It's hard to know where to start this entry. Our holiday was amazing. Patrick's posted several pictures of our hikes around Hadrian's Wall and various Roman ruins. It was all just staggeringly beautiful and cool. I'm in awe when I step into a church from the 11th century; I had never before walked around buildings that date from 85 AD. Two thousand years old (or nearly) is such a huge number that I couldn't consciously comprehend it as we walked around the ruins of army camps (and once, memorably and unavoidably, walked on top of the 1800-year-old Hadrian's Wall). Matched with bleak, wild landscape filled with towering crags and hills, it was just a mindblowing experience.

And it would have been even better, needless to say, if I hadn't been sick throughout the entire trip. Bleaggh. It was still wonderful--and I managed to push myself into going out every morning for hikes/museums/etc., before collapsing for the afternoon and evening--but "Bleaggh" nonetheless. Unfortunately, I still haven't quite shaken off the flu bug...and I started work yesterday.

But the job is great! I love the atmosphere, which is very casual and relaxed (and somehow still very, very productive), I love the people I work with, and I'm finding the job itself really interesting. Something that's wonderful, in terms of a happy, sociable work environment, is that we all sit in groups of desks according to our team (I'm in the Marketing team), and I'm really enjoying the social contact through the day with fabulous, fun and interesting people. Of course, that public-ness (my computer screen is HIGHLY visible to everyone around me!) also means that I (alas) have to do real work all day instead of surfing the net, doing personal email or writing journal entries...so I'm going into some withdrawal! I'm pretty sure it's good for me, as I was spending way, way too much time online before...but apologies to everybody who is owed an email and hasn't gotten one yet! I'm finding it surprisingly difficult to fit in any casual internet time in the evenings, what with dinner, house stuff and (what the heck) nice relaxing quality time with Patrick and Nika...

Meanwhile, I am, incredibly, still not quite done with my revisions to Masks & Shadows, since I didn't get any at all done while we were away...but Shawna is being really great and understanding about it, and I'm hoping to finish up within the next couple of days. And then maybe get back to doing some new writing again, for the first time in...urk...well, the first time in far too long.

Poor Patrick is now sick with the flu bug, and I'm not up to any real cooking tonight, so we're waiting for a couple of baked potatoes to come out of the oven. Tomorrow, I'm definitely stocking up on some frozen meals!

Meanwhile, cheers, everybody--and I promise to get back to email soon!