Ain'-A That Good News!

There has been lots of good news for us this week, which has been a nice early Christmas present. Here are some of the great things that have happened in the last couple of weeks.

1. Probably the best news of all has been that the grant to fund my PhD studies has been awarded! This means I have a full scholarship to pay for three years of research at the University of Oxford studying an aspect of the genetics of Parkinson's disease. It was very welcome news, and means that I no longer will be worrying about where the funding might come from, and whether I needed to choose a different college to be eligible for college scholarships in case all of the other funding routes didn't come up with the goods.
2. I had my qualifying exam for my MSc course just over a week ago and the marks came back yesterday. While the exam is technically just pass/fail, I was told that I managed to get a distinction, which was also very welcome news. So basically lots of good stuff is happening in my academic life at the moment. Now that the exam is over I will be getting my teeth into my research projects beginning in January.
3. Jessica got an early Christmas present from Adam and Alexa of some yummy Swiss Läderach chocolate. Sadly it had to be eaten within a couple of weeks given that it was fresh chocolate, so we couldn't wait until Christmas itself! Jess was kind enough to share some with me, but here's a picture of her devouring the last piece:
   
4. We have been running the ward choir (Jess is the director and I am the pianist) and tomorrow is our Christmas presentation. Things have been very busy in preparation for this, and everyone is looking forward to it. We had a rehearsal with brunch this morning at the chapel, for which Jess had to make her traditional once-a-year sweet rolls. It was quite the epic event. The dough (big enough to fill a huge stockpot) was started yesterday evening and regularly squashed down to allow it to continue to expand. Then Jess woke up at 4am this morning to work on it some more, went back to bed, and got up at 6am to start baking it all. She made 6 different offerings: 2 apricot-almond rings, a berry ring, a chocolate-covered custard-filled log, a lemon-glazed tear-and-share, and a set of cinnamon rolls. Our entire table was covered in them this morning and the smell waking up (even after an interrupted night's sleep) was amazing. Needless to say Jess is asleep for the afternoon now while I am writing this because she is exhausted. Here's a picture of the ones we didn't take to the brunch:
   
5.  A bit of trivial good news now. For some Christmas just isn't Christmas until you've seen the new Coca-Cola advert with the train or the line of trucks and Santa drinking his Coca-Cola. Well, for me and hundreds of others who went via Broad Street in Oxford yesterday morning, it was a nice surprise to see the Coca-Cola Christmas lorry there parked in the street! So of course I had to snap a picture to prove it:
   
6. Jess has been working the past month at a large publishing company. It started as a 3-day temporary post, which then became a month-long position, and now they want to extend it to at least another six months. While Jess still hopes to get a lab position somewhere eventually, this is very good news for the moment as it means that we have some better financial security for the foreseeable future.

Merry Christmas to all who read this, and here's for an even more successful and joyous 2012 for everyone we know and love.