All that work for one day. I say the same every year, but it’s true. Whether it is shopping, wrapping, decorating etc Christmas is a lot of work, and then the day goes by quickly. Father Christmas visited, so Ellie was happy, particularly as she seemd to have every bit of High School Musical merchandising available. Robbie got the cymbals he wanted, so he was happy, and Nikki got the money she wanted, and has used it to buy herself an ipod. Ellie knocked on the door at 7am, so that wasn’t too bad. I cooked Xmas dinner, and Tricia tidied afterwards. After a post dinner snooze, it was evening and the day was nearly gone.

I was awake in time to watch Wallace and Gromit and the Were Rabbit, which I thought was quite amusing, and then I caught Doctor Who… it was on the tele and I was beyond moving off the couch. And finally another helping of W&G, which again was quite good. Robbie had got the new Batman movie on DVD, and after Ellie had retired for the day, we sat down to watch it. But about half way through, I had to give up myself, my eyes wouldn’t stay open and so I went off to bed.

Here is Ellie wearing her ‘I love Troy’ top. Troy is the main male character in High School Musical, and is her hero!  And Robbie giving his new cymbals a workout.

Boxing Day was a lovely, sunny day, if somewhat cold. In the morning I got up and went out and did about 20 miles on the bike. It was chilly, but I soon warmed up. Tricia’s parents were over at lunchtime, along with her brother and his daughter, Sarah. Sarah is 5 and can be a bit of a handful at times, and be demonstrative, so there were tears a few times, but Ellie kept her occupied her most of the day. In the middle of the afternoon, knowing there were some football games being played, I went onto the internet to see how my team, West Ham were getting on… to find they had beaten the team my Dad supports, Portsmouth 4-1. So, I immediately phoned him to talk about football   In the evening I sat and watched the Morecambe and Wise show from 1971. Proper Xmas television!

On Saturday Tricia and Ellie went off to the Sales. Tricia bought next years Xmas cards and wrapping paper, Ellie spent some of her Xmas money on a Troy singing doll (groan), and more sensibly a watch. Tricia and I had got Nikki and Robbie watches, and I don’t think she wanted to feel left out. Nikki had gone back to Hatfield as she was working. I took Robbie and his drum kit to a friends house, where they had ‘band practice’. I then made myself useful, and put did some diy work on the flooring in Nikki’s bedroom – Tricia has been on about me doing this for some time. In the evening, Tricia, Robbie, Ellie and myself sat and watched a film called ‘The Town that Cancelled Christmas’. Tricia had bought it in Tesco pre-Xmas for about £2. Which was probably far more than we should have paid for it! Tricia had thought it might make a family film to watch, and it ended up being so for the wrong reasons. It was so badly filmed, and put together, that it was laughable. Robbie kept laughing out loud because it was so bad. I had another early night again, and enjoyed a glass of Glenmorangie whisky before going to bed. I don’t drink a lot of whisky, and tend to make a bottle last a very long time. However, I finished a bottle of Glenmorangie in November, and Nikki replaced it for me at Xmas

A few years back I was bought a dart board – I believe it was a Xmas or birthday present. I enjoy a game of darts, and I used to have one in the back of the garage. When we extended the house the dart board went, and I never got around to putting up the new dart board… until today. So, having negotiated a placement with the chief planning officer (Tricia), I put some mdf up to protect the wall, and then put up the dart board. Tricia went out on the bike, and then spent the afternoon in the garden, as she was starting to get stir crazy having been in the house over the Xmas period.

Back to work for me tomorrow, but it is only for one day as I am off Tuesday and Wednesday. Depending on just how cold it is in the morning, I may cycle part of the way into the office. The exercise will be good for me, and I don’t want to lose the fitness I have been getting from cycling recently. In fact, one of my personal targets for 2009, is to cycle 5200 miles in the year (100 miles a week). Now this is mainly because I want to improve my fitness, and not necessarily because I want to improve my ‘carbon footprint’, although I suppose it would help it. I am not convinced that all our individual environmental acts really make much a difference to be honest. If we didn’t save on some petrol / electricity, or recycling it might be worse, but the real savings live within industry.

It seems that there are more electric hybrid vehicles, which theoretically cuts co2 emissions. But the electric has to come from somewhere… and unless it is a ‘green’ electric’ (from renewable sources), what is the point ? And what true guarantees that all the recycling everybody does, is in fact properly recycled ?

In November next year there is a meeting in Copenhagen, looking at a replacement dealfor the Kyoto protocol. Of course the cynic within me says that we will have the world economic powers doing nothing more than agree that something needs to be done. Is it human nature to prevaricate and delay action till it is too late? I just can’t see USA, China, India and Russia agreeing anything. Step forward Mr Obama… make something happen. We need something more than trading carbon credits, which to me seems nothing more than an extra price to pay for producing carbon emissions. It doesn’t solve any problems.

The world will continue to utilise all the dirty energy (oil, coal etc) it presently does and more, and also continue to develop nuclear power…. yet we have all this free energy, wind, sun etc… and we have yet as a human race, to find a way to harness it effectively for our use.

