We made it safe and sound, no military bullets in our back, no realy problems at all...except..no camera. But we're trying to get over that! It was lovely to see family, meet our beautiful niece Africa (aged 6 months!) and get to know everyone again after the 2 year gap since we last saw them. In no time at all Cal had rolled up her sleeves and got into the mince pie making, while Matt discovered a book of Cal's Dad's all about SAS survival tips. I bet you didn't know if you were suffering from serious water deprivation you could find enough liquid to keep you going by sucking at an animal's eyeball..should you find an animal obliging enough to let you try! For more such delightful gems of truth please contact Matt Edge! Christmas is not much of an event here - no decorations in shops, very few carols, scant offerings of mince pies and no mulled wine spice available for love nor money (all the most important elements of Christmas of course!). Apparently most people are too busy getting ready for their summer holidays to get into the festivities much. All wrong I tell you! The half sunny half rainy weather doesn't help. To console ourselves we have done a spot of fishing - Cal got a bite but it was a little over-energetic and chomped the hook right off the line so nothing to show yet! Looking forward to a family Christmas. Oh yes, and a bit of a change of plan! Due to the extreme lowness of the travel fund (potatoes and pasta without accompaniment for a week in LA, no lie!) we have decided to stay around here and get jobs for a few months. Positive: David (brother) and Regan (sister-in-law) have very kindly offered to put us up in this time. Negative: we have to go through the rigmarole of endless form filling and getting medicals for our work visas - an extremely expensive process! Looking forward to seeing how God is going to save the day (again). On that note (see the link to Christmas? no?! God saved the day then too...ahhh the parallels!) , hope you all have a really lovely Christmas! We miss you all lots and really enjoy hearing from you. Keep it up! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Love Matt and Cal x PS Raise a glass of mulled wine for us!