Back to routine

After the excitement of Hogmanay and New Year(!) we had a few days to chill out before returning back to the day to day routine of school/work/general lazing around (work out who's routine is who's?). We went bowling and I took the children to see 'Bedtime Stories' at the movies. This is a really good fun film.



The children quickly adjusted back to school but my body is still adjusting back to my personal trainer sessions - I was sore last week but am hopeful that I will be okay tomorrow. Golf was a bit of a washout as the course was really wet so Kate & I decided to go for coffee instead. We did manage a game of tennis on Friday though along with Kelly & Bernice. Friday night saw us all round at Dorothy & Neil's for drinks and nibbles and Saturday night we all gathered again but this time we were round at Tamsin & Shaun's for drinks and a potluck supper. On Sunday, I had Tamsin's two kids (Jordyn & Aimee) round to play with Tom & Lily, they all had a great time playing dress up, baking cakes and lego-ing. When it came to decorating the cakes they went to town and really overloaded them with sugar sprinkles, jelly beans and mini marshmallows - less is more is definitely not a recognised phrase among 5-8 year olds.

This morning it was very cold but beautiful, and it is expected to get even colder later in the week with an overnight low of -5C (25F) predicted, so we have laid out some of Lily's toy kitchen pots and pans with water so they can play with the ice in the morning before heading off to school. This seems to be a fun thing to do, unfortunately I don't have any food colouring to colour the water for them. Right, Tom & I are off up the YMCA for a bit of keep fit, so more later.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to you all and welcome to 2009. Last night Nick and I stayed up until 11pm then went to bed and welcomed the new year in this morning at a more civilized hour...I had thought that I might start the new year with a morning run but obviously changed my mind when I got up this morning and busied myself making croissants for breakfast instead. I did manage a few half hearted press ups but this was really just a token effort at the keep fit. I'm not looking forward to going back to my personal training sessions next week after 3 weeks off. I fear it will be exhausting.

After a New Years lunch of lamb, mashed spuds, carrots & broccoli, we shall spend the rest of the day relaxing with some wine (well I will, Nick is still marking exam papers!)

Belated Merry Christmas

Having arrived home from Mexico late on Saturday night, we celebrated Christmas yesterday instead. After opening all our presents, thank you very much everyone, Tom disappeared into his bedroom to start the marathon Lego building frenzy that Christmas always brings, Lily was off playing with her American Girl doll, cat, dog and rabbit, Nick started reading one of his books after transerring all his golf clubs into his smart new golf bag and I was itching to start downloading music onto my smart new ipod. Having consumed some champagne the meal was thankfully a success and we got started on the red wine. Now we just have to write our thank you letters to y'all.

Feliz Navidad from Mexico

We flew out to Playa del Carmen, Mexico on Saturday 20th December for a week in the sun, this was our first meal out after a day in the sun - guess who forgot to take a hat on holiday?

After a couple of days lounging on the beach we ventured out in our hire car for a drive to Tulum. This is an old Mayan ruin similar to Chichen Itza only much smaller and a much shorter drive. It was funny getting into a manual car again after driving an automatic for 18 months, also the car had no power steering and even though it was a very small car it was really clunky and hard to drive. Got used to it very quickly though, unlike Nick, who managed to stall it once. heeheehee, so glad I didn't do that.

Another day spent lazing on the beach, building sandcastles and jumping waves and then on
Christmas Day we went on a boat trip out to a reef for a bit of snorkelling. This was great fun and even Lily had a go and enjoyed it. On the way back, Antonio, our man in charge of the boat decided to have some fun...

and went really, really fast bumping over all the waves and wakes from other boats. Flippin 'eck, I thought I was going to throw up, we were getting bumped about all over the place, I'm surprised one of us wasn't thrown overboard, I nearly lost my hat and was feeling quite sick, however as you can see Lily was loving it....She is happy in the picture, honest.

Happy Birthday John

Just thought I'd write an update today and take the opportunity to wish my big bruv a happy 40th. I can't believe he is 40, this means mine is creeping up on me too. How old must my parents feel if they have a son who is 40 ??!!! Yikes.

This week has seen Nick at the doctors with a swollen face (think John Merrick, not really). His cold got worse and had got into his sinuses or something so he needed drugs before we went off on our hols on Saturday. The Dr's kindly obliged and he came home with cough medicine, painkillers, antibiotics and decongestant.
He had a 'corridor party' at work yesterday which he kindly volunteered me to reheat a huge tray of turkey for. Needless to say I was not best pleased. After a hasty telephone consultation with my mum and Kate S (cooking goddess of Montgomery-soon to be lost back to Australia) and a look at Delia Smith's web page I went ahead and reheated it. This was not a success but thankfully I haven't heard about anyone not appearing at work today due to food poisoning. I'm guessing I won't be volunteered for this job ever again. Fortunately I also took in a lemon cake which I am pleased to say was a success.

Tom had his first game of football with his new team last night, and after a nerve wracking 40 minutes of play his team, Brazil, won. He did really well and has come on a lot since he first started playing.

Today I went to see 'A Christmas Carol' the musical at the theatre along with Tom and his classmates. It was a great production although not really my choice. Tomorrow he and Lily both have their christmas parties at school and lucky me, I get to help out at Tom's. Yay.
Luckily Nick and I are out for dinner tomorrow night, so that will be something to look forward to (and due to Nick taking all those drugs, he's driving so I get to have a glass (or 2) of wine.)

I'll take this opportunity to say Merry Christmas to y'all as we are off to Mexico on Saturday for a week of rest at Playa del Carmen. We are all really looking forward to it, although the weather forecast looks like it might be raining most days. I reckon I can cope with that though because it's going to be about 30C. HoHoHo..

Wally of the Year Award

We went to the christmas party last night and had good fun, unfortunately I am now suffering from a mild hangover.

Earlier on in the week I got the carpets professionally cleaned as they were quite grubby then within 36 hours of having them cleaned Nick managed to spill red wine all over the place. He has now been named Official Wally of the Year. I seem to recall it was his pint of milk that was spilt all over the carpet earlier on in the year and also his (or maybe it was Caroline's) pint of dark beer. Something of a trend here, I think.

Christmas is coming

Well, I have finally finished my christmas shopping (at least I think I have) and all the parcels that need to be sent to GB have gone and the cards are on their way today. Now I just have to wrap up everything and keep it all hidden from Tom & Lily.
Nick & I were at our first christmassy function yesterday afternoon and we received our first xmas cards of the year on Saturday. Next 'do' is on Thursday night.
There isn't really much else going on at the moment, still golfing and playing tennis, still going to my personal trainer (still not seeing much in the way of a stunning new body though - which is a bit disappointing frankly because Kate has turned into skinny minny). I should have slipped her some extra fattening food when she was here for dinnner on Friday night.