Blessings

And so we come to the end of 2013, and whilst it is tempting to write the year off, to talk about it being "interesting" or "challenging" or any other coded message for not being very good, I'm not going to do that. Rather, 2013 has been a year which has included some great things, and plenty of reasons to be very positive about what 2014 and beyond will bring as well.

Here are a few reasons to be cheerful about the year just gone:

• Our son is growing up fast (and not just height-wise, although he is considerably taller than his mother now, and who knows, may well go past me during 2014). He continues to learn things at an alarming rate, and is now far more proficient in a number of subjects when compared to his parents. At sports, I can just about keep up with him at table tennis, although I do worry a little about how I will cope when the table comes out next Spring, and he continues to improve whilst I stay much the same. The same can be said for badminton and pool, where no doubt he will leave me trailing in his wake. He's also passed more exams in both piano and drums, and despite not having any lessons at all, has happily picked up the guitar and started to play. He's started on his D of E awards and has built a new fan base in the local coffee shop where he has been volunteering for the last few months. (Crikey Jake - I hadn't realised just how amazing 2013 had been until I started to put all of this down!)
• We've all celebrated milestone birthdays this year. Jake joined the teenager club, and Nicky and I both welcomed in a new decade. Lots of birthday highlights to remember from this year, but maybe best of all was being surrounded by friends and family at Nicky's party last month.
• Two new members have joined our family, arriving a few months ago, and already acting as if they own the place. They've won over everyone they've met, and already we couldn't imagine life without our two new feline friends.
• We are well and truly settled into our new home, having lived here for just over a year now. Yes, we've had to deal with some problems that the building has presented to us, but we love our home and I can see us sticking around here for quite a few years to come.
• A number of family members have had health problems during the year, and we've all had more trips to hospitals, home and abroad, than we would have liked! But, we've all come through them, and I'm sure that in some ways it has made family ties even stronger.
• Personally, I know I've been a bit of a pain with my health over the last year, and in particular in the last couple of months, but I'm really excited now - not only do I have a diagnosis, it is also the case that there is a pretty simple procedure that I can have in the New Year that will sort me out.
• And finally, what has amazed me most during 2013? It is the one person without whom 2013 really could have been a tough year. She is truly a wonder and I know for sure that I love her more on 31 December than I did on 1 January, and do you know what, I have no doubt that that the same will be true next year as well.

So, farewell to the journey through 2013, and bring on 2014, it's going to be great!

Merry Christmas

Just back from the midnight service, and the rest of the household is already asleep, awaiting Santa's arrival, although judging by the tree downstairs, I think he may have been already.

Christmas Eve was a lovely day (other than minor repair requirements thanks to storm damage) and I'm sure that Christmas Day is going to be even better.

Merry Christmas everyone.

TOE / PFO

In to hospital this morning for my TOE. We got there at about 9.30, and we're done and away before midday. I'm claiming that I remember the whole thing, but who knows whether that's actually the case or not! However, the good news is that it was in no way unpleasant, and the even better news is that they have confirmed that I have a PFO.

Seems a bit odd calling that good news, but as I understand things, the key point is that it is something that can be fixed pretty easily, and fingers crossed, it will sort out both the migraines and the AF as well.

As for the rest of the day, after a quick stop off at Waitrose on the way home - I'm working on a principle that it is impossible to have too many chocolate fingers and chocolate biscuits - most of the rest of the day was spent in the kitchen making lovely things for Christmas. Well. Nicky did all of the making, and I watched and did the occasional bit of washing up.

We now have two cooked and glazed hams (one cooked in Coke and one in cider and apple juice!), a home made trifle, and a ginger cake. And there are even plans to be making a Baileys cheesecake tomorrow!

Smaug

Christmas preparations continue here, although I don't think we bought any more food today (apart from for the cats!) - still, I'm sure we'll stock up some more tomorrow.

Today's main event was a trip to the cinema at Bluewater - thanks to Bec for the vouchers for Nicky's birthday, which were perfect for three tickets. and more popcorn, sweets, chocolate and fizzy drinks than we could manage to eat, even in a film this long!

