Saturday was a day for families. First Bas and I went to visit her brother Justin and his wife and two boys in their new home. The boys are a fun, lively pair, and it was nice to play with them for a few hours and catch up with their parents at the same time. Because this has been such a busy year for me, I haven't seen some of the people in my family as much as I would have liked to. In an ideal world work should never come before family, and I try hard not to let it, but in reality it often does, and sometimes a plan to visit someone in a month or two's time can fall to pieces, and six months or a year can pass, almost without you knowing it!!! I don't know about other people, but the way my brain works is that meetings with people I like usually stay very fresh inside my head, as if they only happened a short while ago. I'm often amazed, when meeting up with an old friend, to find out that a year or more has passed since our last chat together. "That can't be right" I often exclaim. "It only feels like a month!" But the calendar never lies ...

Later my uncle Derek and his wife and son came to our flat. We went to a nearby pub to watch an England footbal match (they beat Estonia 3-0), then went to Covent Garden for a family party to celebrate my grand-aunt Nora's 40th wedding anniversary. It wasn't a huge affair, but most of the people there were people I really like (and in a big family like mine, there are plenty of people I don't know very well or don't have much in common with), so I really enjoyed mingling. I also love Nora and Davey loads, so I was delighted to be able to be there to toast their long-lasting marriage. I was there for their 25th anniversary, and in this case that DOES seem like a long time ago -- I've changed hugely over the last 15 years, and so have many of the others who were there last night, so it was an occasion to look back and marvel at where life has taken us in the decade and a half since we last gathered under similar circumstances. As you get older I think most people find that a lot of life is about introspection, looking back at what you've done, what your friends have done, the hard times, the good times, thinking about the things you might have done differently, etc. In a way we're all story-tellers, and the story of our life is the one we keep returning to and focusing on, re-telling it to ourselves, re-structuring it, revising and editing, remembering bits we thoughts we'd forgotten and forgetting bits we were sure we'd always remember. Our story will never mean as much to others as it does to ourselves, and nobody will ever know it even a fraction of the way we do, but that's what makes it so special -- it's a personal, one-of-a-kind story, unique to each of us, and while it might not mean much in the grand, universal scheme of things, on a personal level it's what gives our lives meaning and allows us to place ourselves in context of life, the universe and everything.

Anyway, the next leg of my life is about to unfold (each day brings a new leg to every person's life, even though we don't normally think much of it), and I'll be heading for the airport soon to catch my flight to Canada. This is my first visit, and I'm looking forward to seeing a small bit of the country and hopefully meeting lots of fans and signing shed-loads of books!!! I'm not sure what sort of internet access I'll have while I'm on the road. I'll try to update my blog as often as possible, but as you guys know, sometimes that just can't be done. So if you don't hear from me for a while, don't panic -- I'll be back soon!!!!!