Since then

Since the furore of the holiday season things have calmed down a bit. We have moved back into our room from Donald's. It is strange how much of a relief it was to come back- we've managed to make this room feel quite homey.

All the men went for a day of go-karting which Adam didn't lose this year, yay! The lasses then decided they wanted a day of fun, some suggestions being: Extreme ironing, Doctor's and Nurses with the Cheffies, Cross-stitchathon etc etc. Last time we put a notice up for anything in the kitchen!

We ended up taking the bus to Xtreme, a leisure type mall thing where we went minigolfing, all you can eat Chinese buffeting and finally bowling. Eva won the minigolf and the bowling but it was hard to determine the winner at the buffet.

On the news front Matt (the Aussie hitched to a local girl) is expecting child number two and Lucasz and Kasia (the Polish couple who got married last year) have also just announced they are having a baby- and she told us she stopped drinking coffee for her blood pressure!

We have gained a new set of neighbours, Mark and Skye, an Aussie couple fresh from a few months travelling around South America, the Aussies are on the up again!

On Mark and Skye's first day in town we had a really good snowfall. It was very, very exciting as it actually lay on the ground and wasn't just slush which was about as good as it got last year. We were still staying up at Donald's place so at the end of the night as four of us walked up the road we had a really dedicated snowfight. It was some of the best fun we had had in ages. A bunch of the guys decided to make a snow man and then bring him into the pub on a tray. Needless to say he didn't last long in between being hacked to death and sitting in front of the fire.

We have now entered a very quiet patch and everyone is taking the time to unwind a bit and think about holidays. Monday is Colin's 42nd birthday though and after last year we imagine it will be quite a night.

Sorry we have been awful and not been keeping in touch. It was very bad of us and we feel pretty rotten. As D:ream would say 'things can only get better'.

Photos: The Slovakian women's fishing club minigolf day out, Eva lining up a winning shot

Christmas and Hogmanay

The lead up to Christmas was pretty full on. Two couples left just before the busy patch so those of us remaining were on a pretty punishing rota.

We participated in a pre-Christmas curry/quiz night which we did OK in given that our team of four had three Aussies on it and the questions were rather UK centric.

On Christmas eve (Christmas day Aussie time) Adam closed the bar and we stayed in Kris and Marine's flat where our computer decided to catch a cold of some description throwing our internet connection into disarray (still not what it was). Our phone also died but has since been replaced, 20 quid for a new phone!! Should have done it ages ago!

Christmas day was funny because just about everyone there were staff that have been at the hotel for ages and most of us had been there for the previous Christmas. It wasn't really as happy a lunch as the previous year but as we all sat around for the afternoon and relaxed together it started to feel a bit more Christmasy. Three dozen oysters that we got for free off a local went down very nicely for dinner as well.

The week between Christmas and Hogmanay was a blur of long, long shifts leading up to a somewhat hellish floor shift for Eva on New Year's (finished at 11:35, back down all dressed up with Champagne in hand at 11:43) and a long night serving drinks for Adam.

New Year's Day Adam had to work a few hours before we came back to join in the Ceilidh (pronounced Kay-ley) a traditional Scottish dance which saw us all joining in. It was a lot of fun getting pushed around, kicked and flung by the Scots who knew what they were doing.

Photos: Adam about to play desk skittles over the remains of our oysters, We all spent hours trying to teach Monika to play glasses to no avail, The Christmas quiz scoreboard- we were the Custard Apples and we got 10/10 in food and drink!, The stylish George staff on Hogmanay

Sorry

Sorry, sorry, sorry, sorry.