We went to see the second part of The Hobbit: the Desolation of Smaug, and most entertaining it was too. It was a week and a day shy of a year since we had seen the first instalment, as reported here from our holiday in Orlando.

The final film in the trilogy will be coming out just before Christmas next year. I wonder where we will go to watch that one ...

17

Now is the time to get on with some blogging. I've broken up from work, the holidays are upon us, and I've just been sent out of the lounge so that Nicky and Jake can get on with wrapping up a Christmas present of mine!

As an early New Year's resolution, I really must try to blog more in 2014 - I really enjoy re-reading some of my old entries (they are primarily done for my own benefit after all - it's just an added bonus if a few family members keep up with news through it as well!)

Note - gap in posting as I was told that it was ok to go back into the lounge! So I went and carried on with Christmas wrapping, watching a Christmas film, Match of the Day, and then bed, and completely forgot to come back to this post to finish it off.

So, it is now Sunday morning, and we are just about to head over to Oaks Dene to pick up a table so that we have enough seating room for all of our Christmas guests.

As for the title of this post - anyone important will know what it means, even if it is a day late now!

43

Another early start today to be on the road to Brighton, but this time I only stayed there until lunchtime, as I had another meeting to get to in Canary Wharf this afternoon. One of the fringe benefits has been that I have been home for the evening, and so won't be out for three evenings in a row this week.

Whilst it's either a little early, or extremely late to be thinking about New Year's resolutions, almost three years ago I had a resolution to read 50 books a year, and achieved that for the last couple of years. However, this year my current tally is 43, so I really do need to get a move on if I am going to make it for 2013. Maybe in a sign of panic, I actually have 4 on the go at the same time at the moment (which is unlike me) so I am at least still in with a chance!

Coal shed

And so we move into the penultimate working week of the year, and as seems to be becoming a tradition at this point in the calendar, we have a visit from some US colleagues this week, meaning that I am spending most of the first part of the week based in Brighton.

I was up and out early this morning and to the office by about 8.30, despite a long journey in the car, only to discover that their flight in was a little delayed, and that they then took quite a while to get to us from Heathrow, arriving in Brighton at about lunchtime. Still, at least I could catch up on a couple of other things in the morning.

This evening we took the US guys out to a steak restaurant in Brighton (not entirely sure about the choice given that they are based in Dallas and so are probably pretty much surrounded by steak joints) called Coal Shed. Food not bad - I enjoyed my bone marrow starter, but wasn't all that keen on my fillet steak - probably says more about me than about the steak - should've had a burger!

Anyway, back home late for a quick sleep before turning around and doing it all again early tomorrow.

Home news is good today - the scaffolders were here pretty early and so the roof has been fixed, and even more excitingly (!) we heard that Nicky's new car has arrived, so she has arranged insurance, and we pick it up on Saturday.

Decorations

A weekend of getting some decorations up, and don't they look lovely!

New toys

You know it is time for a new post when even Jake starts commenting on the fact that it has been a long time. And, unfortunately September seems to have come and gone without a post, and it's the start of October already.

As always due to my poor posting form, lots has happened since I last wrote, some good (new kittens - expect lots of photos to appear in coming entries) and some sad news from Yorkshire as well.

However, the main reason for thinking of blogging was to report on holiday news - as of yesterday, we have flights booked for next year's trip, in the summer holidays, to Orlando, and so I can also update the blog with a new holiday countdown counter! Next is to book some accommodation - starting with some protective bookings at home resorts, to be followed, around Christmas, with further calls to move things around when the 7 month window opens.

The post name today relates to the fact that Jake and I are both now playing with new toys - me typing this on the new bluetooth keyboard which I got at the weekend and is part of my new ipad case, and Jake is playing on the latest FIFA game, which he was originally going to wait to buy just in case he gets a new console later this year, but now that it is out and some friends have got it, it needed to be acquired (and which has been funded by trading in a load of old games which aren't played any more).

Opus

Having not blogged for a while, I really didn't want the next one to be this.

