Sunday, January 09, 2005

It's only day 9....

....and already I seem to have broken all of my resolutions!!!

I spent money yesterday (but to my wife's surprise put back a number of things that previously I would have bought), still haven't exercised and missed filling in my blog for a couple of days. On the positive side, because of my blog, I am in more regular contact with one of my friends. Also I'm got back into the joys of cooking and am just waiting for my shoulder of lamb to come out of the oven.

A slight issue with forgetting that my potatoes were on to parboil means we'll be having mash instead of roasties! I'll even be making some meringues for later!

One of my few pre-new Year no spending resolutions treats was to buy a food processor with my back pay. I'm still waiting for it to arrive but a space has been cleared on the work top to accomodate it! Apparently its what all the chef's use and I can't wait for it to arrive. My wife is also looking forward to the many culinary treats that it will produce.

Right better go and mash some things for lunch....

Thursday, January 06, 2005

Hectic Days

Yesterday was so hectic that I completely forgot to fill in my blog!!!

Work was busy as usual, its like I've never been on holiday....

After work Kath & I went to give blood. We used the new appointment system which worked fine for me but not so great for Kath. I do always feel good for having given blood but when I'm lying there I do feel an almost uncontrollable urge to pull out the needle!!! Its not painful, I'm just incredibly aware that there is something sticking in my arm and I want to scratch it out. Fortunately I've resisted the urge so far! Everybody who is able should give blood, there really are no excuses!! An interesting (well maybe) fact about me is that I'm AB positive which I think makes me the universal receiver (ie any body's blood will do for me) Unfortunately for everyone else my blood can only go to people also AB positive...and thats only 2% of the UK population.

We were also due to go to the Theatre to Robin Hood and the Babes in the Wood (a rock and roll panto). We did eventually make it after a hold up in McDonalds. We missed the first 5 minutes but were let in after that! It was great! And a full house! It always annoys me when we go to see a good show/play and the theatre is only half full. People are probably too busy watching ITV to give a damn about quality theatre. Hmm I'm not a snob really... :-)

We got home just in time to see Desparate Housewives (Channel 4, its OK!) which has had a massive promotional presence on the small screen recently. I actually really enjoyed it except for Nicolette Sheridan who looked as if she'd been under the surgeon's knife one too many times. I remember her from repeats of Knots Landing I used to watch on UK Gold after escaping college on Friday afternoons for my driving lessons...ahhh nostalgia!

Anyhow the MOST exciting thing yesterday was a parcel from my friends Krista and Brent in the US. It seems we have a number of small gifts and lengthy instructions on how to open them (all I'm saying is that it involves sheet music and making up a song!). We were too tired last night and tonight Kath has gone off to join a new orchestra...we'll have to wait until tomorrow...I'm quite excited!

Other notable news is that I made headway into one of my resolutions and set up a new savings account with ING. It looks to have a good rate of interest and seems pretty much hassle free...hooray!

Ok since my wife is out I'm going to make the most of this time and get some video gaming in! I'm currently playing Metroid Prime 2: Echoes and its distrcated me from the other games I was in the middle of playing...so little time so much to do!


Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Dancing Shoes

Ok so I've managed to spend money (bad) but it was on an hour of exercise (good). The exercise in question was the weekly trip to the dance class to learn how to whirl around the floor in a flurry of turns and spins!!!

Hmm so that makes it sound so much better than it actually is! We did finally get to grips with the slow foxtrot which is a blessed relief as we were really bad at it until tonight. Pat (the instructor) also showed us the 'check and weave' in the waltz which she always shows us thinking its the first time! Consequently we've learnt it about 8 times now ans its really starting to annoy me! Hopefully next week she'll remember we've already learnt it and show us something else. The school's website is here

Anyway I do need to spend some money now as I've been putting off getting some dancing shoes for months. I do have some spare cash and I do need the shoes. I'll be getting them from a shop cheerfully called Glamour Gear which makes it sound rather more like a sex shop than anything else.

Monday, January 03, 2005

Resolutions Update

Well I've so far succeeded with a couple of my resolutions.....

1. I'm updating my blog!
2. I didn't spend any money today at all!

The others will require some further work....a trip to Ikea has been planned so that I can get a replacement futon matress for the spare room. While this won't help at all with the spending money resolution it will allow me to use the spare room for exercise again!

Anyway after a day spent at Kath's mum's house I'm going to go and enjoy my last evening before its back to work!

Sunday, January 02, 2005


This is a test to see if I can upload picturs to my blog.....this is last year's New Year Party. I'm the one with the medallion....playing a character called Imran Khant. It turned out I was sleeping with the daughter of the murderer...great stuff.

Happy New Year!!!

I really can't believe it's 2005. It's true what they say, time flies by when you're older. I can clearly remember 2000...what I was doing and who I was doing it with.

This new year we celebrated with a Murder Party, something which is fast becoming a tradition (much to the chagrin of one of my friends and fellow bloggers). Once I work out how to post photos into my blog I'll do so, so you can see the spectacle of costumes!!

My new year's resolutions in no particluar order....

1. Do more exercise. I want to lose weight but I enjoy eating too much to diet...exercise is the only answer.

2. Spend less money on crap. I really do buy a lot of crap that I don't need. If I can do this then the next couple with be much easier.

3. Save more money. Having just had a sizeable increase in household income I need to do this now before I become accustomed to the extra cash which usually would have disappeared on number 2.

4. Give more to charity. If I'm too lazy to volunteer then my money should help those in need...especially in light of number 3.

5. Update my blog every day. Not only with this allow me to keep a track of my performance against my resolutions it will also make this a habit and routine which is the only way I can get these things done.