Just beachey Four days off for Christmas was nice wasn't it? When I came back to work yesterday I certainly didn't have that "well was that it" moment, which is so often the case. It was sad not to see family but we had a great Christmas day with friends and went down to the beach as planned in the morning. It was a beautiful sunny day, fleece weather to be sure, but the sky was high and cloudless.

Elbow Beach for champagne, sausage rolls and mingling is a real tradition amongst ex-pats in Bermuda and walking down the steps around 11am to see people standing around in their santa hats was like looking out on one big open-aired cocktail party with the ocean as a backdrop. We saw loads of people that we knew, kids ran around in their Christmas best and men stripped off Christmas jumpers to dive into a frigid sea in their shorts.

My other half enjoyed her first glass of anything alcoholic in a long, long while and as champagne corks popped, the eccentricity of the British was there for all to see, with the Canadians, Irish, South Africans and Americans all joining in the merriment. We might not be here for a Christmas again so it was a great and completely - for me anyway after spending Christmases in Chicago - abnormal thing to do.  ¶ 08:44