Adventures in home working

1. I was born in Lincoln in England in 1963
2. I have one brother 2 1/2 years younger than me
3. My Grandma claimed to be a medium, she was certainly very wise, and she told very convincing stories
4. My Mum’s Grandad was Major of Lincoln
5. I grew up with tremendous freedom roaming the countryside, building sites, abandoned airfields and gravel pits and reading
6. My parents were amazing, I don’t ever remember being put under pressure, or ever feeling that I needed to work to gain their love and approval
7. I grew up in a house with a huge garden and 50 tree orchard, the source of endless play
8. I was a slow starter at school, I was 13 before I actually started to move up the sets, and never really found my feet academically until I was doing my first degree
9. I suffered badly from acne as a boy and still suffer a bit now at 41,  but I learned not to let that sort of thing bother me, and learned to be happy with myself
10. I suffered very badly from Migraine and Hay-fever as a child and remember spending lots of days debilitated by one or the other
11. When I was about 4 I woke up one morning in the spring and a wasp was crawling up my bed, I could not get out of bed and still don’t remember what happened.  I have a phobia of wasps to this day
12. When I was about 14 I had to read Shakespeare out load,  I had an asthma attack from the nerves and could not read at all fluently, people laughed.  I still have a fear of public speaking, although 10 weeks of speakers club helped a little
13. I always remember working, my childhood jobs were gardening, apple picking and selling, washing up, preparing fruit and veg for bulk freezing, running errands for old folks, pumping water from the well, window cleaning round, school librarian, school lab boy, school odd-job repair man.  I was never short of money!
14. From a fairly young age I had an allowance for, and bought, my own clothes and food
15. I love home backed bread and other simple foods
16. I used to help my dad repair cars and we also refurbished an old army ambulance to make a camper, it was great fun and I wanted to be a mechanic
17. I had two childhood pets a tortoise called Micky who turned out to be a girl (she laid eggs) and a cat called Scamp who had to be put down due to injuries from a car or dog (I never found out which). 
18. I had my finger sliced open at school by a closing door,  I was accompanied to the hospital by a careers teacher who said he thought I could do better than be a mechanic, from that day I decided to be an engineer and have never tinkered with cars since
19. On one of our holidays in the camper the big ends went in Kendall.  Dad and me tried to fix it but we only got 20 miles before it failed again.  We got home by train and Mum bought a copy of Here’s Health at the station and her life started to change.  Ours changed as well but to a lesser extent.
20. On another holiday shortly after, Dad broke his ankle rock hopping, this was the beginning of a string of bad luck with his health that partly drove Mum and Dad slowly apart, (drinking and smoking didn’t help either)
21. I was shy at school and still am, especially in social situations.  Years later a Vice President at work said “did I realise I probably had mild Asbergers Syndrome”.  I looked it up, realised it was true and have never felt bad about being shy since
22. I have always been very positive
23. I have never been religious,  for three main reasons.  First I can not accept something so profound based on so little evidence,  I can not accept the concept of a vengeful god as described in the bible and I can not accept the concept of a god that would want to be worshipped.
24. I have always been content with myself and never felt the need for a God to make me whole
25. My Dad spent most of his spare time working in the garage, or more truthfully tinkering.  My Mum was always busy in the house and garden.  I promised myself I would spend all of my spare time with my wife and kids
26. I had plenty of friends at school, but few that I really wanted to spend time with outside of school
27. I got 8 O Levels (4 A and 4 B) and took 9. 
28. I decided that I was never going to get a good mark in German so I decided to sacrifice it, and that it would be better to get ungraded because that did not appear on the certificate
29. At A Level we were taught the wrong Maths syllabus so I got an E, I didn’t have the patience for Tech Drawing so I got a D and I got an A in Engineering and a B in Physics. I got an apology from the school for teaching me the wrong maths, but lost my place at Loughborough.  So I went to Trent Polytechnic
30. I never regretted for a moment going to Trent, it was a great course and I met my wife
31. My wife’s name is Debbie, we were on the same course at Trent – Mechanical Engineering – I really got to know her when she got glandular fever, she had to go into hospital for a week or so and I popped in to see her,  I decided on the way home that we would be married.  I had to win her away from her boy friend so it took a few months before we started to go out, we were married shortly after graduating
32. My Dad had a bad accident on his motor bike, the front of his leg was ripped off by a car that hit him.  I am pretty sure it was not his fault – although we don’t talk about it.  He was on hospital for a long time, had grafts etc.  The leg never properly healed.  Dad was never very keen on exercise after this.
33. I started to mentor people seriously during my time at Trent and have continued ever since
34. My first real job was working for Debbie’s Dad on work experience one summer
