I found this ‘Four Stages of Life’ joke  somewhere on the world wide web the other day, and saved it. Since then, I’ve gone back a couple of times to look at it. It’s disturbing. Disturbing because it’s true, and as I am no longer required to be Santa Claus, I must be heading towards Stage 4… (Note to self: get rid of the red trainer top…)

So here we are, December 22nd, and the days from now until summer will be getting longer and lighter. That’s good news no matter what the rest of the weather’s doing. Another piece of good news is that the final third of our short story The Pact is now live on Nillu’s blog. I think it’s a terrific ending! It was such fun being part of this, it really is ‘something completely different’. (You can read parts one and two by scrolling down.)

On a sad note, the sudden death of entertainer Udo Jürgens on Sunday was a shock to everyone here in the German-speaking part of the world. Most of you have probably never heard of him but he was comparable to singers like Cliff Richard, and I learned a lot of German listening to his songs. Here’s one of Udo’s most popular Christmas hits, Merry Christmas Allerseits, a hilarious mixture of German and English. RIP.

And to finish off I’d like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas, and thank you all so much for your support this last year. Next year’s going to be a busy one… but that’s another story!