Still, I am sure my cycling will help, purely on the basis that if I didn’t do it, it would be worse.

Seasons Greetings to anybody who stops by this blog.

Christmas Eve, everybody is home. Tricia is apparantly preparing food for tomorrow, although it sounds like the kitchen is being dismantled from here. Nikki is watching ‘don’t forget the lyrics’, Robbie is at his mates, and Ellie has gone to bed.

Nikki is enjoying some peace and quiet. When she hasn’t been working in Finchley hospital as part of her Uni placement, she has been working at Homebase, with little rest in between. She worked today up till 2pm, then she met up with Tricia, Robbie and Ellie in Aylesbury and they watched Madagascar 2 at the cinema. She has finished at Finchley now, and is back at Uni in mid Jan, and will then start another placement at Watford at the end of Jan. She has been offered a load of hours by Homebase over the next week, and as she could do with the money, she will be back off to Hatfield on Saturday. Rob will go down and spend a few days with his sis next week to keep her company, as her house is otherwise empty.

Whilst at Finchley hospital, Nikki was assigned an elderly gentleman that she had to get walking again after an operation. Well, she got on well with the old feller, and was successful in getting him up and about again. His wife was so pleased wih progress, she took in a box of chocolates for Nikki. Here she is… she got them on Monday, and they are still not opened… that’s what is called willpower.

At 5:30 this evening Ellie and I went up to the Crib service at the church. Now, in recent years I have done the first reading… but I wasn’t asked this year. My youngest daughter was asked instead! Usurped by my own flesh and blood. She read beautifully. Clear and and not to fast… Dad was proud.  Ellie had read last week as well, quite a difficult piece, at a Carol service in the church, and did exceptionally well. It’s all good for her confidence. Ellie loves TV shows like the X Factor, and would dearly love to be able to sing. All the evidence so far seems to point at her not being able to sing very well… not that she lets this get in the way at all. I have tried to convince her she would make a far better news reader… but this idea hasn’t quite taken just yet.

After having repeated problems last year of Ninja the cat climbing up the Xmas tree, we have only had one instance this year of a cat up a Xmas tree… they are getting a bit older and perhaps less lunatic. Here is Lily, recently found hiding in Ellies bed.

I took Ellie and Rob over to see my Mum and Dad last Sunday. They were looking well, and are pretty pleased with Dad’s progress. A nurse still visits daily to dress and inspect the scarred area from the op, and he seems to be doing ok. Fingers crossed he keeps progressing.

I found myself being somewhat reflective today. It has been a quick year (I know each year is the same length of time (although this year was a leap year), but it seems to have gone quickly), and I started looking ahead. The  volatility of the financial markets is now starting to be felt in the job sector … MFI and Woolies going to the wall etc, it’s difficult to be optimistic about the year ahead. Zavvi, a DVD chain now looks like going under, and another 3,400 jobs at threat. It isn’t just in the UK, but everywhere, including the US, and of course next year Mr Obama steps into the hot seat. He seemed to win votes by sounding like he was all things to all people, but he will find it difficult to be like that once in power. I always thought he would probably be good on the foreign policy, he seems more outward looking than Bush was. But whereas Bush came into power when there was a big budget surplus in 2001, Obama will be looking at a massive budget deficit (as much as a Trillion dollars). This will no doubt manacle him with his policies, and will restrict him. He is being labelled as America’s new hope, and it seems there is an awful lot of expectation, which I think he is going to find hard to live up to as things stand presently. It is almost as if he is seen as some kind of hero in waiting. Interesting then that the Archbishop of Canterbury has just said this evening that ‘people should not wait for “larger-than-life” heroes to solve the world’s problems’, now he said this more in reference to God, but he is right (and I don’t normally agree with him, I think he is a fruitloop most of the time), in the sense the world can’t pin it’s hopes on one individual waving a magic wand and making everything better. I think unfortunately that people in the US think Obama has a magic wand. He may be inspirational, and motivational, but that won’t fix what is broken. He will need to make tough economic policy decisions which will upset the very people that voted for him. Interesting times indeed.

It’s a different world from when Bush took over in 2001. Russia, China and India are more powerful, and the Americans no longer seem to be the single superpower. I can’t see history being very kind to Bush in retrospect. Are there any positive items to be recalled of his presidency? It seems war and economic turmoil are to be his legacy. In the UK, Gordon Brown seems to be enjoying something of an uplift in popularity after announcing a series of measures that will burden the UK with massive debt for generations. Very ironic. I do not believe history will look favourably on him either. What was the point of the VAT cut… it is costing billions, but a reduction of 2.5% is negligible on most goods. I can’t see how it will help uplift the economy.