35. Then I worked for a GEC company called English Electric Valves, who decided to sponsor me.  Debbie was already sponsored by British Aerospace
36. Debbie and I lived together during the 3rd and 4th years at Trent,  it was a great time.  We were both sponsored so we had plenty of money
37. My Mum, after a life at home, decided she would lease a market stall and sell whole foods.  It changed her life, but my Dad didn’t change and they grew apart and separated shortly after I graduated
38. I graduated second in my year with a First,  Debbie also got a first and came 4th.  We were both pretty pleased
39. I got offered all of the jobs I applied for, but decided to be near Debbie so took a job at the same British Aerospace site – Brough near Hull.
40. After a very boring year working in Airframe Systems,  I applied for an internal PHD in IT, this fell through but the IT department offered me a job and I never looked back
41. We had two kittens Salt and Pepper, both black and white and brother and sister
42. I was sponsored to do a part-time MBA in Engineering Business Management at Warwick University.  I did pretty well.
43. Debbie and I had our first child – Stephie
44. We also took on two more kittens, one I found at work after her mother had been poisoned.  She was a wild cat we called lucky.  The other was a friend she made at the Cat Protection League – Joshy.
45. Three of our cats died in car accidents, lucky is still with us, and still pretty wild unless she wants feeding
46. I worked mainly in IT systems to support manufacturing engineering doing development and systems integration
47. I learned to programme in Modula 2, Fortran, Pascal, Visual Basic, DCL, Perl, Python, VB Script
48. I was a very early adopter of Windows NT 3.1
49. I moved to do IT systems in support of engineering design
50. I moved to do IT infrastructure architecture
51. We had our second daughter – Jenny
52. I decided there was no future in Brough so we moved directly across country to Warton
53. The happiest I have ever been was in a small flat in Lytham St Annes, we put most of our stuff in store and lived a simple uncluttered life by the sea.
54. I have lived in 14 different homes so far
55. I have only ever had one job that existed before I took it, my first.  I have had 10 jobs since and every one I have either invented or has been invented for me
56. I moved to do IT solution design for major programmes
57. I have Adult Onset Stills disease, It took 4 more years to get it diagnosed. 
58. I have Twins Tessa and Anna
59. That’s 4 girls if you don’t count the cat
60. Debbie, decided to re-join a church, just around the corner, after years away.  It has made a great difference to her life, and continues to be very rewarding from both a spiritual and community perspective
61. I once wasted a lot of money buying a posh car, and then deciding a year later to buy a practical one.  The practical car kept cutting out on me and failing to start again for an hour or so, after a year they gave me a new one.  I don’t bother about cars these days
62. My life has been changed by Stills Disease,  it means I have to work from home and only on specific types of work but it has changed my life for the better in many ways
63. I live with daily pain
64. I like gadgets, especially IT gadgets
65. I like to make my own rules, that comply with the principles that underly the applicable rule book.  I don’t feel compelled to follow “stupid rules”
66. I rarely give in,  I have spent too much time debugging thorny problems, that always have a solution in the end
67. I know that most problems are probably my problems, I have spent too much time debugging my own code!
68. I don’t like it when things don’t work properly
69. I dislike conflict and competition that is not friendly
70. I have strongly held opinions
71. I like to work in small teams
72. I like to mentor/develop people
73. I read a lot, all sorts of books, even more variety since I decided to join a reading group at the Library
74. I like to go to the cinema and theatre
75. I love to walk and do so most days
76. I love to swim and do so several times a week
77. I love to cycle and do so once or twice a week, but wish I could do it more often
78. After 12 years Debbie and me finally found a reliable baby sitter and now manage to go out once a week
79. I like to build things
80. I am a perfectionist at work and a “good enough” bodger at home
81. My favorite book is The Seventh Son of a Seventh Son
82. I am pretty emotional, for example I often cry – a little –  when watching a good film
83. I love open spaces, particularly the beach
84. I am very lucky to live by the sea
85. I like to eat out,  I have my breakfast at a beach side Cafe most days, and the kids come too weekends and holidays
86. I do all of the washing at home
87. I like things to be neat and tidy.  I find it difficult to relax in a mess
88. I do not like large groups
89. I don’t drink or smoke.  I never liked the taste and did not feel peer pressure very strongly
90. I am very picky with my food,  I like what I like, and thats simple fare.  That said I enjoy my food very much
91. I don’t like hot drinks
92. I don’t have an extravagant lifestyle
93. I love a sunny day
94. I have sun sensitive skin as a result of a reaction of the medication Roacutane, so I have to wear sun screen most days
95. My favorite place is Filey in North Yorkshire, a sleepy fishing village
96. Although I am not a Christian I admire the teachings of Christ
97. I meditate most days
98. I have been very poor and am not afraid of it
99. I value my time
100. I am happy with my life

