My elongated Christmas and New Year's break has finally come to an end! I had a week in London after my Rome holiday. Went to an interesting Gauguin exhibition at the Tate Modern. I don't LOVE Gauguin the way I love Van Gogh, but his best work is certainly quite stunning, and it was nice to be able to get an overview of his work. I only started getting into the art world several years ago, so I'm still learning all the time, and large-scale exhibits like this one are a great way to get up to speed quickly, in one fell swoop!!!

Three of my cousins - Lorcan, Kealan and Tiernan - came over for the weekend. I took them to see Chicago up the West End, and it's just as impressive as ever, one of the sexiest shows around, with loads of great sngs packed in. On Sunday we went to see Spurs start their FA Cup campaign with a 3-0 win over Charlton -- no classic, but a win is always welcome. The boys returned home on Monday and I hit the cinemas after that, catching quite a few films, none of which really set my world on fire.

On Wednesday and Thursday we had the funeral for my grand-aunt Martha, who died the week before Christmas. It was my first time going to a crematorium and I found it a far sweeter experience than I had anticipated. Death is almost never a pleasant occasion, of course, but I didn't find cremation any more or less upsetting than burial. Ultimately I think the disposal of the corpse is a small enough thing. What matters more, I feel, is the gathering of those who knew the deceased. And this was a large, warm-hearted gathering, full of people who had known and loved Martha. It was nice to talk about her and remember and joke about her love of cigarettes and wish her spirit well. It was a sad time, of course, but also a time of celebration, as death should ultimately always be in my opinion -- tears for those we've lost, but smiles as we reflect upon their good times and the impact they have had on our lives.

And now I'm back home. We flew back after the funeral. Yesterday I caught up with various bits and pieces, and today I returned to work for the first time in what feels like an age! The house pretty much took over my life for much of the last couple of months. Now most of the work has been completed and I am able to get back to work, and it's a real pleasure!!! I started another edit of the first book of what will hopefully be my next long series today. I've talked about it in my blogs over the past couple of years, always very eliptically, and I'm afraid the secrecy must continue for a while longer. I can't share anything about it at the moment, since I haven't yet taken it to my publishers. But I'm pleased with how it's coming together, and hopefully, if I can figure out over this year exactly where I'm going to take it and how long it's going to be and how I plann to release it, then I'll be able to be a bit more open about it further down the line. For now, be content to know that I AM back working hard, and plan to cram in as much writing time as I can over the coming twelve months, not just on this series, but hopefully on some other books too. I hope this is going to be a busy, active year for me on the writing front, and if it is, then today was the day that it all kicked off. Happy, busy New Year!!!!!!