Now..about those resolutions?

I’m guessing that like me, yours will involve some sort of waistline or financial challenges, that we will sagely review at the end of Jan and realise that they were never achievable.

So, what’s the point? Why not set a realistic challenge for the year, or at least plan to tick off one of those bucket list items that’s still to be completed?

By way of a challenge, I’ll offer these, and challenge you to set a realistic ‘resolution’ for the year.

1. Go somewhere you have never been before. Doesn’t have to be far, but if you have never been then you will learn something when you are there.

2. Try a food you have never tried before. Not earth shattering really, but our lives become ruts, and just changing one thing can have a snowball effect

3. Volunteer to help. Sounds blase, but think how much more would be done, if we all offered to do one task we would normally rely on others to complete. Doesn’t have to take long, but again .. think about the snowball.

There’s plenty more. None that involve shedding weight, or saving money, but plenty that will let you sit back on the 31st of December and smile.

Have a good year.

1. Having my piccie taken with Sir Stirling .. and taken by Lady Susie!
2. 10 Spitfires in formation – what a noise!
3. B17 Flying Fortress – Sally-B or better known as Memphis Belle.
4. The drive in behind an unsilenced Healy 3000 – absolute joy!
5. Finding out that Alain de Cadenet is in fact a midget!   Much smaller than he appears on TV
6. The racing of course – particularly in the rain which was torrential at times.
7. The cars.   Simply that.
8. Unexpected meetings with old friends!

Well wonder no more, for they are all on Flickr. Just follow the link on the right.

Enjoy

What’s in store?

VAT rise, National Insurance rise, petrol price rise, inflation rise, interest rate rise, income tax rise .. any more?

It’s clear we are one of those households that the government has targeted to pay for everything, as we are deemed well off enough to pay for all these increases, without it affecting our way of life.

Never have I been so disillusioned with politicians preaching about fairness in a system which is currently working against our personal circumstances. I’m not one for moaning about politics, but if I was ever in a room with Gordon or Tony, I have several fiscal questions I would like to ask them.

So it’s not going to be much fun.

Or is it?

Surely, there is an upside to all this.   The newspaper headline today claims that this is going to be the toughest year on the middle classes since 1982.   Scary stuff.   Well in 1982 Gerry Armstrong scored for Northern Ireland as they beat Spain and topped their world cup group so anything is possible (yes – I do remember where I was!) so lets look at the upside!

Maybe we will all be better for a little austerity.   Maybe a reality check is just what the general public needs to ensure that we don’t get into the kind of mess that other parts of Europe are staring at, and that finally – just a little bit – we will start to hold our politicians accountable for their mistakes.   All right – that’s a little far fetched!

Spending a little less, saving a little more, thinking more about what we really need and recycling a little more.   Surely none of that is a bad thing?

Maybe it’s a little rose tinted, and maybe we’ll be grumpy but we’re all in it together (except those that aren’t, thanks to the ‘fairness’ of current decisions) and unless we all up sticks to somewhere else we just have to get on with it!

Resolutions .. I always try and always fail.   Lose weight, exercise more, spend more time with the children all on the list year after year.  I’ll keep you posted on those!

If it all gets too much, there is always the camper van and some knitted sweaters.   Mrs W has her eye on one of those!

Happy New Year.

There is one day that just disappears.

However hard you try, you just can’t remember what you did.

Mainly, this is because you actually did nothing. Didn’t get dressed, didn’t go out, maybe watched repeats on TV and ate a bit from the fridge.  Maybe had a drink or two and a xmas choccie or three, but other than that – nothing.

For me, it was yesterday, 28th of December.  It never was. It’s lost forever to the march of time.

It’s a strange mixture of taking pleasure in relaxing and allowing yourself to recharge and the feeling of total guilt over letting a day go by without achieving anything!!

I’m not sure which side of the fence I am on at the moment, but if you ever ask what I dis over Xmas, I won’t be able to include the 28th December!

Have fun everyone!

Went online and got a £50 voucher added to the sizeable account! 

Ordered 2 cases of good wine (Xmas sorted and free bottle of fizz!!! ) and then got £60 cash back towards the next order!! Brilliant!

Fat Face catalogue arrived this morning and there is a £25 voucher in there as well!! Already have enough for another case!!!

Sozzled for Xmas and he new year and most of Jan at this rate, all for money I didn’t know was there!!

Happy days.

Ellens solution was to go and make her own!   Very creative.  The big one is called Nibbles by the way!

She’ll take requests.

Emily’s birthday!

Much excitement on birthday morning, opening of presents and general screaming and shouting. Just to update you all, because I know that you are interested, but Emily is actually the tallest of the 3 girls at the same age – by about an inch! It means nothing, but all taller than Bucky!

London Zoo..

A cold day, but a lovely trip to the zoo. Attacked by an owl, stared at by a Gorilla, up close with the monkeys and fluttered at by butterflies. The hippo’s smelt funny and watched a man feed a dragon. Just about got out of the gift shop alive, and then off to Pizza Express because that’s what the birthday girl wanted!

Winkworth Arboretum

Just beautiful in autumn, and probably very nice for the rest of the year too! Long walk in the leaves and wore out all the girlies. Click on flickr to see the photos.

Halloween …

A very spooky night round here! We had more callers than ever before, including some very well dressed up teenagers (daddy got told off for wanting to hand out sweeties to teenage girls) and 3 very excited ones in our house. Much excitement that also saw Ellen wearing one of Tree’s T shirts. And so it begins!

Autumn.

Lots of beautiful colours this year.

And finally – we are a nappy free household for the first time in nearly 7 and half years! Blimey!

I’ll leave you to figure out which one was which, but here’s a clue … there were never any sandcastles when Emily left the beach!

Poor Megan, she worked so hard on her cities…

Click any of the images on the right panel to go straight there.

All taken on Rathlin Island in August.