This is my first mini review of a talk from IT conversations, it is an interview by Moira Gunn with Dr. Henry Jenkins and explains how he thinks video games will revolutionise education. Dr. Jenkins is the director of the Comparative Media Studies Program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the co-editor of Rethinking Media Change: The Aesthetics of Transition (Media in Transition).   The talk is truly fascinating, and pretty scary when you think about the dramatic affects it will have on the capability and outlook that the kids of the future.  Surprisingly this talk and others point out that the gamer generation will have different attitudes to work and will need to be managed differently, this talk by John Beck, a Senior Research Fellow at USC’s Annenberg Center of the Digital Future, is on that topic.

I particularly liked the description of the teacher, as more of a coach and leader, and the emphasis on experience as a tool for learning.  In the games that bring history to life it is interesting how it will be possible to provide a real insight into what life was actually like for those experiencing key events from different perspectives, it will no longer to a sequential textbook description.  He also talks about a science game where students try and master magnetic fields by learning to navigate through them, the teacher then explains the theory and the kids can try again this time with an evolved understanding of the underlying theory.  He mentions that in the classroom of the future kids will use textbooks as “cheat sheets” that help them play the game better.  This is much more true to life in the real world which is of course all about doing things and researching to do things better.

The best part of the talk was where Henry talked about about the process of producing a game.  The producer asks the teacher “why are we teaching this – what is its purpose” ie what is the relevance of the knowledge learned to some real activity.  You would hope that the teachers had a good answer but invariably I suspect the answer is “it’s important”.  As someone who likes to learn by experience and apply what I have learned the whole talk was music to my ears.

That said I am not a gamer! why? because I am worried that I will get drawn into it and never get any work done or spend time with my family etc,  I have an addictive personality and games certainly sound addictive!

If you want more, then try reading this interview on Education and Violence, these books,  and this wide ranging interview.

It’s been a few months since I have been well enough to taking the kids out playing on the beach, so this bank holiday weekend has been pretty special.  We have played ball games every day on our local beach and today we went into Blackpool early (never go into Blackpool late on a bank holiday unless you like the “party atmosphere” – ie drunken louts!).  Anyway early on a sunny day is great fun.  The girls spent an hour in the amusements and we had a good root round the shops and good fun on the beach.

I have mentioned before that I live in St Annes on the Sea, a small town that enjoys a micro-climate.  Well it was forecast snow today, but for us it has been a lovely sunny day, which is lucky because it’s market day and what a market it was!  Today we had a speciality continental market, very expensive but a visual delight!

Today in our little town we were celebrating the fact that after much campaigning we now have our own town council which gives us a more effective voice at the Borough Council,  celebrations were mainly of a musical nature, and this picture is of one of the local bands.  The town was buzzing, helped by the fact that its was a gloriously sunny day.  We walked home along the beach playing football, which regular readers will know means that physically I am on pretty good form today.

As a small town we face many challenges and difficult decisions concerning for example striking a balance between development, especially Tourist development, and maintaining the spirit of “The garden by the sea”, which was how the town was known in Victorian times. 

In recent years we have seen a lot of money spent on appropriate development, which has successful regenerated the town centre and this year we are hoping to see further investment in our promenade gardens and in our town centre park.  This picture is of my mum and the kids in one of the beach side cafes.

On Saturday I started to pull up all of the strawberry plants that had rooted from runners last year.  I ended up with several hundred plants in a big heap.  I decided that it would be a good idea to give them away, but my wife though tno one would be interested.  I took this as a bit of a challenge,  I am one of those people who likes to think the best of others (which is an extension of having a positive outlook) my wife in contrast always expects things to go wrong and tends to distrust those she doesn’t know.  Anyway I bagged the plants up – 15 plants to a bag – and to make the challenge more interesting decided to give the plants away but allow for donations.

