It's a bright sunny December day as I write this in the Blue Room in Broadbottom, looking across the valley of the Etherow to the Derbyshire Hills beyond.  Just out of sight is the distant farmhouse we know as 'Wuthering Heights'...

We've both had a good year, moving onwards and upwards.  For most of the spring I was working to complete my English Teaching Diploma, confirming the decision I made a couple of years ago to return to teaching.  This meant spending hours at the computer writing assignments, endless reading, interviewing students and trying out new ideas on unsuspecting classes.  At the same time I was working at a fairly tough FE college in Manchester, teaching asylum seekers.  Not the most fun I've had as a teacher.  At the beginning of May I spent a month studying on the Direct Contact phase of the course at Sheffield Hallam University.  This was great fun and I made lots of new friends, now scattered across the world from Bangkok to Buenos Aires via Haiphong and Nairobi.  SHU had a beautiful campus in an upmarket part of the city, all huge Victorian villas.  It was great to wander through the daffs with a pile of books under my arm, just being a student again.  Although it's only 30 miles away it's a horrible (if spectacular) drive over the Snake Pass to Sheffield, especially in the dark, so I took a room in halls which I used a few times during the week.  At the end of the course we all sat two four hour papers for the exam.  To my astonishment I passed first time, and later got the SHU Postgraduate Certificate.  I now want to carry on to a Masters, but I want to do the Manchester University Masters in TESOL and Educational Technology, which means waiting to start till October 2003.  It would be nice to be vaguely qualified by the time I retire...

July to September was spent in Edinburgh, teaching on a summer school at the University.  This was my first post-Diploma job, and the difference in the level of professionalism and how one is treated was marked.  It was a great time; I came home alternate weekends, but spent a lot of time travelling round Scotland, going back to favourite places from past holidays, and discovering lots of new places.  Sue came up for a lot of the time and was there for most of the festival.  We went to lots of shows and generally had a great time, being in a city together again.  I really felt I fitted in well at the University - I'm sure going back to EFL was the right thing to do after years of mouldering in office jobs.  However, although I could have gone for a permanent job with the Uni, there's no way I would have wanted to stay through the winter - the climate in Broadbottom is quite bad enough.

In Edinburgh I started keeping a blog - kind of an online open diary.  It's fun, it's good writing practice, and I have absolutely no idea if anybody reads it!  The web seems to be all over with advent calenders this year - I should have patented last year's idea!

Sue has been teaching in Manchester for the last couple of months.  She's thinking of embarking on the Diploma herself - I'm glad I don't have to go through it again.

All members of our families are fine (that's Sue's Mum Joyce and brother Steven in the piccy), and Django the Cat continues to grow old disgracefully.

As the year ends we're looking for an investment property to buy, I'm working on a music project and we're thinking how to get some sunshine...

So it just remains to wish:-
 

AN EXCELLENT AND PEACEFUL CHRISTMAS TO ALL OUR FRIENDS AND ALL GOOD THINGS FOR 2003.