Hi all -- remember me?!? Sorry for the extra long absence, but I've been away on holiday, and was just having too darn good a time to blog!! (Though I did tweet a bit!) Bas and I went to the Seychelles for a week of sun and relaxation. We had a lovely time there. It's a gorgeous, idyllic setting, and we stayed in one of its finest hotels, the Four Seasons. Every room was a villa carved into the mountain surrounding a picture-book bay, and each villa had its own private swimming pool and viewing platform -- nice!!! We didn't do a whole lot while we were there. A typical day ran thusly -- get up (not too early), have breakfast, read (I read The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo while there -- I liked it a lot, though I'm surprised by just how successful it's been), go for a swim in our own pool, head down to the beach in the afternoon, snorkel for a while, maybe have a bit of lunch, swim in the main pool, rest in our villa for a while, have dinner, watch a bit of TV, bed. I've only managed to get to grips with relaxing holidays in recent times. I used to need to be busy any time I went away -- we'd always go trekking or travel to adventurous places, and cram in as much as we could while on hols. I love exploring and seeing new parts of the world, how people live and behave, studying wild animals in their natural habitat, etc. Until the last year or so, I wasn't able to just go abroad and take things easy. Now I can. We did it last Christmas when we went to Sharm and scrapped all our plans to do day trips, and we managed it again very nicely this time. We did do one day of hard toil -- up at 05.30 to go on a tour of three islands, not back home until 19.30 -- but for the most part I was more than happy to just chill. Maybe I'm getting old and boring!!! Oh well, I don't care -- I like being able to take time to enjoy the simplest pleasures of life! I still hope to do plenty more exotic and taxing holidays in the future (I've yet to explore China and India, and I'd love to do more of Southern America, to start with) but now I think I'll be able to slot a few more laid-back trips in among the mix, and I'm pleased to be able to do that. Variety is the spice of life!!!

But the relaxing times will have to wait for a while, because the next couple of months will be pretty full-on! First, I'm going to a baptism today for Bas's niece. Then back to Ireland, where I have a couple of days to deal with the house extension (it's coming along nicely -- we hope to move in next month). Then my tour of Ireland and the UK to promote Birth of a Killer. Then I plan to get some writing done in October. Then I'm off to the States on tour in November. Busy busy!! But it should all be a lot easier to deal with now that I'm relaxed and fresh-headed and rearing to go!!