My eldest daughter, Stephie, made a lovely sign and we put the 15 bags of plants in a big plastic container on the path outside the house.  The sign read – Free Strawberries – and was nicely illustrated.  Next to the container was a small wooden bowl which I put a little loose change in; to get things going.  After three days all 15 bags have gone, we collected about £5 in donations and so far as I can tell, none of the donated money was removed.

I thought it was a pretty good illustration of my view on life:

• I gave something away which made me feel good
• I provided the opportunity for donation, but no obligation, and most people donated
• At least 15 people appreciated the gesture, so that made them feel good
• No one stole any of the money, or took an unfair number of plants, (the bags went roughly 1 at a time), so I feel better about my neighbourhood
• Hopefully people will enjoy the crop for years to come
• Hopefully a few more people will stop and chat as the year progresses
• Maybe others will do the same with other plants and spare produce and community spirit will improve, we will see

We give a lot to charity and to charity shops, but this tiny experiment was a much more direct way of engaging with the community and redistributing excess.  It was also interesting to see the effect on the kids who were fascinated by the whole process, and it was all I could do to stop them from perching at the front of the house and becoming market sales girls, not because of the money but because of the enjoyable banter they engaged in on a fine spring day.

Where I live we have a micro climate, we always get better than average weather, a lot less rain than just a few miles inland.  But this Winter has been amazing,  in fact it feels like we have missed winter altogether.  the last month it has only rained a couple of days and most days we have had at least some sunshine.  I took this picture of the flowers as we walked along the beach promenade on Sunday, the picture was taken with the built in camera in my Treo 640*480, but good enough for the odd blog posting.

Since I started working from home I have increased the amount of house work that I do, my share is:

• Washing the clothes and putting them away
• At least one set of washing up
• Tidying the kids rooms
• Bed time stories

I don’t mind doing it to much,  but I have recently found that I actually quite enjoy it because I listen to technical conferences or pod-casts on my Treo to keep me occupied (except when reading the bedtime stories ).  Today I was listening to the 2nd Tablet PC Podcast that JK has just started, more details on his blog.  and I found that I was actually looking around for more cleaning to do so that I could listen to the end.  Debbie (wife) was pretty pleased when she got home!

I thought I would take the opportunity to look back on my year (and a funny old year it’s been) before looking forward to the new year in a few days.  It’s nice and quiet in the house and after such a lovely time (Christmas Morning) it’s left me in an appropriately reflective mood, so here goes:

Health

What a year it’s been, around the middle of January 2004 I started with another flare of Adult Onset Still’s Disease, which had been in remission for about 8 months.  This time no remission has occurred and one year on I am still suffering. However I have come to terms with it well and am approaching the point after many experiments (often painful) and lots of record keeping, research and analysis I think I am on the brink of getting things under control.  My Specialists now think as well as AOSD I have two other secondary auto-immune disorders Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Fibromyalgia.

The conditions are very unpredictable resulting in a great difficulty in planning things, so living in the moment has become the order of the day.

Also for all of the conditions exercise and variety of movement and activity are essential which means that although I work from home my days have a lot of variety with (when I can manage it) lots of beach walking, swimming, walking to the shops, trampolining in the garden, reading in the garden, working on the beach or beach side Cafes, as well as working in my very well equipped home office.

Happiness

I decided to start the review with Health because its pretty negative, which makes this section all the more amazing.  I am in fact much happier this year than last year. Although I live with daily pain and frustration there are many positives I have managed to build into my life, here is a sampler:

