You will have heard from other members of the family about the time spent in the youth hostel in Pembrokeshire with around 60 others. The week after I held a film making night -at home - people brought their laptops to our dining room and I plugged our main PC into a video projector on the wall and the 4 teams spent the evening making a film using footage we had gathered from the week in Wales.You can see one of the finished films on Miriam's page.

When Easter came I used some of the cave footage grafted onto a lot of downloads of Jesus movies from youtube put on a Shirley Bassey soundtrack to construct a rather unusual Easter anthem. Let us know what you think!! The cave at the start is actually the one Miriam talks about in Wales!

We've had a MacBook in the house for the past couple of years and Abigail has really taken to it. She has taught herself to make films on it using the camera embedded in the lid. And Andrew has used it for recording his band using Garageband. I would really like to get my hands back on the MacBook because there are lots of things I would like to do on it but don't get the chance now!!

Being a Lay Reader (or Lay Minister)  has involved a bit more than making films though. I have started to get involved in visiting members of the church in hospital and one in a hospice. And am being trained in the art of leading funerals. And taking communion by extension (basically distributing the communion elements for which I need special training. So my institutionalisation continues! And I continue to preach and lead services regularly. In September a light hearted article about I had written about robes appeared in the Lay Reader's magazine. And a variant is to go in the Church Times in the New Year. So the predictable parts of the role are supplanted by the less predictable. I helped to organise the first church wedding ever conducted during the London Marathon with two members of congregation who plighted their troth on the 22nd mile! The biggest news story of  this year's race.

  In July I got a stomach pain checked out two days before I was due to fly to Romania to work there. The hospital wouldn't let me out. A scan indicated a swollen gall bladder. They whipped it out the next day and discharged me the day after that. Leaving me trying to get on a plane to get to Eastern Europe when I later discovered I wasn't supposed to be driving a car. Two weeks of recuperation followed and I managed to fulfil part at least of my commitments. In total I worked in Romania 4 times this year. The last occasion when I was a speaker at a conference about sales promotion the enthusiastic organisers arranged for a demonstration/heckler//assassination attempt during my presentation (a local security firm was sponsoring the event) you can see what happened here!

A week's camping in Dorset was wonderful. I couldn't believe I had managed to talk Karen into camping again. And for the most part it stayed dry and windy. And the wind dried up the rain before Karen could complain about it. We were camping on a ridge about Moonfleet manor where the adventure book Moonfleet is set. I got a copy and would pause between chapters to work out where the action had been located. At the end of a glorious week we went to collect the bedraggled Andrew and Abigail from the New Wine site inland where they had been working. Camping by the coast can be blowy but it keeps the rain at bay. 

The week after Greenbelt I led a party of teenagers back to the Devon flat to see the band Muse performing from a stage set up on the den the grassy area in front of the pier. From the balcony of the flat we had a grandstand view and with the help of binoculars could see just about everything. Watching a concert of local boys made good had a very different feel to it from going to see a band in an indoor venue.. Apart from the BBC helicopter buzzing around it was just about perfect! You can see some of the footage on Andrew's page.

We spent a happy weekend in the Brecons with the entire family on my side staying in 2 cottages that turned into one. My father has had health problems for much of the autumn and has been waiting for an operation so wasn't able to join us on the walks up the nearby hills but my mother well into her 70s was gambolling up and down them as if the years had made no difference at all. And in the evenings we organised all sorts of family activities including a show.

My sister Bronwen's wedding took place in November. We were delighted that she sealed the knot with Colin - they've been together for a number of years. She is now Mrs Thompson.   She commissioned songs for the wedding. So the Woebegone brothers were busy writing humorous words to a couple of songs Bron Sugar courtesy of the Rolling Stones and a version of the TRex classic Get it on (Col and Bron)!

I haven't said much about work this year. It has been quieter than usual - no surprises there - but somehow we have managed to find our way through.  I've been waiting to sort out a deal with a publisher about writing a book about strategy. If you're curious you can find out more about it on waggledancers.com. I have also been accepted to write a paper for the next national research conference about using internet contentas part of research.  So when things are quieter I don't get quieter - I just spend more time writing and reading. I am just coming to my 10th year since I started the consultancy and despite the quieter periods I have been very grateful for being able to continue despite the uncertainties of this way of working.And you can follow my progress almost daily on my blog Further and Faster.