Greetings

Hello one and all. While I have hitherto been successful in relatively keeping you up to date with what's been going on in my life via group emails and flickr photographs, I am, indeed, guilty of 'slacking off'. Partly because there simply haven't been any new photos to add for a while.

There may have been, but I've been a bit lazy on the photo front to be honest. Here are some really good photos that you missed out on, because I was too lazy to take them:

1. A photo of the Kyiv New Year's tree at Maidan. It's 35 metres high and made of the branches of real fir trees. Looks impressive but I just can't be bothered to go out, remember to take the camera, and hike all the way up to Maidan to take a photo. I just keep thinking, "There's always next year..."

2. A photo of the yummy goose I got to munch on a Christmas lunch. We were kindly invited around to someone's house, but there were a lot of strangers there; I felt shy so I didn't take the camera around.

3. Photos of Mr_Moi's Christmas party. He didn't take the camera, and lucky he didn't because, considering he lost his phone that night, there's a very real possibility that he may have lost the camera also.

4. Photos of the New Year's fireworks that banged in the sky for not one, not two, not three, not four, but five - yes, five - hours after New Year struck. And there's another new year coming up on 14th January (Orthodox).

5. A photo of Mr_Moi and me at the pub at 8am this morning, watching the final session of day three of the Ashes on Sky Sport. We didn't have a beer, but it was the earliest we've been up since we've been here.

So there's the lowdown on what's been going on in the life of Mr and Miss_Moi.

To give you all an update on what's going on specifically in my life... The job front isn't looking too great for me at the moment, so I'm looking into kicking my Russian lessons into high gear, and I'm considering taking German lessons too.

I have also joined the International Women's Club of Kyiv (IWCK), where I am hoping to become a part of the cooking group, tennis group, and the Russian literature group. I also go to Monday morning coffee, but not sure I will continue that because, after seeing the inside of a few rich-o apartments and diplomat houses, I just don't think my little box of an apartment will adequately deliver when times comes to reciprocate the horse-pit-ality.

That's about it for now, crew. See you later.