Oh Opus, how we are going to miss you. You came bounding into our lives (instead of a hosepipe) over 16 years ago, when we'd been married less than six months, our very first pet, and you've been part of the family ever since.

Despite all of your craziness, we all loved you so much, and saying goodbye to you today was just one of the hardest things.

Farm

Today I have been on a trip to the farm!


And would you believe it, this 600 hectare farm is inside the M25.

House news of the day:

Good - the holes in the floor have been filled in.
Bad - they can't find a match for the wooden flooring, so we are looking at having the whole lot replaced (lounge, hall, study, dining room).

Sporting success

Sporting success stories from today:

Jake - house table tennis - won all of his matches, but due to some defeats for the rest of his team, they come third overall.

Me - golf day - play some fairly ropey shots, but thanks to the rest of my team carrying me along, end up second overall and win a £50 voucher for the pro shop which I spent on a new golf shirt.

Brighton report

Back home from our little trip to Brighton, time to write up the report.

We were on the road at about half past eleven on Sunday morning, after I had been to play at church. Unfortunately there had been an accident on the motorway, and so it took rather a long time to get there, and by time we had arrived and I had dropped off Nicky and Jake to check in to our hotel, all of the car parks along the seafront had rather long queues for them, so I headed back up to my regular spot at the top of the lanes. I wandered down towards the seafront and Nicky and Jake walked up, and with the help of a few phone calls describing landmarks we were able to meet up, and we went to a place called "Bagelman" for lunch.

We enjoyed having a look around in the lanes, and were able to keep reasonably up to date with tennis news thanks to a combination of radios, TVs in shops, and smart-phone updates, although the 3G was being annoyingly slow. By the time it got into the 3rd set it was all getting a bit too tense, and so we headed back for the seafront and our hotel, where we watched the last few nail-biting games.

Once we'd got over the excitement and had a bit of a rest, we headed back out along the promenade towards the pier for our first foray into the arcades. We were successful on the 2p sliders, and came out with a keyring, as always, but sadly no luck on the grabby machines. Still, Jake did a good job of amassing prize tokens, which were totalled up and tucked away to be added to on another visit.

Walking back along the seafront we went into JB's Diner, where Jake took on the full rack of ribs, and gave a pretty good account of himself. Fed and refreshed, we enjoyed a gentle stroll back along the front to our hotel, where we called it a day (annoying Jake by singing along to Mamma Mia on the TV whilst he was trying to get to sleep!).

We'd decided against the hotel breakfast when booking, and so once we were up and ready to go this morning, we went in search of food, and found it at the All Bar One cafe near the Pavilion. Nicky put us to shame with her healthy fruity granola, whilst I had eggs benedict and Jake had sausages. Highlight of the meal was the fact that the morning cappuccinos came with a little glass of smarties!

After breakfast Jake and I wandered through the Pavilion gardens taking a few photos, before heading into what Jake declared must be one of the largest guitar shops in the country. Nicky made a start on some shopping, and we joined her after a while and had a good look around the lanes, stopping off for a rather nice ice cream. But, the seafront, and in particular the pier was calling to Jake, and so we headed back there so that Jake could add to his prize ticket tally before cashing them in, as well as beat me at Hover Hockey.

We found a beachside cafe for a late lunch, and even though the service there was very slow, we were able to sit in the sunshine and watch the world go by, and the food was good when it came - at least my fish finger sandwich was!

Sadly by this time, it was about time for me to go and fetch the car, Nicky and Jake to fetch the case from the hotel, and for us to head northbound on the A23.

I think Jake was the winner in the shopping and souvenir haul, coming home with a couple of pairs of sunglasses, a ukulele (!), a new pair of Fred Perry shoes (some bright spark pointed out that perhaps we'll be buying Andy Murray shoes before too long now!), and a Family Guy pint glass (thanks to pier prize tokens!).

77

So, a 77 year wait is finally over. Amazing scenes in SW19, watched from a hotel in BN1. Well the last few games were, after trying to keep up with the score on mobile as we wandered around the Lanes.

