcribing all the notes from my editorial review. Things were moving.

2007 - Jesus Mound - Oj, Mum, Kelvin Sharky.

December: I got back from the Dene and was itching to get up to Kitsch'n, and get onto my laptop with a mug of their divine coffee; however Kelvin was making one of his world famous poached-eg breakfasts... despite leaving the house saying "no I have to dash" I was back a minute later to sit down and devour the feast.

2007 - Jesus Mound - Bob, Mum.

December.

2007 - Jesus Mound - Kelvin Sharky, Oj.

December.

2007 - Jesus Mound - Oj, Djr.

December.