It's been my most eventful writing year yet, but this must be the last bit of news. My piece on popular New Year's resolutions has just been selected for the front page of Helium.com. This is one of those squalid pieces of penny per click writing that everyone thinks I'm nuts for doing until they find out how much I earn for them sometimes. The competition to get on the front page is insane, and all told it's a bit of an honour.

MERRY CHRISTMAS

/passes out from sick and tired

I missed the flurry we got in London on Tuesday as I was stuck in court. Yes, the reason I have not posted much lately is that I'm on Jury Service and so while all sorts of fascinating things are going on, I'm really not sure how many of them I'm allowed to talk about. I'm now even bored of telling people that it's a murder that goes to the heart of government. I'm even bored of telling people that my cracked lips are the first symptom of radiation sickness caused by the atomic reactor that powers the government emergency bunker that's buried twenty metres below my flat in Southfields. Seriously guys, I've got cracked lips and a runny nose the day the first flakes of snow are falling from the December sky - ask a stupid question, expect an entertaining answer. I think I can tell you that I'm the foreman in the case we're trying, and that we have yet to reach a verdict (obviously, or the case would be finished). I know that I'm not able to talk about anything we've discussed in the deliberating room relating to the case, but I'm starting to suspect I might be OK just publishing a transcript, because they seem hell-bent on making up their own case to discuss. I'm going in tomorrow with my seriously grumpy face, because they need a bit of arse-kicking. Anyway, I went to see Paul's panto tonight, and it was brilliant! He was playing a camp Jack Frost, apparently in a Movellan wig. Brother of mine's default acting method tends to be to channel Kenneth Williams until someone tells him to knock it off, and obviously no one told him this time. I didn't think that they'd top the glory of last year's The Frog Who Hated Christmas, but the Wetland Centre triumphed again! My theatre highlight of the year probably remains Phedre however. Unless you count Tennant's final performance of Hamlet on January 10th, which I suppose really you should...