And then came the least expected excitement of them all: I've found full-time employment!!!

Having made initial enquiries weeks & weeks ago about the possibility of working as a temp at the European Patent Office, only to be told that they don't take people with degrees, the EPO went and rang one of the temping agencies I'm signed up with, looking for someone with a degree.

A basic requirement of employees at the EPO is fluency in English, German & French. It seems they have some sort of quota system in operation, where each member country (there are 31) should have a number of people working at the EPO proportionate to its population. Given that British people are generally shit at languages, I was already in a strong position.

Then, to add to the fun, the woman interviewing me (head of Personnel Development, not an area I'm really that familiar with) said she was keen to employ more men because she already had a lot of women in her team. And she's dead keen on the British work mentality.

The fit was indeed good, and in next to no time I'd been taken on! So now I am working in the same building as my sister (she's been at the EPO for 15 years), with a bunch of people who are all good fun and interesting to talk to (and I'm not even just saying nice things because they might read this; no, I really mean it!). The main language of our team is German, but there's a French woman, a Romanian, a Pole, a couple of Brits, and our manager is Greek. Truly, I am in linguists' paradise.

So there you go, I'm not really a traveller any more. After three years on the road I'm hanging up my backpack, moving into a flat (which has room for visitors!) and becoming a grown-up again.

I'll have to have a think about what to do with this blog. Perhaps I'll just do occasional entries for when I go off for weekends and stuff. Which I mean to do on a regular basis. Or perhaps I won't be able to wean myself off reading my own mellifluous prose, and you'll just have to wade through more and more of it to find out what I'm up to! We'll see. Anyway, tata for now.