I can’t say that I know the answer. But to all intents and purposes we have almost witnessed the death of capitalism this year, and the rebirth of socialism with the effective nationalisation of parts of the banking sector. There is a saying, ‘everything in moderation’, and we don’t seem to have followed that path for a long time. Why did national utilities like Gas, Electric and Water have to be privatised ? To raise money for the government it would seem. We now have EDF, a French company controlling part of our nuclear industry. There has to be a line where we protect national interests, and the people of the nation. The line of moderation. Are EDF interested in the welfare of British people, or the amount of money they make ? Well, it really isn’t our welfare. I can understand the argument for privatising something like BT, a non essential utility, but privatising Water was always beyond my comprehension. I don’t purport to be either left or right wing, I like to follow a middle road, with common sense decisions. I guess that is is easier said than done.

On a lighter note, I have been sampling some of the Xmas TV offerings over the last week. I was so looking forward to Lark Rise to Candleford. I had enjoyed the series last year, and whilst the original stories are somewhat exhausted, I thought the BBC would come up with something progressive. The showing last Sunday night was a big disappointment, as it centred around a ghost / spirit, and to my way of thinking was drivel. I can only hope it improves. It was clearly filmed in the summer, and all the fake snow against a backdrop of trees with all their greenery looked very odd – how could they have missed that ? Even I know that most trees lose their leaves in the autumn. Oh well. The QI Xmas special was also a bit of a disappointment. We all (with the exception of Ellie) enjoy QI, it has us laughing out loud. But not this one… a few light moments but generally not up to the usual standard. I watched Rab C Nesbitt on Tuesday evening… now I did enjoy this. It veered towards vulgarity instead of comedy at times, but there were some funny moments, and it was interesting to see the take on his alcoholic recovery. We all sat and watched Shrek the Halls this evening, which was quite funny. Tomorrow, if time permits during the big day, there is Wallace and Gromit, which is normally brilliantly done, and Doctor Who.

But of course the prime purpose of the day will be the family. Just the five of us. We have our own format for the day, which the kids are used to, and of course we dare not change it. Merry Xmas to all. TTFN.

We lit the third candle on the advent wreath today. Ellie was keen to light the candles, so using a match, she carefully lit the candles. Then blew out the match…. and the three candles she had lit ! Doh. Friday night we had a power cut that lasted about 3 hours… so plenty of candles were alight then.

Dad is home from hospital, and now needs to rest and recover. It will take some time but we are pleased with his progress.

A strange Sunday, as I was working this morning. I drove to Berkhamsted, and then cycled into Watford.It was somewhat cold, bit good exercise. I got back home at 1pm, just in time for lunch, and chaos with putting up some Xmas decorations. I then settled in to watch West Ham get a well deserved point at Chelsea – good result, then I watched Little Dorrit, and the Sports Personality of the year. Little Dorrit was an execllent adaptation, it’s what the BBC do brilliantly. And it was good to see Chris Hoy win the Sports personality of the year, and not some overpaid ignorant footballer. Mind you, Bobby Charlton picked up a lifetime achievement award – richly deserved, an outstanding player, and a wonderful example of how to play and win graciously in sport. Pity some of the footballers today can’t follow his lead.

Nikki is getting tired towards the end of term. She doesn’t finish her placement till the 23rd, and is tired. Robbie and Ellie just have this week before breaking up. Is Christmas really that close ?

A busy weekend as usual. On Friday evening I left work early and went across to Oxford to see how Dad was doing. Progressing well after the surgery, except he had picked up an ecoli infection in the blood. Not such good news. However, there didn’t seem to be any panic, and Dad was being put onto a different antibiotic.

Saturday disappeared in a blur of getting my hair cut, helping Tricia get ready for a Xmas fayre she had a stall at, taking Ellie to a dance display, and then going out. We had a gathering of the ‘cruise holiday’ crowd. It was only a small walk to Pats, but boy was it cold! Great evening, lots of laughter.

Nikki had come back to play hockey, but had to come off injured after 15 minutes. Her side won but she wasn’t happy about the injury. Sore hip – may have been a legacy of her injury from playing rugby.

Sunday… quickly off to church. Then back to cook the roast… whilst Tricia put the Xmas lights on the big conifer outside our house. A neighbour commented how nice Tricia’s bush looked when it was lit up! Then across to Oxford, where we saw Dad. He was looking well, and is progressing well. Hopefully he should be home later this week.

Then all of a sudden it was Sunday evening. We were all shattered… particularly Robbie. He had slept over at a mates on Friday night, then with the cruise crowd on Saturday night. He hadn’t slept much, so after watching House he disappeared to bed.

Well Dad went in yesterday and had his op. Mum phoned last night to say that he had been moved from the recovery room onto ward, and that he was as comfortable as could be expected, and was ‘with it’. We don’t have any details as to what they have done yet, and whether it has been successful, hopefully we will find out more today.

The problem was that much depended on scarring inside from previous operations, and what condition the bile duct (where the gallstone was stuck) was in, and whether it could be cleared, and would need rebuilding. So, we are waiting to see what news is on what was done.

In the meantime we are happy that he has gone onto ward, as that at least indicates he is ok post op. When Dad had his stomach cancer op he was put into intensive care afterwards due to complications.

So we continue to keep him in our thoughts and prayers.