Dear Readers,

I know there are thousands of you, and in lieu of writing each of you a letter, I'll update you here on the goings on of this broad abroad:

1. The 'g' on my keyboard is 'on the fritz' again, as they say. So excuse any missing gs

2. It's winter again in Edinburgh, although yesterday it was summer. Who knows what tomorrow brings? (Who sang that song? I think it was a duet, in fact I know it was. Answers accepted until 3pm PST. Caroline, I'm counting on you...)

3. As we speak, so to speak, I am preparing tomorrow's Publishing Mangement lecture on the stages of a publishing project, and the different tools (ie documents) available for project evaluation.

4. Two days ago, on my way to meet some friends for lunch, I was held hostage (in conversation) by a gentleman who kept using the phrase, "If you know your history . . ." followed by some obscure historical fact that he knew. It turned into a festival of one-upmanship which traveled from his knowledge of Italy and the Italian language, side stepped over to my knowledge of Finnish and Finland's glorious history, and then ended when he said: "I have that problem when I speak Ukrainian." And then the number 13 bus arrived, before I was able to pull out the trump card of speaking German. Damn.

5. The Polish flatmate has stopped doing dishes altogether, and yesterday, as I stood at the sink washing his dishes, he told me, 'I don't have time to wash dishes.' So I told him that I am going to charge him 5GBP every day that I wash his dishes. Why didn't I think of this earlier? I'd be a hundredaire.

6. My friend Erin, and her husband Keith, welcomed Ella Elisabeth Matlock into the world, and beautiful Southern California, on April 8, 2005. Congratulations. Erin's mom told my mom who told me that Keith was "walking on air." Isn't that sweet? Yes, it is.

7. I'll be stateside May 25 to June 20 which means you should be bracing yourself for American-centric news reports.

8. More later.