I'm watching the weather forecast on BBC London and it looks like it's going to be a ridiculously wet at home today. Here we're going to have glorious sunshine with highs of 36C - pretty mild by Afghan standards. It has been cooling down, thankfully.

I found out today that I'm earning post tour leave at a rate of 0.5 days per full week. I'm here for 15 weeks and 5 days, so I will get 7.5 days off as soon as I get back. That will take me to the 29th of December. After that I'm thinking of taking a couple of weeks, which would give me a month off in all. I can either spend all four weeks at home in Sevenoaks, or spend Christmas week in Wales. I'm leaning towards the former at the moment; Christmasses at home tend to be emotionally strained affairs and, after 4 months of Camp Bastion, all I'll want is some peace and quiet. I can use the time to catch up with Borderlands 2, Saints Row 3 and Planetside 2.

If I do stay at home I can host a Christmas dinner for friends, something that I last did when I lived in Woking. Nobody deserves to be alone on Christmas.