More tomorrow when I have decent Internet access.

Founders

It's the first Saturday of July, so not only must it be the ladies' final at Wimbledon, it is also Founder's Day, and so we were off to Rochester this morning. We dropped Jake off for his registration in the Vines, parked up, and enjoyed a brief stroll along the High Street before taking our place in the Cathedral.


The service was very good, although I'm sure that the volume of the boys' singing has diminished somewhat over the years. It seems like long gone are the days when one of the first pieces of standard issue when arriving at the start of your school career was your hymn book!

After the service we caught a brief glance of Jake as he dashed off to Subway to get his lunch, and Nicky and I enjoyed a sandwich in one of the coffee shops along the High Street, before taking Jake and a couple of his mates back up to school for the afternoon.

We met John and Margaret at school, and set up on the boundary of the cricket pitch, vaguely watching the sport, but mostly enjoying the sunshine. It's good to see that some school traditions haven't changed. Pitt came last in the athletics, and Gordon first. Still, I'm sure that the Pitt students still maintain that whilst they may not have the sporting talent, they have the brains, as I think was claimed a generation (or two?) ago.


Back from school and it's been an evening of barbecue in the garden, enjoyed by humans and animals alike.

Station

Passing through Paddington station today, I noticed a little statue of an animated animal, and this time it wasn't the bear over by the escalators, it was a dog part way down the platform.

I didn't stop long enough to work out why he was there - just long enough to take a picture before getting on my train.

It tops off a couple of days of noticing things in stations. Yesterday, I finally noticed that some clouds have replaced the Olympic rings in St Pancras.

Nanny Rose

When we first moved in to our first house together, Nan bought us a rose bush as a house-warming present, and throughout the sixteen years of living there, it did well.

We were nervous about how it would get on with the move, but is has been planted in the back garden, and is doing very nicely.

Wimbledon

Sunshine, tennis, and great company.

Top quality day out.

Thanks!

Injured

Well they are dropping like flies at Wimbledon this year. Seven injuries and seven withdrawals today, one of the largest tallies in a single day in the tournament's history. And if it isn't the dodgy knees, shoulders etc that are felling them, it's the giant-slayers from the lower ranks. Federer out in Round 2, that can't have happened for quite some time.

At home, we have an addition to the injury bench as well, with arm in sling and antibiotics prescribed, believed to be due to a mosquito bite.

Dry

The good news from today is that our hallway has officially dried out, and so the dehumidifier has gone, and peace has returned. Next steps are getting the flooring, tiles and decorating sorted out, and hopefully the insurance company will be on the phone tomorrow to make plans.

Jake has been on the mend today, and it was fairly immediately obvious that progress had been made when I got home from work, as the smell of chocolate brownies baking in the oven was wafting out from the kitchen. He should be back to school tomorrow.

As for work today, the best bit was stepping out for a while at lunchtime and meeting up with Bec for some lunch, even if we only managed to go to the supermarket cafe (thanks for the panini and the cake!). Hopefully we'll enjoy an even nicer lunch on Henman Hill on Saturday.

Files

One of the perks of being a member of the Disney Vacation Club is that we receive the "Disney Files" magazine every few months in the post. In fact, today we received two copies - one addressed to me at our new address, and one to Nicky at our old address. Maybe they think we've split up!

One of the features in this edition talks about the California Grill - a rather fantastic restaurant at the top of the Contemporary Resort, which, as well as doing great food, provides one of the best vantage points for the Magic Kingdom fireworks (except perhaps sat in the bath in the master en suite in a grand villa at BLT with the music playing through the sound system - yet to try, but something to look forward to one day!).

It's been a long time since we last had a meal at the California Grill - a quick photo search seems to indicate that the last time we went there was in December 2007 - the same holiday as the Carnival cruise and the briefly red hair!

The reason that the restaurant features in the magazine is that it has been undergoing a major refurbishment, and is due to re-open some time later this summer, and the preview pictures look pretty special.

One of the downsides of getting the Disney Files at the moment is that we don't currently have a holiday booked, and this is starting to cause a certain amount of stress. We might have to start making some long-range plans. Anyone for summer 2014 at the Boardwalk?

