Boast Letter

We never send a boast letter with our Christmas cards but, while rude about the ones we receive, do like to hear peoples' news. So:-

"Dear All

I can hardly believe another year has gone by. It seems like yesterday when I sat down to give you last year's news from the ON household. What a busy year it has been! [Why do people write this twaddle]

The year started, as have the last few, in Northumberland with friends and we celebrated our fortieth birthdays in January with a fantastic party in the Signet Library in Edinburgh. Most of you were there. It was a huge privilege to be able to eat, drink and dance with so many of our friends and family in such a superb setting. It was a highlight not only of this year, but of the last 40.

The first few months of the year saw builders in this house and we are now firmly moved in to (and have messed up) the really quite good space they have created in our attic. The small child has moved up there and, at least for a while, kept many of her toys there. While the project had its bad days (twice flooding our downstairs neighbour who was really pretty stoical throughout; the constant complaints from next door about the noise - a bit much - we didn't once mention theirs when they did it; nights with buckets to catch the drips from the light fittings as the rain poured through the (admittedly) enormous hole in the roof) we quite miss the Bobs as they were christened.

We remain very busy at work although change is afoot. Mrs ON has served notice of retiral from her firm and, while she expects to continue to do some work for them, intends to have more time with the small child at least for the meantime. This gives us the ability to consider a house move and we are currently looking for a new house for 2008, probably in North Northumberland so I will become a commuter. I am strangely relishing the prospect of starting my working day a little earlier on the train and trying to bring some sort of regularity to my evening hours, which this year have been frequently out of control. This all seems like considerable upheaval after 10 years of very stable living, but at the same time life should not stand still and many people cope with far greater, far less self imposed, change. 2008 will therefore be exciting. Work has been its usual mix of company and commercial work, although the opportunity to work with my private client colleagues on a significant (and very last minute) heritage purchase of a house and its furniture collections was a highlight of the working year.

We are not wide travellers these days. We did however have a good Easter week in Belford (hot and sunny) and returned (being the creatures of habit we are) to Sardinia in the summer. We went to London in October to admire our good friends' new baby and hope to see them again next week for New Year.

Away from work we continue to try and spend as many week-ends as possible in Belford. We missed a lot in the early part of the year because of the building works here, but since April we have been a lot. We continue to enjoy the beaches and countryside. I have golfed sporadically and fished a few days on the Kyle of Sutherland rivers, the Ettrick and the Tummel; we continue to garden away; and have added to the already many pictures about the place. I have limited the feeding of my D Y Cameron habit to one etching and, just this week, a really nice drawing - I feel very virtuous at having resisted a fantastic oil of Iona Abbey seen in London in October. Again because of the building works we didn't see many people here in the early part of the year but have, since the summer, eaten and drunk too much with at least some of you and have been fortunate to have been away for week-ends with some of you. We remain involved with a number of organisations away from work including CHAS, Queen Street Gardens, Edinburgh Sculpture Workshop and the Muir Maxwell Trust.

The small child continues to love school. One of the serious downsides of a move is the need to move her. She has persisted, mostly with enjoyment, with the piano and riding lessons and has many friends, through school, but also more widely through Brownies and ballet. She is on the whole great fun and a general life enhancer.

Christmas sees us as godparents, tomorrow, to my brother's daughter. We will all be there bar my youngest brother who has emigrated to Australia - holiday opportunity there. They arrived a month ago and have settled down quickly. Otherwise our families change some, but not greatly. We will see them over the next fortnight and are looking forward to it.

Roll out the goose and a decent bottle of burgundy. Have a very happy Christmas one and all and all the very best for 2008.

Lots of love

ON"

Pass me a bucket!

Festive cheer

It is my office party on Friday night. I am not going. My non-attendance is not as a result of being a miserable old curmudgeon, although I am, but as a consequence of being invited in June when Christmas is completely beyond my contemplation. I would happily compromise on venue (indeed I would be happy to revert to the days when it was a drunken standing up affair in the office) not to have to think about it until at least October. It is now a casualty of two too full diaries.

This city (when it is not raining the way it is this evening) looks fantastic at this time of year. The lights in the trees in Princes Street Gardens are understated but beautiful. They somehow enhance, rather than overshadow, the slightly more garish lights of the big wheel and "Winter Wonderland". We wandered through the gardens on Sunday having been to the superb Joan Eardley exhibition at the RSA in busy crowds of people at the German (-ish) Market. It was dry and cold and the sun had set, leaving odd bits of light behind. It was soon enough to contemplate things festive.