After a hectic end to 2010, I had hoped for a quiet January. This of course seems to have been just wishful thinking. It didn’t help being unwell in the middle of January, as per my last blog. I worked from home on the Monday and Tuesday (17th & 18th Jan) till I felt well enough to get back into the office on the Wednesday. On the Saturday (22nd) I was doing a fund raising quiz in the village hall… I had agreed to do it some time back, but it takes a lot of time to prepare a quiz, and so I was v.busy getting that prepared and the day was hectic getting the hall arranged and set up etc… The quiz went down well, but as I have decided I want less work load in my life and a little more time to relax, I have told Tricia that I am not doing anymore quizzes… I have now retired from being a quizmaster. A couple of pics from the evening…

In early January I was asked, in my capacity as a school governor, to chair a panel regarding a grievance appeal. This has meant reading an awful lot of paperwork. The hearing was on Thursday, and it was quite a tense affair. But its completed, and to be honest I am somewhat relieved it is over, it was another item of work. I have considered whether to continue being a governor, as my present term (4 years) comes up in March, but as I figure I am doing something useful I will continue. Ellie should be starting at the school in September, so I will do at least another 4 years.

As well as quizzes and school hearings, I am directing the play for the local acting group at present. 4 weeks to go… and it is another item that eats at free time. I don’t find myself quite so keen on the acting at present, and so when this production finishes, I will probably not do anything amdram related for the remainder of the year.

Just before I was unwell I had started to decorate what was Robbies bedroom, so that Ellie could move into it. What was Ellies room would be done up as a spare room, and then Nikki or Robbie could use either of the spare rooms when they were home. Anyhow, the room was in a state of being half decorated, but I have finished the room this weekend. Dark pink wallpaper (good grief) on one wall and candyfloss coloured paint on the other walls… Oh well, I don’t have to sleep in there. Ellie is pleased, and will move her stuff in this weekend. But with every up it seems there is a down… now I have finished Ellies new room, Tricia will want the bedroom she was in decorated.. and guess what, she has found the wallpaper already.

This Saturday we had one of the safari suppers in the village that Tricia and I organise. The theme was childrens birthday parties, and it was a good evening with lots of silliness… pass the parcel etc.

Nikki has been home for the weekend. She looks well, and cooked the Sunday roast (good girl !) and did a good job. Robbie will be coming home next weekend, so we are looking forward to catching up with him. He has found a house to share with 3 others in year 2, and it sounds like he is doing ok. Ellie has become the master of her toaster / waffle maker… with her Christmas money she bought herslf one. So, Nikki cooked lunch today. Ellie did toasties for tea. Kids have their uses

Nearly time for some Sunday night TV… so I will sign off and get everything ready for tomorrow and then slump in front of the tele. I have entered myself into the Swimathon in April, so in the pool tomorrow morning and start to get in shape for the event.

Current cat count : 4

Whe I picked Robbie up for the Xmas break, he was just getting over a virus / bug that he said has lasted two weeks…. Just after Xmas, Tricia went down with something similar. And what do you know, it has caught up with me as well. Tricia managed to keep going with ibuprofen / paracetamol etc. However, it has knocked me off my feet.

On Wednesday I was showing the BP Group CIO around the Data Centre I am responsible for in Watford. I hadn’t felt brilliant first thing, but the adrenalin of showing a bigwig around obviously kept me going. When they left around lunchtime I sat down and it is almost as if all the energy drained out of me. I left the office at 2pm, and was home and in bed by 3pm. I slept till about 6:30pm, got up for a few hours, then had to go to bed again…Today Sunday, I am still not right…. aches, hot / feverish then cold and shivers… but better than I was Thursday and Friday. I haven’t had anything like this for donkey years…

Tricia was catering for a wedding on Saturday, and she had enlisted Robbie to work for her on the Friday and Saturday. I was supposed to pick him up from uni on Thursday evening, but couldn’t as I was unwell. So Tricia went and got him… on the return from Northampton, they hit a pot hole and ended with a puncture…it never rains etc etc. Tricia and Robbie worked hard for two days, and the catering for the wedding went really well. Tricia took Robbie back this afternoon, it was nice to see him for a few days.

Ellie’s arm is improving. She can just about get a full extension of the arm now. Haven’t seen much of Nikki over the last few weeks. She is in Hatfield and studying hard for some upcoming exams.

Ninja came home just before Christmas… he has slept and fed, been petted and he purred like a car engine… but he has been missing a couple of days again. Probably gone off to see his friend the horse over on the farm near Pitchcott. We will wait for the call….