Anyway to round off, here is a picture (which he won't thank me for posting) of a certain someone's first visit, on his 4th birthday.

IT

I thought that a new blog post was in order, if only to mark the fact that the Big Mac has moved! Thanks to ongoing clearances elsewhere, we have acquired a new computer desk which has taken up residence in Nicky's study, and which is perfect for the Big Mac. This means that desk that was being used in the dining room (and which had been used previously in the conservatory at Round Wood) for the computer has moved upstairs, and can now fulfil its original purpose as a dressing table.

In other IT news, Jake has decided to put all of his birthday and other funds, plus a loan from his parents, towards a new desktop computer, which should be arriving at some point during the week. Maybe I'll have to annoy him when it arrives and make a point of doing a blog post from his new computer as well! We went over to PC World to check out the model he wanted, with its Windows 8 and touch screen, and then came back home to order it online from PC World, getting what they describe as a "refurbished" model for about a third less than the shop price, but which the shop assistant assured us would be indistinguishable from a brand new machine. It comes with Windows, but not a whole lot more, so I will have to see if I am able to apply for another home use copy of Office from work yet, seeing as it must be 18 months or so since I got one for my MacBook.

I've just sent off an email to our surveyor regarding what will be needed to put our hall / kitchen / cloakroom back together now that our leaking heating pipes have been fixed. Hopefully it will be possible to make a start on that work fairly soon. We have the damp man coming back tomorrow to take some readings and see if we have dried out enough for him to take his dehumidifier away with him (thereby reducing our electricity bills quite substantially!)

Finally, just in case anyone is bothering to read any of this waffle before the end of Monday, don't forget to go to this website and VOTE KATE.

Blog

Today feels like a day that's long overdue for a blog, but the challenge is that having taken so long to get around to writing one, it seems difficult to know where to start!

Let's kick off with house news. Firstly, I am very pleased to be able to report that our utility bills are coming down. This was after a rather alarming time in the early part of the year - the combination of moving to a bigger house, having a long and cold winter, and (until we got it replaced) having an old boiler which wasn't the most efficient as well as no thermostatic controls at all led to some hefty bills. However, things are improving, although I am still keeping a daily eye on the meter readings. Following the really warm day this week, I was disproportionately chuffed to be able to report that on that day we had used no units of gas at all!!

However, despite the best efforts of our heating engineer, our system is still leaking somewhere. We can only assume that it is somewhere underneath the ground floor, as we haven't spotted any water damage on ceilings, and given that at one stage it was requiring topping up several times a day, had it been upstairs, I think we would have noticed it by now. We only hope that we don't suddenly have a disappearing floor downstairs at some point due to the accumulation of water. The heating engineer came back last week to put in some "compound"which apparently can seal small holes in pipes from the inside, and we have noticed a bit of an improvement since then, and so he's been back again today to put in some more!

As I type this sat in the study, I can't hear the pitter patter of tiny feet above my head, which might just mean that the loft squirrel problem is behind us. Several steps have been taken, including sealing some obvious points of entry under the eaves, putting traps and poisoned peanut butter up in the loft, and asking our neighbour to cut back a tree which may have been providing a route up towards the roof. Nicky even turned a problem into an opportunity by making good use of an unwanted present that the cat had left for us in the utility room one night, and distributing some of it in strategic points in corners of the loft - hopefully that will finally finish them off!

With the improvements in the weather, we've even been making a start int the garden. We've done some clearance in the front (probably about half of what is needed) as well as clearing most of the raised bed in the back. That, combined with a little bit of hacking on the land, and a few old unused fence panels, provided enough fuel for three large bonfires. Nicky also did a sterling job last weekend of jet-washing the patio, and where before it was pretty black and grimy, we can now see the delightful crazy paving patterns far more easily! Still, there is much excitement at the moment - the patio area is about to be put to very good use - the table tennis table arrives later today!

