A very happy new year to everyone - and may it bring you happiness and good health.  So many of my recent new year 'celebrations' have been spent on a plane somewhere between the UK or Ireland and Bangladesh, that it's quite strange (and very cold) to be in Scotland where the biggest trip out has been to the zoo to see the newly installed - sleeping - giant pandas!The resolutions flying around my head are all about being organised, writing a lot, finishing that novel and trying, trying, trying to be a good mother!!  In the end I suppose only the latter really matters, but it would be nice to feel in control of life again.Thanks to all of you who bought, recommended or forced copies of A Blonde Bengali Wife on your loved ones.  To answer the most commonly asked questions I've had about the state of my writing:1)...

One of the highlights for me of the Bangladesh trip was meeting again with Hasina and Mr Hoque.  These, some of you might remember, are the lovely, lovely family who adopted me (or rather I adopted them!) and without whom I don't think I would ever have developed such a permenant relationship with the country.This time, with some trepidation, I handed them a copy of A Blonde Bengali Wife, and said I hoped we would still be friends once they had read it!  By default, Hasina and Mr Hoque - his name is Nozmul but he'll always be Mr Hoque to me!) have starring roles in the book, and whilst I dearly love them and I hope I always wrote with affection, there is no getting away from the fact that they are real characters - in every sense of the word!Well, here's waiting on their reviews...Oh, and on a personal...

We left Dhaka to travel to Bhola via the MAAF seaplane - a real treat compared to the overnight river launch - and were greeted by a boat full of Bhola's Children:All of the children were well and happy and soon had us involved in lessons and then a daily music session:We had picnics on the land in Valumia - here's everyone:And the it was Eid, and Ali in his traditional outfit cooked sweets for everyone:... before we all went for a trip to the local children's park:More news next time....Anne x

We have our visas, our tickets and a lot of nappies - so we're off to Bhola!  Technology is notoriously poor over there so the news will wait til our return.Cross fingers for a safe and baby-friendly trip!

It's great news that ABBW is one of three finalists in the non-fiction category of the 2012 EPICeBook awards.  Thanks to LL-Publications for putting it forward.Watch this space - though don't hold your breath!  I can't say I've ever won anything before, even a goldfish at the fair (which is probably a good thing now, it being politically incorrect to dip the poor things into plastic bags etc etc) but it's nice to see the book up there!