Oh so much to say - a mixture of parties, exams and reports to write and mark, trips away and then the earthquake in Taiwan screwing up internet access have all conspired to keep me offline for ages - but hey - been having a wonderful time.

Now where had I got to?

I'd got a house and a job. Well and truly settled into those now. I had my favourite pictures mounted and those are around the house. They look fab, but also it's meant that various people have seen them resulting in me potentially being offered some photography work here. Which is just fabulous. I'm so excited.

Christmas and New Year combined into an exhausting mixture of parties and the end of term (on 29th December to ensure minimum rest over Christmas). I had a group of people over for Christmas morning - novice monks and a few others for a barbecue in the sunshine, then western friends for alcohol - far far too much alcohol - in the evening. Earlier in the week it had been one of the novices' birthdays so I threw a surprise birthday party for him. I had went to get a cake for the party, but he walked passed the cake shop while I was there. The cakeshop owners weren't quite sure what to make of the weird behaviour of the strange foreigner who dived down behind their counter for no apparent reason. Must learn to communicate better. So have now Lao classes. I'm such a terrible language student so it's a real uphill struggle - even though I am living here. I've got around three or four weeks coming up though with people staying at my house who don't speak any English, which will hopefully accelarate the learning curve.

For New Year I ended up back in Vang Vieng, swimming in caves on New Year's day, climbing and caving, cycling and generally reminding myself how terribly unfit I am! It was a wonderful trip - the family held a baasii for me, which was great, and I skipped out before the heavy drinking got properly underway and went with friends to one of the caves, just spectacular.

We rented bikes for the whole trip. They came without lights and when we left we had to cycle in the dark. One of my friends was really scared of dogs and when she saw one in front of her she swerved to avoid it, cycling over the edge of the road and into the river around six feet below, hitting her head.

When we got her out her face was covered in blood and swelling rapidly. We woke some people who found her a chair and someone went off to find a tractor to take us to hospital (that's a sentence you never expect to write!). She wasn't overly keen on hospitals so they did their best and then we headed back to Vientiane to take her to a bigger hospital there. The blood continually dripping through her eye patch was somewhat unnerving, but the end result seemed to be that at worse she will have an almost invisible scar and a few less eyelashes.

Hopefully I'll start the photography thing soon - it's a new business that's been awarded grants and funding from various sources. They are growing a crop - to fit in with rotational farming methods, and will use this to make a light, strong material for clothing for travellers, etc. They need some photography for there website and brochures so they've asked me. Hope it all comes together.

So New Year's resolution - don't wait nearly a month before updating blog!

Be back here soon