Happy New Year

Last day of the year. Sara and Mary went into Salisbury leaving Tom and me to tidy up the house and the front drive. Tom worked hard cleaning up the wet leaves which we bagged up into four large plastic sacks to take down to the recycling station in Salisbury. We also dusted and polished the furniture in the lounge. My plans for this afternoon were to take the leaves to the recycling plant, spent an hour in the gym where our friend Anthony would meet me so that he could come back with me to Winterslow and spend the evening with us to see the New Year in. The first part of the plan went well and I was able to off load all the leaves at the dump but when I arrived at the Leisure Centre it was to find that it had closed at lunchtime and Anthony was not due for another hour. I decided that I would not waste the hour but put it to good use by going for a long walk to replace the exercise I would have had in the gym. I therefore walked to Stratford-Sub-Castle and back - around one and a half miles - which used up both time and calories! Anthony arrived a little before 4 p.m. and we set off for Winterslow. This evening Sara cooked a fantastic pork roast - absolutely beautiful piece of pork - with a red cabbage accompaniment washed down with an American wine. Afterwards we had Eton Mess. We all dressed up for dinner and i was delighted to discover that I had lost sufficient weight to be able to wear my old silk waistcoat which I had bought several years ago in Paris. Anthony kindly took some photos of us in our smart gear. After dinner, Anthony and I went down to the Lion's Head where we found the bar pretty full with people in fancy costume. Still wearing my waistcoat I felt that I could pass for Dennis Taylor, the snooker player. The prize went to Mick Gong as "Mr. T". Richard and Linda joined us and after a couple of hours in the pub came back with us to see the New Year in over a glass of bubbly and to play charades! They left us at around 1 a.m. and we continued to play charades until 3 p.m. in the morning. I am afraid that I seemed to lose track of both the time and the amount of wine I drank! I am sure that I have well and truly blown the Fight Fighter regime today!

Another Butter Pack (Half a Pound) Lost!

Was up early again this morning as I had a meeting with one of my clients in central Salisbury at 9.00 a.m. I drove to the Park & Ride and caught the bus into the city centre in good time for the meeting - in fact I also had time to visit a couple of banks. My meeting over, I called in at Staples for some stationery supplies before returning home in time to take Tom's friend Douglas back home to the Wallops and going on to Fat Fighters in Andover. The usual location for our meeting was closed due a burst water pipe and do we had to visit a dance studio on an industrial estate. I had mixed feelings about finding the location as I was convinced that I just have put on at least 2 pounds weight over the Christmas period. Sara had indeed put on one pound but to my astonishment, and that of the person weighing me, I had lost a further half a pound! Not much, admittedly, but at least I hadn't gone the wrong way and I would have been satisfied if I had stayed the same. Thank goodness I had gone for those long walks otherwise I certainly wouldn't have done it. This evening the whole family went swimming again but Sara, who hates swimming at the best of times, retreated to the hot tub after only a couple of lengths in the main pool. Tonight I attended a drinks evening at Debbie and Jonathan's (Ben's owners) which was well attended by many of of friends. Unfortunately Sara and the children didn't come with me as the children had misbehaved badly at home and were grounded - this meant that Sara had to stay behind too. A lovely evening though with excellent company.

Swimming

The snow has completely gone this morning but in its place we have the appalling fog - down to 10 yards visibility. Sara went off to Morning Star this morning but wasn't required as most of the homeless have found hostels to stay in over the festive season and don't require the banquet food. In view of the mounting rubbish I drove to the amenity tip in Amesbury to take the recycling - paper, wrapping paper, tins and cans and domestic rubbish so we don't get overloaded with them. Tom had his friend Douglas (from The Wallops) over for the afternoon and night and they spent most of the time on his Xbox or making movies on his laptop. Mary and I went swimming for an hour which was good exercise seeing as I hadn't done done any long walks over the last two days. Tomorrow we go to the Fat Fighter's Weigh-In at Andover which I am not looking forward to as I fear my weight loss may have turned to weight gain over the last week. I've certainly eaten and drunk far less than I would normally at Christmas so here's hoping. Tonight I dealt with some important bills and correspondence whilst Sara did some more ironing.

Sporting Triumphs

It was a strange day today because being a Tuesday, and a bank holiday, it felt very weird indeed. It was made even stranger by the fact that Saints were playing a home match against Huddersfield Town at 3 p.m. this afternoon and so it felt like a Saturday. I also spent some of the morning working - a strange state of affairs as in my previous life I would try to avoid work on a bank holiday at all costs! Tom was also confused as football matches on a Tuesday tend to kick-off in the evening and he was convinced that the game was an evening affair. He was, therefore, taken quite unawares when at 12 noon I asked him to get ready to go to Southampton. He was still in his pyjamas playing on his XBox! The weather was very foggy as we drove across to Southampton and the traffic in the city was terrible. We managed to get parked at just before 2 pm. - still time to visit the chippie where we shared a portion of chips and I had a fried cod (removing most of the batter to reduce the points!) before getting to the stadium. The ground wasn't as packed as I had expected and we were all rolling our eyes upwards when, after 13 minutes, we let in another silly goal. Shades of the Brentford game descended! However we equalised shortly after that and by halftime we were 2-1 up. Two further goals in the second half and the results elsewhere going our way meant that at the end of the day Saints jumped from 11th place to 5th in the space of ninety minutes and only two points behind the automatic promotion spot. We all left feeling pretty good. Tonight I went to bed early so that I could listen to the fourth and final day of the 4th Ashes Test Match in Melbourne. England only needed to take four more Australian wickets to win the match and retain the Ashes. I listened to the match in bed on my sports radio on headphones. Needing only one wicket to win the match and secure the Ashes my radio frequency suddenly changed to the Shipping Forecast which lasted ten minutes. Once over, listeners were greeted to the news that England had indeed won - so I missed the actual final ball of the game. Never mind, the result was what mattered and I was able to switch off and go to sleep by 1 a.m. A very satisfactory day in the sporting calendar!

