St Petersburg in the snow

Looking back over Troitsky Most, originally uploaded by Racmol.

We're back safe and sound after a fabulous holiday in St Petersburg and I've even managed to upload a few photos to flickr. More to come in January - apparently I've reached my upload limit for December.

Jules would like to draw everyone's attention to his sequence of me drinking Georgian vodka, by the way.

I think the best thing about St Petersburg was the snow. There was much more of it than I'd expected and it made everything more spectacular somehow. Of course, it's pretty impressive anyway - 85% of the buildings in the central city are over 150 years old.

It was damn cold, around -6 to -8. The locals say that's about as cold as it ever feels, because once you get down to -12, the humidity drops away and it's easier to bear.

Our first night we went to a nearby huntsman restaurant, Kalinka Malinka. The decorations were wolfskins and bearskins, complete with heads and paws. One bear's head must have been a bit of a mess, because someone had hung a blue tinsel pompom over it! A bit flippant, I thought.

Christmas Day we woke up at dawn (10 am) and almost missed breakfast. Then we spent the day at the Hermitage, which was excellent - great to see brand new paintings by your favourite artists that you've never seen before because...uh...they're in the Hermitage. Also ghoulishly well-preserved people and horses dug up out of peat in the Russian anthropology section.

That night we went to a Georgian bar/restaurant, Kavkas, which was the scene of the Georgian vodka experience. Basically, we had Christmas Stew instead of Christmas Turkey, but it was quite tasty.

Have to go and prepare a guinea fowl for our houseguests now so more later. Since they've been here, the wireless connection has broken down and now the phoneline doesn't work. When they went to bed last night, Jules muttered: Dadster's only been in the house a matter of minutes and look at the damage!

King Kong: moving, beautiful but far too long

We went to see King Kong last night at the Vue Finchley Road. And the reviews are right - it is truly moving. A hero who will rip a Tyranosaurus Rex apart for you - what more could any girl want?

It's also about 40 minutes too long. There are only so many minutes of animated dinosaurs trampling people that I want to watch. And don't get me started on the giant wetas, which starred for a good ten minutes in their own right. An in-joke that only kiwis and animators will get is a wee bit self-indulgent.

But the centre of the story, the relationship between Kong and Ann Darrow, was perfect. Kong was definitely a sentient being, and all he wanted was a friend. Heartbreaking.

Other highlights of the week:

Monday's lunchtime run in the sun along the river

Tuesday night's birthday party at the Cinnamon Club, complete with ice sculpture

Lowlights:

The end of the series of Grey's Anatomy

Jules's continued ill-health (now much improved)

Hungarian Parliament at sunset

Parliament at sunset, originally uploaded by Racmol.

We had a fabulous time in Budapest. One of those holidays where you eat far too much, walk everywhere and sleep like a log.

I didn't expect it to be so beautiful and I certainly didn't expect a fine, clear Sunday. The weather forecast said light rain on Saturday and Sunday and heavy rain on Monday, so good weather was an unexpected joy.

We were pretty wrecked when we arrived late on Saturday morning. Jules had fallen asleep on the tube on the way home from work drinks the night before so we didn't get a great deal of sleep before the alarm went at 5 am. So we spent Saturday afternoon in the Gellert thermal baths - and unwound.

Culturally, the baths were very different to Western swimming pools. In the women's hot pools, the young slim women wore bikinis and the older, obese women nothing at all. And the lovely thing was - they weren't ashamed of their bulk. One woman thought nothing of raising her bottom in the air to massage it under the hot jets spurting out from one wall - a sight to behold and maybe one you only need to see once! Anyway, it was very relaxing.

We came out of the baths and had a very late lunch before visiting the Christmas market for a mulled wine. I collapsed on the bed and snored, and then we went out again for dinner. Which was also lovely.

Sunday was spectacularly sunny and we walked up Castle Hill, enjoying the view and wandering around on the top. We went in to the National Gallery for an hour or two, but it was really too nice a day so we spent most of it outdoors. The one mistake was not enough of a gap between lunch and dinner - when the mains arrived at dinner we just couldn't do justice to them. But that may have been the fault of the coffee and cake before lunch - the city is famous for its coffee houses, after all. (And we only visited two, in total!)

Monday brought the promised heavy rain so we visited St Stephen's basilica (complete with hand of St Stephen - urrgh!) and went shopping. And had some more cake - to pass the time, like.

And today we're back to the real world with a bump - Jules's contract is not being extended past 4 January. Still, that will give him time to play with our visitors, won't it? And master the art of the slow-cooked pheasant!

Cat-free Friday

Just a quick hello as I'm hard at work (at home).

Highlights of the past fortnight:

1. Being part of a live studio audience for a new BBC sitcom, 'Home Again', about a young couple living in her parents' spare room - two couples driving each other mad, to sum up briefly. It's by the makers of 'My Family', and the actors are just as good.

2. Going to see Franz Ferdinand at Alexandra Palace. Still not a die-hard fan but it was a fun night out.

3. Visiting the Christmas market at Canary Wharf. Jules has resolved to fill the freezer with ducks, pheasants and wild hares. Think he has been watching too much of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall.

And tomorrow, Budapest!

PS. If any of this is sounding as though our life is glamorous in any way, it isn't. We get up in the dark and come home in the dark and the washing machine is still threatening to destroy itself every time it spins. And we still don't have a cat.

PPS. Iona's cat Maggie did not have cancer, just some benign cysts.