Other news from outside is slightly less pleasant. When we bought the house, one of the few things that the vendors did warn us about was that the main sewer running through our garden and land did have an occasional tendency to overflow due to some blockages further down caused by tree roots. Well, we can now confirm that he is right about that. One day during the week before last we woke to find that there was some brown sludge around the manhole cover next to our conservatory. Nicky was straight on to the water board, who came round and over the course of a few days did a pretty thorough cleanup operation. We were also able to get a new manhole cover for the land, as the previous one was just resting on top of the brick manhole surround, and had no frame - not very safe at all. Still, it is sorted now, and the water board team have also been trying to clear out some of the roots from the sewer, so hopefully it won't happen again any time soon.

Right, that's plenty for now. Will hopefully get into a better routine of posting for a while.

(Most of this post written on Saturday, but then updated, finished off, and posted on Monday.)

Good to be alive

Four parks

Yesterday was a four parks in one day day. And today is getting old already, so here's one photo from each park for now, with more to come later, depending on what I end up doing today!

Flower

The time has come for a long overdue post, now that I have been at WDW for a bit more than 24 hours.

The rest of my time in Atlanta was fairly uneventful, even if it did turn out that I'd rather bashed up my legs playing Whirlyball, and walking was a little bit painful for the next couple of days.

That evening, we went out to a nice steak restaurant not far along the road from our hotel, and then we were in the office all day on Tuesday. We did, however, manage to catch up with our US colleagues over the course of Monday and Tuesday, meaning that once the Tuesday meetings were finished, Ian made a dash for the airport so that he could get the Tuesday night flight home, whilst I stayed one more night in Roswell, and hitched a lift with the US guys back to the airport on Wednesday morning.

My flight to MCO wasn't scheduled until just after 7pm, and we arrived at the airport a little after 9am. I was hoping that I would be able to move my flight to the morning, but it turned out that the first one with space was at 2.55pm, which meant that I had a fairly long wait at the airport, during which I caught up on a few work emails and calls, read my book, finished it and bought another one, and generally wasted time.

Still, the flight left on time, and we were a little early into Orlando, and my bag was waiting for me when I went to baggage reclaim (already off the belt to the side, but being looked after by an attendant - I wonder whether my bag went on an earlier flight than me), and there was no line at the Budget desk, so I picked up my car (a Mazda 2) and drove straight over to the Caribbean Beach and checked in.

By the time I got here it was about 6pm, and once I'd unpacked, had a little explore, and facetime'd with Nicky, I decided that I was too tired to venture any further out and that I would save my explorations for today.

I was up and out at a reasonable time this morning, and true to form, went and parked at the Boardwalk, and enjoyed a leisurely stroll over to the International Gateway. I then spent a very pleasant morning in Epcot admiring the lovely Flower and Garden Festival displays. I have never seen Epcot looking so lovely. I ended up taking over 200 photos today (be warned), but will only add a select few to the bottom of this post.

I left Epcot in time to get back to the hotel for 3pm so that I could FaceTime with Nicky when she was at her Mum and Dad's. Unfortunately I got my times muddled up and so ended up trying to get through to Nicky whilst she was still on her way home from Kings Hill. Still, no great problem as it gave me time to upload a few photos before catching up with everyone.

Once I'd done that, I headed back out and had a productive trip to the Premium Outlets, after which I had a much less productive trip to Downtown. I had to park all the way over near Cirque, and the place was packed, so I gave up fairly soon and went and had dinner at Denny's before coming back here. I'll have another go at Downtown during the day at some point in the next couple of days.

Right here are some photos of the lovely-looking Epcot.

Whirlyball

Time for just a quick post as I will be heading out for dinner with colleagues soon, and need to look up a couple of things to talk to them about before I go.

I'm in Atlanta, or actually Roswell to be a little more precise, and today was a morning of meetings in the office followed by an afternoon of team-building at Whirlyball Atlanta.

Whirlyball is an entertaining game, and is essentially part lacrosse, part basketball, and part bumper cars, and if you don't believe me, here's a photo to prove it!


Hopefully will post a little bit more later on, depending on what time we get back from dinner.