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.