Another Long Walk (and for Ponting!)

The weather has warmed up a little today and is now above freezing. Unfortunately not enough to be able to get my car out of the drive. I tried several times and although I shovelled the top layer of snow off the drive it was not sufficient to get the car right out; although I did manage to get it to the top of the drive and was only a foot or so away from getting it out. Southampton FC have announced that the game against Huddersfield Town tomorrow is still on so I will need to get it out tomorrow morning. Let's hope the slow thaw continues. Today I went off for another long walk - 3.26 miles this time. My route took me down Cobb Lane to Dunstable Cross, through Church Hollow returning via Weston Lane (through the copse) and across Barry's Field to the Village Hall and back home. The journey took me an hour and a half as I stopped off to take some photos (see one of Cobb Lane above) and the track down to Dunstable Cross alongside the Roman road was not easy to walk on. Tonight Sara served up an amazingly good paella from a Weight Watcher's recipe and we all watched National Lampoon Christmas Holiday which the kids thought hilarious. Tom then spent some time gaming on his XBox whilst Sara and Mary watched Sister Act. I went to bed early and watched the highlights from yesterday's third day of the fourth Ashes Test Match. England ended yesterday on 444-5 and tonight I watched the live coverage which brought their First Innings' total to 513-All Out. Overnight, Australia struggled to 169-5 against the English seam bowlers. An English win and the retention of the Ashes look inevitable barring an absolute disaster. Not much sleep tonight!

A long Boxing Day walk

The weather continues with its cold snap and my car remains trapped in our drive. After yesterday's excesses of food I thought it a good idea to go for another 3-miles walk today and walked my circuit to East Winterslow and back - 2.8 miles to be precise. Sara and Mary also went for a walk and did the 2.4 miles circuit down Weston Lane, Livery Road, passing the Rectory on the way back along The Plantation back to The Common. There had been a deep frost last night and the frozen snow was quite difficult to walk on especially where it had been compacted. I found that Clough Lane was so dangerous that Pheasant Hill had been closed to traffic. Nevertheless, I plodded on along Pincroft Lane and took some lovely snowy photographs with my Blackberry across Salisbury Plain. I felt really invigorated by the time I returned (after 70 minutes). I had a warming home-made mulligatawny soup on my return and we had a video chat with Sara's Dad, Andrea and Andrea's son, Rick/Duff who I guess is Sara's step-brother. He is spending Christmas in North Carolina from New Hampshire where he currently lives (a little north of Boston). this evening we watched Crocodile Dundee and Some Mothers do 'Ave 'Em on the TV. I actually went to bed quite early tonight feeling quite tired. I watched some TV before Sara joined me well before midnight. This wretched cold weather which seems to go on and on is really quite debilitating and interferes with many things I'd like to do - for example clear a load of things and take them down the dump. Still we are on holiday. Today's Southampton match against Charlton was postponed and the Saints have dropped to eleventh in the table. However some good sporting news is that England are thrashing the Aussies in the Fourth Ashes Test Match and look like retaining the Ashes on Aussie territory.

Christmas Day 2010 - A Stilton Fest!

Christmas Day has arrived - very cold and icy. Unlike previous Christmases, nobody seemed in a hurry to get up this morning - including the children who had to be woken up. Sara made tea for us and as traditional has it put a splash of Scotch in mine. The children came in and we opened our stocking presents - generally small items which we allow ourselves to have before breakfast and our trip to church. I served up cold gammon and warm boiled eggs for breakfast washed down with ornage juice. Elizabeth took a pack congregation for the Christmas Day Eucharist in her usual relaxed and humorous style - using her shoes to bring across the message that Jesus came down to Earth and is always in our shoes which ever ones we are wearing. After the service we returned home and I lit a nice wood fire and served bucks fizz before we opened our presents. We haven't gone mad this year but had a very good spread of gifts. Sara was given a new digital camera from me and she gave me some Vie aftershave and quite a few books and DVDs. The children had a variety of quite inexpensive presents. We missed the Queen's Speech this year as we were still at the dinner table - traditional turkey, pudding and Stilton cheese with a good vintage (1988) Medoc wine. The diet has certainly hit the buffers today! The Stilton was placed on our coffee table and over the course of the evening shrank dramatically and pieces of cheese were scooped out using my 1912 antique Stilton spoon. Such a lovely cheese - but deadly for the diet! We had a very quiet day with no phone calls from any relatives and this year we made none. Tonight we watched TV (Dr. Who and On the Buses films) before having a relatively early night at 11.15 p.m. Need to get some walking in over the next few days!