It was Christmas Eve babe, In the drunk tank

Well, I'm still alive, if not functioning correctly. And obviously at work, so this is quick. I'm going to get back to it at home and put a few nice songs on it, to give you all a festive kick up the arse. I refuse to be drawn as to whether I sun any of the songs last night...

Speaking of, it was a nice night last night. Always good when teams get along and can have a nice time socially. And obviously I'm a very generous boss ;) (and won't let them forget it).

Sherlock glowered at me a bit this morning. Probably because I was home so late last night (I don't actually know what time I got home, to be honest. Just that John was still awake.) Or possibly because I completely messed up his breakfast. Probably both.

We've picked up another stray for Christmas Day - DI Dimmock - Dimmo, he's working the nightshift on Christmas Eve, so I've invited him around to partake in some eating in the afternoon. Otherwise it's a bit of a miserable day!

I'm off tomorrow, then it's the long run in until I'm off on the day itself :)

The tree is remarkably intact (more than can be said for my thought process), and Maf doesn't seem too interested in it, although she is when the baubles are knocked by a passing hound, or when tinsel is dangled for her. When you tie tinsel to a dog's collar, as we discovered the other day, a huge fight ensues... so we won't be doing that again. Dog's clearly don't differentiate between having their festive collars attacked and being under attack themselves.

I'm going to have to stop there as this screen is far too bright. But I really will come back and put some music on here asap.

Mycroft has just had to remind me to return and put up promised music...

Three songs I enjoy at this time of year, for quite different reasons:

One by one we're going to stand up with pride

Happy Thursday, everyone.

I can't say there are many officers today who are crying a tear for Andrew Mitchell. Hopefully the whole sorry drama can be put to bed now.

Very sad to hear about Phillip Hughes. What a tragic way for a young man's life to be cut short - playing the sport he loved. And the poor bowler, my heart goes out to him.


Been dealing with a few cases recently - one of them is a very disturbed young man, who clearly completely believes what he's telling us, but we think it's happening in his head. We're trying to get him some help, but it's very difficult! Also taking up a lot of time, because we have to act and investigate things.

Then there's the regular criminals - the regular running around, trying to protect witnesses and things.

I nearly lost it on the phone to the CPS the other day. Words were had. Sal says she knows when I'm ranting because I pick up the whole phone and walk around the office, and have to untangle everything afterwards. Anyway, eventually, I got my way. But that took up a huge amount of my time I could have done with spending on other things.

Got tomorrow off, to spend with John.

Mycroft has invited us all to his school carol concert, which I'm sure will be amazing - a proper choir and everything. Churches generally aren't my thing, but I feel certain this will get us all in the Christmas spirit. And it's nice to get the chance to sing a few good carols. And it's only a couple of weeks until he's back home with us for the holidays.


And, because some youngster has covered it, here's a previous cover of a song I like:




Oh, by the way, feel free to start placing bets as to what Maf will attack and destroy out of the many Christmas decorations Sherlock will insist we put up.

To be honest, I'm only betting on what will survive - far shorter list.

John mentioned walking Hadrian's Wall earlier today. It sounds like a great thing to do - I'd love to spend time with John and the boys doing something like that. Sounds like heaven, frankly.

One hundred hairs make a man

mmm. nights. I've avoided them for a while, because of various day time commitments - meetings, court, that sort of stuff. But here we are, nights again, trying to prove connections between people this time, which is...well, fairly boring. When it's not my turn to be watching I'm busy going through reams of data on locations - bank card use, mobile phone calls/signals, all trying to put certain people together at certain times. CCTV, too. It's amazing the trails people leave.

Anyway, half term was lovely. Got to spend time with the boys and John. Mycroft is so different from the quiet little boy we first met. He's a big lanky confident teenager now, with unruly hair and is suddenly fluent in grunting as a means of communication. Sherlock is still stuck between being waaay above hanging onto his brother's coat tails and...doing exactly that ;)

Anyway, tonight Sherlock is staying over at the school, and is very excited. There will be fireworks first, which only adds to that excitement.

I'm not sure if John or I am going. Well, I am sure I'm not going, because I'm at work. I think Anthea might take them up there, and then we'll both go and fetch Sherlock back tomorrow and wish Mycroft well for the coming weeks.


John is going out with Murray tonight. Or Mo'rray, as he is currently known. He is trying to make John join him in Mo'vember. I very much fear he might succeed... because John's only comment so far wasn't exactly negative.."I suppose it's the one time of year people would forgive you for trying to grow a moustache"... so tonight I may find myself married to Mo'hn Mo'tsan.

