Christmas is officially over: my parents are downstairs undecking the halls; my brothers returned to the places from whence they came yesterday; I go back to uni tomorrow. It was too short, and it’s kind of weird now the place is so quiet again. It has been one of the best Christmases ever – at one point, there were 13 people in the house, all laughing and cheering. That is not to say that it didn’t get irritating at times, but that’s natural.

I’m looking forward to 2008. 2007, save for one thing, was a particularly good year. Getting my degree is my greatest achievement, and thinking about it still makes me squeal with excitement. I still have much work to do for my masters, but despite doing virtually nothing towards it over Christmas, I’m still very enthusiastic about it: you cant write about cinephilia without being a cinephile. So, its back to work tomorrow.

Spring term is also the term of Old boys. My friends from my undergrad years will be coming up. I cant wait to see them, to see how they’re doing, to buy people drinks. I especially need a good natter to people like Emma, charlotte, Steve, Nicky etc. also, we have a trip to either Dublin or Paris to organise.

At the dawn of a new year, with the sun beating through my window,, and as I look at the pictures of my friends on my wall, its hard not to feel extremely optimistic about what lies ahead.