Tricia and I reach a milestone in August, our 25th wedding anniversary on the 16th. So we are going to have a ‘tea party’ on Saturday the 13th….invites going out shortly.

Here are some photo’s from Christmas. It seems Father Christmas is real after all…. I put the filled stockings / sacks next to the fire place on Xmas Eve. When we came down Xmas morning a couple of extra stockings had appeared for Mum and Dad… courtesy of the kids ! A nice touch.

Christmas morning breakfast in the conservatory. Robbie sporting his new hat… which seems pretty much a permanent attachment since.

Us old folk need a kip on Christmas day to get us through the day  

I had meant to put up a seasonal blog before now, however, the home computer developed a problem over the Christmas period… and in short I have had to rebuild the thing. This meant a laborious process of creating a windows operating system on another disk, loading the system from that, attaching the disk (for the system that wasn’t working), backing up our data – music, photo’s, documents etc, which took an age to back up – and then building the new system… going through all the necessary patching, and the re-installing the software and restoring everybody’s data. Well I have just about finished. The computer has had an unplanned spring clean . And it has taken me nearly 3 days on and off.

We enjoyed a quiet Christmas period. The week leading up to Christmas was somewhat manic, as the snow and weather limited travel. Tricia’s car died, so she couldn’t get out. It was only the battery, and I managed to get it replaced on Saturday just gone, but all of a sudden Tricia found herself limited in getting out, and curtailed in doing Christmas shopping. This meant me having to do the food shopping on the way back from work, and at the end of lengthy journeys because of the weather. I did manage to get across to Bracknell on the evening of the 23rd for an old friends 50th party. It was good to see Noele and some old faces. Even then, I left at 11pm, and it took me over 2 hours to get home. Just as well I wasn’t working on the 24th.

On the 24th I went with Tricia over to a place called Haddenam to pick some unsold stock she had leftover from a Xmas fayre – she hadn’t been able to get there through the snow to collect it before. I then collected Nikki from Hatfield on the 24th, and got back in time to take Ellie to the 6pm church service. After we had eaten, and done some final prep the week caught up with me. Tricia and Nikki went to midnight mass… I went to bed.

Ellie was up at 7:30, and made a cup of tea for everybody for 8am. We had our usual family Christmas day… by the time Christmas dinner had been eaten, washed up and put away it was late afternoon… all gone in a flash. On Boxing Day Tricia’s Mum and Dad came over for the day. On the Monday we visited some friends in the village in the evening. On Tuesday, Tricia, Nikki, Robbie and Ellie headed for the sales in milton Keynes. I enjoyed a peaceful, relaxing day. In the evening we all went to see Harry Potter, which I thought was quite good.

On Wednesday we were off to Cold Ash near Thatcham to visit Wendy, Rob, Andrew & Claire.. Nikki carried on to Bath where did she some bobsleigh training. Deb, Carlos, Simon and Matt came over as well, and we had a cracking day. We stayed over and then on Thuesday morning headed for Bracknell to catch up with my Mum and Dad. Travelling back on Friday I picked up a text from work. One of the guys at Watford had been taken to hospital after suffering a minor stroke… at 48, it wasn’t expected. He is home now and resting.

Friday was of course New Years Eve, and we were with some friends (Bob & Carol hosted) in the village to see in the New Year… good fun it was to, lots of laughter. At 1:30 am, I brought Ellie home, and left Tricia and Nikki to it… apparantly they rolled in around 3:30’ish. Robbie had seen in New Year with his mate Alex. Needless to say Saturday, the 1st, was a slow day. Sunday the 2nd Ellie was doing a reading in church in the morning, then there was a return visit to Tricia’s Mum and Dads. Her brother David and his girlfriend Manda were there as well.

And so to today. Back to work tomorrow (grumble). Loads of resolutions to start working on perhaps more of that ina  later blog.

Later on todaywe are at a neighbours for the evening…. the final piece of Xmas socialising. I have to say, I am ‘socialised out’ and I am hoping for a quiet January… but having had a look at the diary there seems two hopes of that… none and nil ! Nikki has just disappeared – she is in Bath tomorrow taking part in some trials, and the BBC will be there filming. So she is hoping to get caught on camera.

Over the period I have enjoyed reading a book I got for Christmas… Andrew Marr’s ‘A History of Modern Britain’… I don’t suppose sitting and reading a book on contemporary history is everybody’s cup of tea, but I have enjoyed it.

I have just consumed the last piece of Christmas cake whilst writing this… and that is it for cake till my birthday. When of course I will be 50. Strewth.