arotau

It’s Mim’s birthday tomorrow! We’re going out in the evening to have dinner at the Gaucho grill, an Argentinian steak restaurant near where Mim works. Mim got the job with the company she was interviewing with, and while it’s been very busy she’s enjoying working there.

We’ve been buying lots of outdoor winter clothing in preparation for our skiing holiday, and can’t wait to get away. It’s apparently been snowing a lot over the last week so we should get good skiing as long as the weather improves by the time we get there.

On Saturday we had John and Dorothy over for tea, and then after they had left met up with Andrew, Bridget, Elmer, Rob, and Rudy for ice skating at Somerset House.

Yesterday’s job interview went well for Mim, and she’s been asked to come back tomorrow to spend some more time with the company and see whether she will fit in (it’s quite an open-ended position so they want to be sure that it will work out). We’re both hoping that she gets it, as it seems to be a pretty cool opportunity.

Last night we did our first study with Ben, beginning to go through Philippians. We both found it really helpful to be pushed to think more carefully in our Bible study, and we’re looking forward to the studies continuing. During the day Mim went and picked up her main Christmas present from me: two portrait photos of the two of us. In the weekend I’ll scan them and post them.

Today Mim managed to finish off her third painting for the flat, though there are some bits that she wants to change at some point. Eventually I’ll have to put some photos of the paintings up on the site for people to see.

My work’s been going well, and apparently I will soon be given my own trading book. At first I’ll only be putting on relatively small trades, but it will be cool to have the chance to try out some trade ideas.

Once again it’s been a while since the last news update, but I’ll try to post more regularly over the next few weeks.

The main event for us at the end of December was Christmas! Among other things, we had a few people from church round to our place: Simon, Jo, and their two children, Dave & Erica, Alan & Adeline, and Andy & Anna, plus Jo from York popped in for a while. We also went to an amazing party held by Michael and Pauline from church, who invited everyone from church (plus quite a few others, including Mim’s parents!) round to their house.

After getting back from that party, Mim’s parents drove us out to their place in the Cotswolds for Christmas, and we spent the next five days relaxing there. We spent most of Christmas day just with Mim’s parents, but in the evening Mim’s sister Ruth came over with her boyfriend, Jamie, for present unwrapping and the evening meal. Oh, and it was officially a white Christmas (though the snow didn’t settle at all) so we went outside very briefly so that we could say that we’d been in the snow.

During our stay we were able to visit the Ewarts, where I got to meet Hannah’s boyfriend Simon and Katie’s boyfriend Blessing for the first time. Mim & I also went out for a meal with Ruth and Jamie, which especially gave me a chance to get to know them a bit better.

We came back to London between Christmas and New Year (enjoying the wonderful experience of carrying all the presents back on the train), and I went back to work for a pretty relaxed couple of days before we headed up to York for our New Year break. We stayed with Dave, and over the weekend managed to meet up with quite a few old friends, but Mim had a nasty cold the whole time which took away the fun a bit. It’s several months since either of us had been to York, so it was a little strange to go back, and by the end of the holiday we were glad to get back home and settle into normal life again.

Since then I’ve been back at work, and Mim’s carried on looking for work. She has her first interview tomorrow.

Oh, and today is exactly a year since we got engaged!