Imagine this man, with a mo.

And no, I don't know what he's pursing his lips about, or why he's on a slightly dodgy looking giant fur rug, or why he's pulling that rather...er..well....that pose. I can tell you that in the next picture of the 'series', he has his tongue out.

I say no more...

Oh oh the night comes down, And I get afraid of losing my way

Well, we have both recovered from the run.

John did it in 02:15:01, I did it in 02:15:36. He could have gone faster, but he stayed with me until right at the end, when I told him I'd be forced to feel up his arse all the way to the line if he didn't run. Or...I might've thought that, and just panted something like 'Go! Go!' and waved a floppy arm at him.

Anyway, yeah, we did it! And we're quite proud. Sherlock, the girls, the baby, and Mrs H did us proud - I think they probably ran almost as much as we did, charging around the course to see us!

But yeah, it really wasn't too bad, and we might well do something else - or another half marathon. I'll admit a full marathon is still rather daunting...


Here's a video Sherlock said you should all see. And he's right. It's lovely. I think Mycroft sent it to him.

Everybody's on the run, Hang in there love, You gotta hold on

Work's been..busy. As you can probably imagine.

Otherwise, life is good! We've dialled our running schedule right back, in preparation for the weekend...Yes, we'll be doing the half marathon this weekend. Terrifyingly.

We are going to be cheered on (well, if they can drag themselves away from ice cream and the excitement of the parks) by Sherlock, Mrs Hudson, Jo, Lisa and Tadgh. Unless it's horribly rainy etc, in which case they might all amuse themselves doing far more fun things, and we shall wearily trudge home at the end with the hope of hot drinks and lots of food...

So here's our route.

John and Sherlock are going to pick up our 'race packs' after school on Wednesday - when we'll get our numbers, and it'll all feel horribly more real than it already does...

Distressingly, I qualify as a 'senior man'. Hrmm.

Their faces gaunt, their eyes were blurred, Their shirts all soaked with sweat

Well...horse riding. I guess it's like riding a bike - once you're used to it, it's fine! The first time though...ffffffffffffff...well. I can't even say what it feels like, in polite company ;) (or in front of you lot.)

Anyway, it was lovely. I mean, the countryside, the sun, the horses were all well behaved - we even had a little trot. Which was, frankly, terrifying, and a I'm sure sacks of spuds would have been more graceful than...well, me.

But yeah, lovely. Sherlock loved it, and rewarded his horse afterwards with carrots and apples. And then insisted he'd also feed our horses. And that he should have a horse to get around London.


Our little lodge-thing is lovely, small but perfectly formed. And very peaceful. Well, it was until we arrived. Sherlock stalked a hedgehog last night (didn't actually see it, just heard it in the hedge.) Then discovered that some places you can have pet hedgehogs... that was a good conversation. Anyway, I don't think the degus would like it, even it was legal here.

He and Mycroft are in the hot tub at the moment. Mycroft is stretched out, relaxed, eyes closed. Sherlock is busy making his shorts inflate massively by sitting over bubble jets....

Here is our hot tub/view/deck/bovine neighbours. It's great for stargazing too, we saw all sorts last night, including shooting stars.

Very shortly John and I will be in that hot tub. Although right now it feels like even getting my leg over to get in might be a struggle!


Tomorrow we're going to go to a near by aquarium, I think. Or to the beach or something, we are people of leisure!

Here's a view from today:

Nice, eh? Very peaceful.

Let your soul guide you, He'll guide you well

Running is going well. I think we're a bit more confident after our long run, both know we CAN do it, so now we're just trying to improve time/technique etc.

Sherlock is getting excited about his double birthday celebrations. The actual birthday non-celebrations are becoming more celebratory. There is definitely cake. And he wants an outing, of some sort. We might go to a museum or gallery or something. And he wants dinner or lunch out. And then he wants all that again, but moreso, when Mycroft is here.

Why not, eh?

Work is busy. Some of you may be following some of our bigger cases. Not that it's exactly my team, but big investigations - especially multi-national ones, often need to take officers from other teams to help. And rightly so.

There's a severe amount of demoralisation in the force at the moment. I've heard a few officers - quite senior, some of them, talking about leaving. Good people. The sort you need to keep. It's a worry, I'll be honest, and it leads other people to think about it all, too.

Anyway, have a happier picture. This is us training for our run. Okay, I lie. It's just John training.