Ho Ho Ho. 

Just in case anyone's having difficulty deciding what to get me for Christmas. I'd quite like one of these .

Thanks. 

I sent out an e-Christmas Card yesterday. View it here .

This weekend about 12 of us got together to make a film for Becca's birthday. It was on the theme of kidnapping... we kidnapped many people around Bournemouth & Poole including, 9 pink ladies:

 

I've been out and about taking photos for this year's Christmas card. It taken me to some interesting locations, with some unusual spectators...

This weekend I worked with PVA and Dorset V, leading Graphic & Web design workshops. The participants were 16- 25 years old and selected by Dorset V (the Dorset branch of v inspired ) who provide volunteering placements within the county.

The participants did really well and produced some varied work. The whole experience was given extra flavour by local rappers 'Ways Of The Mouth' who added their own special blend of hip hop and graffitti.

Local Artist Pete Sheridan produced funky custom name tags for us all. Is it me or do I look like I'm bald and been shopping in Marks?

I'm currently reading Dark Star Safari by Paul Theroux, it's a non-fiction account of his African overland journey from Cairo to Cape Town.

I'm at the section where he is travelling through Malawi, and having been a teacher there 30 years previously he speaks the language fluently.

He notes some great Malawi sayings:

 ' Matako alaabili tabuli kucumbana' - Two buttocks cannot avoid friction. (In reference to a Malawi official trying to get a bribe from him for not having a up to date Yellow Fever Certificate)

'Raise a python and he will swallow you' (The current Malawi President)

'Your mother is your mother even if her legs are too short' (About forgiving your country of its lapses)

This article was in the Times at the weekend.

It sums up the joys and pitfalls of working from home:

'Then there is home working, which would be wonderful if it were not for... the hours wasted on air guitar/ singing/talking to yourself, the not-washing for days at a time, the being-dressed-in-elasticated-clothing for days at a time, and the loneliness that eventually drives you to hang on to the words of supermarket cashiers as if they were uttered by Friedrich Nietzsche himself.... But the truth is that remote working has driven me insane. And my advice to anyone considering it is to resist. Avoid Starbucks, avoid the Business Lounge, avoid home. Work in the office like normal people have done for decades. Otherwise you will end up like me, writing this at 2am, dressed in furry pyjamas, a pair of bunny ears flopping dementedly about your head.'

It's not 2am but I am writing this in a dressing gown and Tai Chi shoes.

Barcelona is an amazing city, I went this weekend as part of the Camps International christmas party.

We weren't there too long - about 12 hours, but it was enough to have a meal and a few drinks... We even made a few new friends: