Happy New Year!

It has been 29 days since my last post... Time certainly has flown by, hard to believe Christmas was eleven days ago!

Mr G isn't very well at all... zonked on the sofa on morphine again, poor guy.  We went to Maelor in December to see Mr Makwana and it appears that only one of the metal 'anchors' used in the reconstruction is working. The one that moves his ankle up and down is ok, the one that moves side to side isn't doing the job, leaving his ankle unstable. It was apparent he was in a lot of pain, and the consultant said something about tendonitis. Decided to try him with some injections in his ankle as a last resort before surgery.  He had his pre op on the 15th of December for the phantom gallbladder, and a couple of days later received his op date, 22nd of this month. Ye Gods.  He is in excruciating pain, but really worried about this particular surgery, which isn't like him.  I'm worrying too, about him, about what happens if this surgery doesn't resolve the problem, if it makes it worse, and the usual 'having to hold it all together, all by myself, and not being at all prepared for it' panic.  I will hold it all together though. I always do, and I always will. 

Christmas was a funny one... We'd received a phone call from my ex the week before Christmas to say his father was very poorly, so Mr G and I took Dan down to Manchester.  Talks between us all concluded that it was better for him to stay with his father over Christmas, so for the first time ever, I didn't have my eldest son with me on Christmas Day.  It made it feel a bit flat, but the important thing is that Dan got to spend time with his Grandfather and all his family on that side and hopefully leave him with some nice memories for years to come.  We all had lovely pressies, we were very lucky and blessed indeed, and we ate so much Christmas Dinner that we couldn't manage my homemade Christmas pudding!  We eventually had it on New Year's Day, when we had a second Christmas dinner for Daniel and my in laws.

Santa came and destroyed my living room...

Missing Dan...

Spot on!

Woop!

A lot of women would be gutted/file for divorce if they received stuff for the kitchen for Christmas.  Not I.  Oh no, not I.  You can keep your diamonds, gold, Pandora charms and the like.  I'm not the high maintenance one in this house (Mr G, in case you need ask).  You want to make me happy?  Breadmaker.  Soupmaker.  I've coveted one of these meat slicers for years, because I am terrified of blood + knives + cutting myself = appallingly cut meat.  

New Year's Eve was a cosy affair, my sister in law and husband and friend and daughter joined us. We shoved the heater and power on in the shedpub and got tipsy on wine and licorice Sambuca!

Bartender! 

In other news, I've been enjoying watching the Darts World Championship, my favourite Mike van Gerwen was knocked out in the semis though.  I bought a dartboard three weeks ago and Mr G won't put it up in the shed until he has a board to put it on. Something about holes in the walls? As IF. He of little faith!  I've put 'hit 180' on my '40 before 40 list' (more on that later...) and he rolled his eyes at me as if I'd said something unrealistic.  I might add '9 dart finish' to the list, just to finish him off.  This is he who came out with this, the other day, in the car...

Mr G:  Look Adam, in that field. An Alpaca!

           (Pause)

           Oh wait. No it's not. It's two sheep, sleeping...

Hero?  Three chords.  Three...

I've been really impressed with an app called Readly.  I'm not a magazine reader, but this is for cost purposes rather than content.  If I could afford it, I'd buy every cookery magazine every month, but they're not cheap are they?  I took out a free fortnight trial with Readly, and what impressed me was that it was just that, a free trial, no card details required. I find this is how a lot of companies suck you in, when you forget about cancelling. Or the small print, which you rarely read, makes it difficult to cancel.  With Readly, you have access to hundreds of magazines. Not only the latest editions, but the back issues.  Not just UK magazines, but US ones, Asian ones, European ones. One membership can be shared over five different devices, so for our family size it's ideal.  The cost in the UK is £9.99 a month, which is less than our newspaper bill was. We were so impressed with the variety that we cancelled the paper delivery, and took this subscription out.  Examples of the titles and genres for those in the UK; cookery magazines Olive, Delicious, BBC Good Food, Eat In. Women's weeklies such as Chat, Pick me up, Take a break. Women's glossies such as Instyle, Marie Claire. Craft and hobby magazines like Make and Sell Jewellery, Card Maker. For the children there's Match, Beano, Dr Who Adventures. For my husband there's his childhood favourite Commando!  Oh, and he's a tad obsessed with the US Cabins and Timber homes ones. Lots of car magazines, photography magazines, gardening magazines, sports magazines, shooting magazines, boat magazine, knitting magazines... You get the picture. Well worth it for the two week trial alone, or if you spend over £10 a month on magazines!  Less clutter and better for the environment!  The only downside is, if your magazine comes with a free gift, you don't get it.  If you're a parent, this means less flimsy plastic crap to squirrel away.  Always thinking...

Plenty of goals set for 2015. One is to stop wasting time playing games on my iPad. So I've deleted them. Another is to blog at least twice a week... Halfway there!  Another is to quit Facebook. Or at the very least streamline it. Get rid of the -ists, the intolerant, and ANYONE who shares anything posted by Britain First. The usual start-of-the-year stop wasting/buying more food, so we are eating randomly for the next week or so... that's just for starters ;-)

I turn 40 next year, and so I've started on my '40 before 40' list. I've got about 8 items on it so far.  One is really special and exciting, but as you know, the curse... The curse... My lips are sealed until nearer the time!  

So all in all, very little to report over the last month, but I am really excited about 2015. Once Mr G is out of hospital and recovering, it has the potential to be, and I'm certain it will be a great year for our family.

Also huge congratulations to our friends Nicola and Chris on the birth of your twins!  Can't wait to meet them!

M x