Rain

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2GtrGnAIRk

The weather has been somewhat variable just when I thought it had settled into "proper" winter weather. It started well with lowering temperatures and more rain than last year which gave the hope of more snow at the local resorts. We've had icy conditions and then a light dusting of snow, but then the temperatures rose into the twenties making it too hot for winter cycling and running gear.

Hopefully the weather has settled back down now but the combination of the rain and some long days at work have meant fun cycling home. This time of year can cause problems with visibility for me as the position of the cycle path means that I get blinded by the lights of oncoming cars and when it is raining the glare and lower visibility makes it even worse. There's little danger of me "interacting" with the oncoming traffic as the path is about ten metres from the road but it can be unnerving when I suddenly can't see and don't know if I am going to go straight off the winding path and hit a tree. So, there is a lot of harsh braking and swearing. To date I haven't hit anybody, but I have noticed that this year's colours for walking and running are black and other dark colours and I did nearly run a cyclist off the path during a heavy downpour as I didn't see him/her/it as they had no lights on.

Helen took time out of her hectic schedule and visited the Ambassador's residence for a Spouses Association coffee morning; although it was very pleasant and there were posh sandwiches I can report that there was no Ferrero Rocher!

We're looking forward to Kitty, who moved home last weekend, arriving on Saturday to spend Christmas with us, the only big job left before she arrives is to put up the house decorations. We've got lots planned for her and I look forward to reporting on the buying of the Christmas Tree and skiing expeditions.

This week at work we hosted a reception for our US colleagues which was a great success if somewhat overwhelming and then yesterday we opened the office Secret Santa presents before heading off for our Christmas lunch. I was lucky enough to get some curling tongs, but now I have to determine whether to use settings 1-5 for "delicate, thin, easy-to-curl hair" or 21-25 for "hard-to-curl hair"; on reflection I think it will have to be the higher setting as there is no way my hair is "easy-to-curl".