I am writing this blog somewhat after the event…. so I can’t really remember if I made any new years resolutions, but if I did I seem to have forgotten them already. New Years Day was something of a slow start after an enjoyable NY celebration at the Webb’s. I was getting a little treat though… in the afternoon it was off to Northampton for Nikki and me to see the Saints play rugby against Exeter. Nikki’s employer has a box at the ground, and had invited her and Matt, but he was busy lambing so I got to go. Nice! It was great to see live…. even though it was wet and cold. Mind you we were under cover, and the box had a supply of hot coffee :-). Northampton edged victory in a tight game. The downer was when I got home and found I had lost my glasses :-(. Nikki got back to find that whilst she had done lambing in the morning… Matt had got off scot free. No lambs in the afternoon.

Saturday the 2nd in the evening we went next door to Elizabeth’s, for a social. A pleasant evening. On the Sunday we had our final feast of the Christmas period, enjoying a beef wellington followed by Christmas pudding. As Tricia said on facebook… ‘Finally celebrating Christmas after having the lurgy over the festive season’. The beef wellington was exceptional… and as you can see, the Christmas pud lit well.

Sunday evening was the culmination of the World Darts Champs… Gary Anderson against Adrian Lewis. A good tense final… Anderson won, which was about right, he was the best throughout the tournament. I am looking forward to next years tournament already.

Then we entered a period of dust… We had had some tiles on the kitchen floor crack over the last years, and Tricia wanted them replaced. Enter Jason, a local handyman, and he proceeded to drill out the old tiles and lay the replacement ones. Even with taking dust precautions, it was everywhere! Tricia ended up doing early spring cleaning. The replacement tiles, which were in the garage have a slightly different colouring, but hopefully they will blend. Eventually. I was left with an issue where the tile cement did not match the grout that had originally been used, so we had an odd mismatch. I eventually solved that by painting the grout with masonry paint… and it now looks a lot better and cleaner. But goodness, painting lines of grout is enough to send anyone boss eyed.

Wednesday evening, Amy took Robbie to see Bill Bailey … this was his Christmas present. Rob is a big Bill Bailey fan, and really enjoyed the show. On Thursday it was a very early start. The 7th was the day of Dad’s eye op. I was up at 3:30am, left the house at 3:50am and got to Bracknell for 4:55am… With Dad and Steve on board it was off to the East side of Central London to the eye hospital. The weather was horrible… driving rain. It was dark… and driving through unfamiliar territory. But we got there. I dropped them off outside and went in search of car parking. Then had to walk about a mile back in the driving rain. Thank goodness the hospital had a costa coffee. Steve and I had a few cups whilst waiting for Dad to have his op. I worked online for a while whilst Steve went and sat with Dad… then we had lunch. We had a little concern for a while that the doctors may operate on the wrong eye. but eventually they operated, and there seemed to be an improvement. It had been a general anaesthetic for Dad, and he was a bit wobbly after the op. When he was allowed to leave we piled him into a wheelchair… then into the car, and so began the long journey back. I got home just after 8pm. I think that is what they call a long day!

Friday thankfully I worked from home. We had to ensure the house was dust free for Saturday evening, as we were entertaining. The Robinsons, Webbs and Docwras, and it was ‘desert island disc evening’… Tricia and I had done this before with other friends, and thought it would be fun. Fun… it was fantastic, a laugh from start to finish. Jane Docwra posted on her fb, ‘very big thank you to Paul and Tricia for a wonderful evening. So many laughs, a fantastic meal and a great game of desert island discs. Who would have thought of those choices!… It went down well. It was a late night, with lots of wine drunk… and loads of laughs. At the end of the evening we gave Pater and Jane some silly presents  for their NZ/AUS trip they would be going on shortly. Looking forward, we will all have another evening together in April.

Week beginning the 11th Jan was pretty quiet… rehearsals for Cash on Delivery were picking up, now twice a week, Wed and Thursday night. West Ham won at Bournemouth in the Prem League… after going one down, they came back with 3 in reply. The team starting to play well again with players coming back from injury. Wednesday was the dreaded ‘mock results day’ for Ellie…. she went off to school very nervous but came back beaming, having done well, and if that had been the actual exams would have done enough to get into 6th form, so she was pleased with herself. I also had to be in the school for a long admissions meeting. So whilst it was relatively quiet, it was busy enough nonetheless. On the Saturday Tricia had some time out with Cathy over at Bletchley Park.

Monday 18th there was a little snow. Didn’t last long, although Nikki’s hoses enjoyed a run around in the snow. On the 19th and 20th Ellie had back to back school trips. Lord of the Flies in London one evening – which she really enjoyed, and then was in Oxford the next day. At the end of the week Tricia and me went off to see the ‘Glenn Miller Story’ at the Waterside theatre in Aylesbury. We had intended to take in a Nandos beforehand, but they were packed, so ended up in Kingsbury square at the Italian… which was very nice. Tommy Steele was playing Glenn Miller. Yes, that’s right, cockney 79 year old Tommy, was playing American 40 year old Glenn Miller. So, there had to be some suspension of belief, but it was a good show, and the orchestra were good. Before the show we were amused to get a text from Alan and Rachel, saying that Helen and Diz had turned up for the Safari Supper a week early! Sunday morning I got something of a surprise… I got up, put my slippers on… and found one of the cats had done a wee in one of them. It would be fair to say I was livid, and was considering mass catocide for a few days. It took three washes till I was satisfied I could wear them again.

In the final week in January Tricia picked up some new glasses, had a day out in London on the Thursday, and lunch with Robbie…then had lunch with Sara on the Friday. In the evenings she was enjoying winter watch on TV… which the cats also took an active interest in! On Friday evening I picked up Robbie, he was staying at home overnight for a driving lesson on the Saturday. Rob cooked a meal, and then we went to see The Revenant before coming home. Good film. I had enjoyed the book and the film… even though the film strayed from the book somewhat. Some pics from Tricia’s visit to London, the cats watching tv, and Robbies old room after Tricia had refreshed it.

Saturday evening was Safari Supper evening, and the theme was Eurovision. We didn’t have a full attendance, a little light on numbers, but we had a good fun evening anyway.

Between Christmas and the New Year, Lemmy from Motorhead died. I had seen them play at Hammersmith in 1980. Then as the New Year kicked in we had a spate of losses. David Bowie and then Glenn Frey from the Eagles. Lesser knowns, the drummers from the Specials and Mott the Hoople died…. I was a fan of both bands. The actor Alan Rickman died as well… another favourite. All of a sudden it seemed that heroes from my late teens were all passing away. Then on the last day of January, the news that Sir Terry had gone as well. That was a surprise, and a sad loss. Great voice and presence, a gentle humour, and always prepared to laugh at himself.  Not a good month for celebrities.