I've been offline for a little while now. Not because I wanted to deny you, my beautiful readers, of meaning for your lives. That would never do! No, it's because I've been in the wilds of northern Finland, dodging reindeer and bears and wolves and errant ski poles on the slopes of Ruka, gateway to the Arctic. Which was great!

But first a brief summary of the ten days before my ski safari that I spent in England, catching up with as many of my Breeteesh Chooms as possible (which, frankly, was a bit of a whirlwind and meant I didn't really spend enough time with anyone; now I know how my sister feels every time she pops back to the Mother Country to see people!):

So my flight out of Munich to Gatwick was delayed, but this gave me time to sample the delights of the airport's very own microbrewery, Airbrau, which I can highly recommend. I don't know whether it was the beer or what, but when I finally did get up in the sky and looked out of my plane window (gotta love window seats!) I was greeted by the majestic sight of the plane's shadow on the undulating floor of cotton wool clouds below us, surrounded by concentric rainbow rings! How bizarre!

Thursday evening was spent with Dan (who I hadn't seen since Samoa), Stephen & Becky. We went for dinner at Cafe de Maya, in traditional fashion, and a drink at the Adelaide. Ah, the Primrose Hill days! Such memories! Back at Stevo's (where I was staying that night) I took him on at his new Scalectrix - and lost, of course. All good fun.

I met up with Julie for lunch on Friday, then popped in to the British Museum for a spot of culture before grabbing a coffee in a politically aware squat cafe in an ex University of London building. The evening saw me going for a swim with Hugh and later Nick (whose last day at his old law firm it was) at his health club, followed by dinner at Efes, where the three of use were joined by Meena, Stephen & Becky. That evening I went back to Hugh's and we drank vinsanto into which we dipped cantuccini.

On Saturday I had lunch in Finchley with Hugh, Simon & Hester, and Simon's old housemate designer Matt (who I haven't seen I think since Simon's wedding in Nothern Ireland!). We headed over to Simon's in the afternoon, where we messed about online whilst lounging in his comfy chairs - the wonders of the TV projector!

That evening, we all went for drinks with loads of Hester's friends in Islington. This was my first experience of the new late license laws in the UK, and I have to say I am in favour! We got a taxi back at 4am, then ended up watching a fair chunk of the third Lord of the Rings movie - as you do.

Sunday started in a most pleasant way with a cooked brekkie. Then I headed into London to meet up with Lisa from Dublin. We went to the Tower of London, then on to Docklands where much wine was consumed. I arrived very very late at Justin & Sam's house in Kingston and felt abashed. I really hate to anger my friends in any way, and I will really try to never be late without giving warning again - honest!

I spent Monday with Sam & Grace, chatting, shopping, drinking tea and having a laugh. We went to the French Market in Kingston town centre and bought loads of cheese and salami for consumption later with Justin & several bottles of red wine.

The cutest thing out of many many cute things that Grace did that day was to learn to say my name - almost: She calls me Itchy! Which is close enough. And endearing, especially with the marked changes in intonation that this little 18 month old darling is capable of: "Itchy?" (can somebody please tell me where is that big beardy man hiding?); "Itchyyyyyy!" (ah, there he is, the cheeky monkey!).

Justin & Sam were kind enough to let me borrow their car for the week, so that I would be able to get to Leam and fetch stuff out of my loft to bring back to London and thence to Munich with me. So off I drove to Guildford, where I had hot cross buns with cheddar on top to celebrate Chris et al's return that morning from their holiday in Florida. Then I drove to Leam and got to Frankie & Ramesh's house in time for dinner. Ramesh had cooked us a yummy Nepali dhalbat dinner, which I was very into. So was Charlotte, who came round after work. We drank wine and made merry.

Wednesday was a day of doing stuff. I met with my letting agents to kill two birds with one stone: to meet their new staff (hopefully they will prove to be lots better than the people I have had to deal with there in the past) during a quarterly visit of my property, and also to get stuff out of storage there - things like work shirts, suits and shoes that I haven't needed in the last three years, plus all my remaining casual clothes.

In the afternoon I went for a walk into town with Frankie, who had taken the afternoon off to spend some time with me. It was freezing cold! There was even snow in the air, so we rushed towards Starbucks (any port in a storm) to warm up over a big fat coffee and caramel biscuits. Then, back at hers, I tried on all my clothes and got together a huge binliner full of stuff for charity of all the things that are just too big for the new thinner me. That felt bizarre, I tell you! I've never had to get rid of clothes because they were too big for me!

In the evening, Liza came over and the three of us went for a curry in Leam. Then we met up with a bevy of Powergen people (among them Phil, Jackie, Rob, Nonie, Sarah, Eva, Charlotte, Lisa Nadal, and Ali) for several bevvies in the pub. It was lovely to see so many old friends again, but it felt kind of weird to be talking electricity and office politics and to hear the gossip about people who no longer play any part at all in my life.

Thursday was a day of three parts: I spent the morning filing (man! it's crazy when you've got 18 months' worth of mail to sort through in one go); I spent the afternoon having creative thoughts with Matt (I helped him out with some of the wordy bits of his website design work, and we blue-skied things I might be able to do in the New Economy, were I to become self-employed, which was interesting); and I spent the evening in the marvellous company of Carolyn & John, Mike & Helen, Nick & Debbie at a fine Chinese restaurant in Leam.

On Friday I packed up all my clothes into several thousand bags, then met with Phil for lunch in Kenilworth (we'd hardly had a chance to chat on Wednesday night), then drove to Guildford to drop off my things, then brought the car back to its rightful owners in Kingston and stayed the night there. I was touched that Grace clearly remembered who I was ("Itchyyyyy!!!!!") and even some of the games I had played with her earlier in the week ("flerr flerr flerr!!")

My last full day in the UK before skiing, Saturday, was just as busy as the rest of the week had been. I got the train into London and then out again to Harrow, where I met up with Hugh and together we met his friend Ewa at what used to be my tertiary college, Greenhill. She is a massage teacher there, and she kindly agreed to have a chat over lunch with me about what I would need to do in order to pursue a career in massage.

In the afternoon I left Hugh in town and headed out to Guildford to sort through my growing pile of luggage. I had dinner with Ruth & Andy at Wagamama; they drove down from Leam that day and stayed with me at Chris' to make the journey to Gatwick that little bit easier.

Phew! I tried to keep it brief, honestly I did! But I managed to fit so much in that week that even an overview runs to several sides of A4. I am truly lucky to have so many people I can call friends.