1. My work and family life are seamlessly integrated, by this I mean that whenever the opportunity arises to spend time with my family I am able to take that time and fit work around that primary commitment.  This means I often find myself working at odd times but that’s no hassle as I have trained myself to work within my health limitations.
2. When I am tired, in pain, finding it difficult to concentrate I just do something else and being at home there’s plenty to do
3. I can take advantage of good weather, and where I live we have a very positive micro-climate that means we get much better weather than the poor folks in Preston just 20 miles inland!
4. I have trained myself to avoid frustration, this works most of the time, one of the most frustrating things for me was that my company would not invest in my productivity.  I decided as soon as I became ill that I earned enough money to invest in my own productivity so I now have a superb working environment and IT facilities, (some paid for by the company but a lot of it a personal commitment to my well being).  I also invest quite a lot in my own comfort, expensive walking gear, swimming gear, bike etc – I still save quite a lot but within limits I now feel little or no guilt about spending the money I save by working from home on MYSELF.
5. I have re-discovered reading, I used to read a lot but then lapsed into business reading/reviewing dominating most of my available reading time.  Largely because of AOSD and the need to take lots of rest and hot baths (I read in the bath) I have started reading for 1 or 2 hours a day, I joined a reading group which has exposed me to all types of books I would never have come across and the monthly discussions have been very stimulating.  We had a Christmas party this year which was great fun with everyone talking about their favourite books and it’s becoming quite a social event.
6. I am getting loads of exercise, which probably sounds strange when you have a condition that gives you systemic/chronic muscle and joint pain and fatigue, however within limits the more you do with these conditions the better you feel.  I love walking, swimming and cycling and live just by the sea and within a few minutes of a great health club.  I usually have the pool to myself!  On some bad days I live for the exercise; when the endorphins get flowing I feel so much better than suffering in a chair trying to type with painful fingers, wrists, neck, back, ankles …
7. Although I work from home I don’t feel isolated, in fact I probably spend more time on social interaction than I did in a business oriented office environment.  The combination of lots of eating out, reading groups, family life, social get togethers for lunch with friends, instant messenger and phone chats and the odd visit to the office are quite enough for a mild Asbergers Syndrome sufferer like myself.
8. I have discovered RSS feeds, which provide me with a constant stream of interesting reading material on all sorts of topics, (many work related), but lots on broader topics as well.
9. I have trained myself to live more in the moment, to save less and spend more on experience than things, this particularly applies to the kids who soak up a lot of money in a whole variety of music, drama and sports lessons but to see them develop is a real joy, especially for Debbie who dreams of all of them playing together.  Debbie plays Violin and Cello, Stephie: keyboard and Viola, Jenny: Clarinet and Flute, Anna: Flute and Recorder, Tessa: Bugle and Trumpet.  All of the girls are great singers and love drama; Stephie is also quite the academic.
10.  I eat out a lot, it’s one of my real joys to eat breakfast every morning in one of our beach side Cafes,  I know all of the staff and after a morning walk I tend to spend an hour working there and preparing for the day.  It’s the best start I can imagine.  We also regularly eat out as a family, generally in places where we are well known, and any family with four lovely girls like ours quickly gets well known!
11. Work no longer dominates my life, see later …

Family

Although it was a bit of a struggle for Debbie to suddenly have me interrupting her daily routine and having to learn to get used to not having the house to herself all day, I think she has adjusted well.  She now has so much more freedom, gets out a lot more and has time to indulge her creativity by supporting the Church in general and the kids club she runs in particular.   I am a fully integrated member of the family now, not just a weekend Dad and the kids seem to really enjoy that, although it does mean there is a bit more structure and discipline!

In general though I think we have done really well as a family:

1. Debbie has had time to develop as her own person at last after years dominated by looking after the house and kids
2. The girls have all developed tremendously becoming much more balanced individuals, and all picking up some great life skills as well as working hard at school
3. We have managed quite a lot of holidays, thanks to Debbie’s fantastic organising, and although we have had to take the risk that I will be ok, we managed three holidays (North Wales, West Wales and Scotland) and I managed to largely keep up each time

Work

Of course work has changed dramatically for me, but in many ways the change has been positive.  I have had to reduce my hours and work from home.  I do less time sensitive stressful customer facing work, and concentrate on longer term internal research and strategy.  There is a bit more of a story to tell:

