I was fortunate this month to spend a few days in Glasgow at a training event on NVivo Qualitative Data Analysis Software. I have been a user of this software for some years, but there is always more to learn. This was a very useful couple of days where I not only learnt more about the capability of the software, but gathered ideas about different ways that it can be used and had the pleasure to meet a number of new colleagues. Another high point in the month was the news of success, with colleagues, on a bid to the Arts and Humanities Research Council to undertake a scoping review under their ‘Connected Communities’ call. Our review will explore the notion of ‘community’ and what it means in the lives of children and young people who are looked after by Local Authorities – there is lots of work to do now on this, but it is an exciting project. My weekends and evenings this month have been largely filled up with working on the indexing for my book on Interprofessional Collaboration in Social Work Practice for Sage Publications. I chose to develop the index myself as a learning opportunity, this being the first time I have undertaken such a task. I have been surprised how time consuming and difficult this has been – I just hope it turns out to be an index that is helpful and useful to readers.
Quick entry for this month as it has been a busy month. Lots of marking and working on a text book about knowledge informed practice in social work, with a colleague. I have also been successful, with some colleagues, including students, in gaining some internal funding to investigate how students participate in quality processes in the institution – this is part of the institutional ‘Student as Producer’ initiative. More broadly it has been a cold month weatherwise, so I am looking forward to spring emerging over the next few months.
December is always a fun month, as I love Christmas, time spent with my family and all the festivities. The fun started early in December as we went to a concert to see the Welsh Male Voice Choir – Only Men Aloud - a good night out! I also had a good long break over Christmas and the New Year period, so was able to relax and enjoy some ‘me’ time 
That being said, there was plenty of work to be done in December, including a long list of copy-editor queries to start work on for the book – this will also be a feature of my work in January no doubt! Towards the end of the month and the term, students have been submitting assessment work, which results in some weeks of marking for me and my colleagues. I actually enjoy marking as this is an opportunity to give students individual feedback on their progress and successes, however, I always wish I had more time to devote to this important part of the job.
So to finish off this month and year’s journal – a few pictures from Christmas 2010 – firstly my son Rob and his girlfriend, Laura, with their ‘look-alike’ snow people creations , then my two cats watching the baubles on the christmas tree (needless to say, we were continually picking up baubles from the floor over the festive period!), and finally a lovely picture of my Mum and my son exchanging gifts on Christmas day.
