Tired of the hamster wheel.

What is it with companies these days expecting people to cope with more and more responsibilities and an ever increasing workload with no thought given to recognition or reward for their efforts? Any prospect of promotion is all too often like the carrot dangled in front of the donkey: always just out of reach.

What is wrong with a person wanting a job where they can go to work, they know what is expected of them, they get on and do their job and at the end of the day they go home? No working late to try and meet unrealistic deadlines. No pressure to climb the proverbial ‘corporate ladder’. Just happy to get on with it and forget about the stress of ‘career development’.

Every now and then I think I should pack it up and maybe open a coffee shop... hmm...

Life flies when you're having fun...

It's a cold and grey day today, just north of London, but fortunately the predicted snow has not reached this far south.

A lot has happened since I last wrote, so here goes...

Sandra (my aunt) has moved to a very nice house share in Bush Hill Park (near Enfield Town) and has a job temping for the council in Enfield Town. She seems to have settled in really well.

My Dad flew over to join us for a couple of weeks over Christmas. It was really great to have him stay with us and our little house was quite full on Christmas and New Years Day with Lisa and Sandra joining us.

James' 45^th birthday (21^st Dec)

James finally finished his diving course in November and we put it to good use in January while we were over in South Africa for a 'fly-by' visit/holiday.

We spent a couple of nights in New Germany at Lyn & Clive's (my aunt & uncle). We did some shopping for cool summer clothes (as we don't really have those, living here in the UK!), had breakfast with some friends and met up with my Dad on his return from the UK before heading up to the 'Metropolis' of Richards Bay.

We spent some time visiting old friends and went to Denise's 40^th birthday celebrations (We're glad you decided to go ahead with the party, my friend!).

Lunch with friends in Richards Bay.

The following morning after church we headed off to Sodwana Bay.

Sodwana Bay was great. Overcast, but warm and we enjoyed the diving... although James 'fed the fish' a couple of times and we didn't get to see any sharks. We did see a couple of Moray eels ('Honeycomb' and 'Salt and Pepper'), a Loggerhead turtle, a large potatoe bass, a Lionfish and some exciting smaller creatures like a paper fish and a nudibranch (sea slug). It was a good oportunity to try out my new birthday pressie... an underwater camera. You can check out some of our photos at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/jamesandjules

We still need to do a bit of work on the photo's and upload the rest, so please bear with us.

Some of the fishies at 2mile - Sodwana

After a few days up at Sodwana Bay, we drove through to Brett and Chantal's in New Germany for one night, where we had a braai by candlelight.... well sort of... thanks Eskom!! And then it was up to my Dad's place in Pietermaritzburg for one night before heading back to the UK.

Well, we're back into the swing of things here after recovering from a week or two of a combination of bad airline food and 'post holiday blues'. One of the things that's very noticeable on coming back to the UK is just how much faster the pace of life is here, especially in the greater London area. I could quite easily get used to a slower pace of life.