1. I was getting very frustrated by the degree to which politics and administration were dominating my days, requiring me to do actual creative work during the evenings – long days – this has changed completely now.  I only work 5-6 hours a day but of that probably 5 hours a day is either research or creative activity or constructive communication, much more enjoyable
2. I was very frustrated by the poor quality of my office environment and tools – I now work at home in an office that I have designed and optimised to meet my needs.  I share the Office with my wife which is nice (most of the time) and have spared little expense in getting things the way I want them (eBay has helped again here in making this affordable)
3. I work mainly on global projects, most of my interactions are using Instant Messenger, Conference Calls (I have a Polycom conference phone), or Email so it doesn’t matter much where I work.  I just wish I had a Blackberry or GPRS/Wireless access from my Tablet PC but that will almost certainly be resolved next year.   I would love seamless/easy to use Voice/Video and application sharing with my main contacts but again it’s not too far away.
4. I bought myself a Tablet PC which has transformed the way in which I read and review, particularly because I no longer do that sitting at my desk, I now do it by the side of the swimming pool, in a deck chair in my garden, sitting in a café watching the sunrise/sunset etc etc.  Much better for my physical health (I need to move around a lot) and much more fun!
5. I am still trying to get my new work role fully established, I have it clear in my mind,  its just a the small step of getting people to agree to pay me to do it that remains, but I am confident that January will see that bought to conclusion
6. I have noticed that by being available to consult on lots of projects I am adding a surprising amount of value, every month I manage to provide advice to someone that saves £50-£200K, not a bad return on investment.
7. I have been disappointed to see some of my friends leave my company, but pleased to see them making a new life for themselves.  Hopefully a few will stay as it’s nice to have a network of friends that you know you can rely on.  I am pleased to say though that so far the people who leave still keep in touch and we are establishing quite a little community of people working for all of the major IT service Providers in the UK!
8. My company has been very good to me in all sorts of ways, primarily people who I know and who care about me have been great, people who’s job it is to care (but don’t know me) have not been so good and the bureaucracy has been pretty abysmal – but that’s to be expected in a large company – but not forgiven!

Summary

I was sort of inspired to write this by Graham, when I read his review I thought – where’s the summary – he later wrote one.  Anyway here’s mine.

1. A very challenging year
2. A year filled with physical pain and frustration
3. A year of successful reinvention
4. Perhaps not my best year ever but certainly better than the previous two years
5. A year of considerable reflection and preparation for an even better year next year, hopefully my best ever

It’s Christmas day today and the girls have had a fantastic time opening and enjoying their presents.  It started like this:

1. On Christmas Eve the girls were allowed to choose one present to open, inevitably they chose ones that looked most like clothes so that they could where them on Christmas morning!
2. They all went to bed nice and early without a peep (very unusual) as they all understand that Father Christmas misses any houses where children are awake J
3. Debbie and I acting as Father Christmas’ helpers then packed up 4 gift bags that Father Christmas was to deliver that night to their bedrooms, one of the nice touches is that during holidays the Twins sleep in bunk beds with their older sisters instead of together.
4. On Christmas morning we let the kids open their presents from Santa at 7:00AM (and the rest after breakfast) although they often hold one or two back to open on boxing day; which is my Birthday.
5. This morning Debbie crept into their rooms just after 6:00AM and found them sitting on their beds surrounded by unopened gifts patiently waiting for 7:00 to arrive (bless) I think she let them sneak a few open early although I was fast asleep so the details are none too clear.
6. Just after 7:00 though they all paraded into our bedroom with their presents and to our relief could not have been happier, Santa had been very busy on eBay this year and so Christmas was not as expensive as usual but the quality of the presents, especially the array of musical instruments and accessories was amazing!
7. A very nice touch this year was that Father Christmas wrote each of the girls a lovely letter bound with ribbon that looked back on their year and what he had been most impressed with and explained why he had chosen the presents he had and what he was looking forward to them achieving next year (just the sort of thing my wife would have thought of had she been seconded to the North Pole this year J)
8. Their present lust slated for a while, we managed a very leisurely breakfast before letting the girls loose on taking all the presents from under our giant tree in the hall into piles (per person) in the living room.  
9. Then another hour of present opening frenzy (my least favourite part of Christmas I am afraid) followed by tidying and filtering out the presents that would form the centre of the days activities.
10. The at 10:00 Debbie and Two of the girls went off to Church and Me and the remaining two kids went for a nice walk along the beach, we dropped in on our friends at the Café/restaurants who were preparing for their Christmas customers and then rushed home to make some fresh bread for our buffet lunch.
11. Debbie made a fantastic buffet (I contributed the hot bread) which incredibly was all eaten and the girls went out to play in the ‘snow’ (we had a 10 minute hail storm)
12. Everyone has just finished a biscuit snack now and are settling down to some good traditional Christmas TV, while Debbie prepares our roast dinner!
13. I might just go out for another walk though and try and walk off those biscuits and ease up my aching muscles.

All in all the best Christmas so far I think – and a great meal and quiet TV night tonight and it’s my birthday tomorrow so it’s not over yet.