christmas is over, winter has barely begun. i am trying hard to scare myself silly about study today, but it is indeed an irksome task. all has gone well over the festive period: i regularly ate so much i craved milk thistle most morings and i managed to spend some time with my more distant relatives. i am off to walez tonight which could be an opportunity for some excellent walks. excitingly, matthew has told me he will be attending. if only i had a few cds to listen to in the car. if anyone has hints for places to eat expensive ham in madrid, or buy white agnes b shirts in paris, then let me know (in the case of the latter you may prefer simply to observe my movements). i have read the opening few words of "against the day", and think it will proove ample in its vivid and hilarious verbosity. i have a lurid new jumper. all will be revealed. have a wonderful new year.

[squint, crispy crumples up, emit low whistle] more meat than i ever saw, stop. the aged parent has gone cookoo and killed the fatted c before christmas has even begun, stop. looks like all go for wales, new year, walks etc. fingers crossed, stop. wheels withing wheels, stop. love, stop. B

though this week has been very busy, i have almost nothing to report. i went to another relatively anonymous christmas do, and passed many innocuous hours in the office. i thought friday was your lot for 2006 as far as work went, but certain emails today make that look a bit optimistic. i am about 40% through my quota of christmas shopping, which is quite good but clearly sub-optimal. it looks like i am going to tayyabs tomorrow, so things are not all bad. i should have some time for proust again too, which will be nice. i am broadly depressed by such things as cricket, but a guy i was talking to in a club last night asked me if i supported west ham based on the way i was dancing. the biggest compliment i have been paid for a while.

holy calamity! tyler brule is leaving the FT in the new year. today's column is a barrel aged cox's orange pippin (not thew kind from M&S or the pre-christmas heaving side show that has become of the borogh market - i digress). i was (briefly) moved to tears but then, like a seven year old who has convieved of a heaven for the stiff cold corpse that was once his hamster, i recalled the bright future of monocle.

i am a slave to my commentariat, so finally i will deliver a long over due update. i live within sight of the the thames, which is making me feel simulataniously dickensian and like some neo-gordon gekko. i have been serously thinking about getting red braces to wear to work, as it would probably encourage some debate with my peers about economic cycles. i have been thinking about cycles qute a bit lately - greed is good. other than that, i am working quite a lot and doing very little else. proust is suffereing from my workload more than i am. i went to the pictures last night to see stranger than fiction which was OK. not really good at all, but OK. i attended the first of this year's christmas parties on tuesday night which was, frankly, a bit disapointing. probably two causes - knowledge that i was to be in work early the next day and a disapointing outfit. other thinigs going on, but nothing really noteworthy. i will try to be duely dilligent in posting during the month of december. i bet you can guess my new year's resolution already.