The photies were taken at Newbattle Abbey College yesterday. Really nice place to go for a weekend walk especially yesterday when the light was clear and bright and beautiful.

                    I've been here, there and everywhere recently, but today is really the start of the new year for me and a good time to think about what I'm hoping for or going to do this year.

                    One of my deep, dear friends has been handed a provisional black spot. This makes you think about mortality a little more closely than you might otherwise. If I was give the black spot soon, I think I'd be annoyed about all the time I lost drinking and drug taking when I could have been aiming for nirvana, or at least developing the stuff that makes me happy. I'm trying to ride two horses at the one time at the moment, having a normal life over the weekend and trying to get my equilibrium back. Everything would work so much better if I was able to stop drinking completely. I would also have more time for writing.

                     I saw Lama Rinchen Palmo on Friday, on her way to the Holy Isle. I'm very lucky to have a connection with her. After seeing her, I signed up for four nights down at the Samye near the end of February for the Makhala prayers. I also signed up for the last three weeks of the retreat on the Holy Isle. I wasn't entirely confident that Heather would acquiesce with this, but she was okay. She's got a boyfriend with a strange hobby.

                    I was telling Lama Rinchen about feeling unsettled because I'm never home for any length of time these days, sleeping in different beds all the time. She said someone in Belgium has built her a meditation box for the Holy Isle, Brussels and Beaumont. So she might not be sleeping lying down, at least sometimes. I have such a long way to go.

                     This has to be a great year for the meditations. On Friday, the last time I was on my own, the meditations were amazing. I don't know where it's all going, but it seems to be developing brilliantly at the moment.

                      I will enjoy writing the thriller this year. I haven't been writing much, but I can dip in and out of it, so it's always there for me now. I was pleased that Heather had a go at Jock Tamson's last week and found it very funny. It won't be produced, but I knew that twenty years ago. Glad it's been done now though.

                       Everything in my life is good at the moment. I have no health or money or relationship worries.