A very merry Christmas to you all!

Although posting has been somewhat infrequent lately, I felt I would take the time to wish all readers a very Mery Christmas and a Happy New Year.

I am now enjoying my annual visit back down to London for Christmas and appreciating the space and comfort of 'bricks and mortar' even more! Went last night to see 'Wicked' in the West End. A very different show; enjoyable with stunning lighting and effects and a very deep storyline - not a children's show really. We plan to see another show next week but not sure what yet. Tickets are already booked however for me to take my father to see 'Phantom of the Opera' on Monday 28th December as he would like to see it - it's part of his Christmas present but he does know about it!

Most of my regular posts are now via my Facebook account as I can do it easier and upload pictures then and there taken on my mobile device. Any regular readers who wish to keep up to date with my ramblings and boring life, please ask to be a 'Facebook friend' of mine - you may wish to identify yourself as a reader from my blog or I may deny the request!

Anyway, have a great Christmas and 2010 to you all.

Weekend walks

Better late than never! This is the weekend post. The weekend saw some lovely weather on Saturday but the day was too busy with coal runs, cleaning, Christmas card writing, present buying and wrapping etc. On Sunday the weather was not quite as good but I did manage finally to go out for a walk and investigate the new towpath along the Oxford canal outside All Oaks Wood. A jolly smart job too as these pictures show.

The evening saw a glorious sunset over the marina.

Friday saw an internet crisis. My Ticalli modem packed in - it refused to switch on and no lights lit. I phoned them expecting a new modem to be sent out immediately. 40 minutes later and the guy in the Indian call centre informed me he would have to escelate it to the next level. Apparently the process is that another guy would ring me back and go through the same checks in case anything had been missed, then an engineer would be sent out to check it and the line, then a new modem would be sent out to me. Not surprisingly, I told them not to bother and rung Orange. They signed me up and told me my new equipment would be out by Monday and working immediately. Monday came and went and no equipment. I phoned and was told it was due to be sent out for connection on 21st December. I hit the roof - again!! I am now running through my very slow Orange dongle until my new equipment can be sent out and got up and running - is noone competent in this world any more!!??

Feeling Christmassy!

After the stress of surviving Ofsted last week followed by the school discos last night, this morning was a relatively lazy day. I had to pop in to school this morning at 11.00 for an hour as we took part in the Tree O'Clock attempt to break the world record of the most number of trees planted at the same time across the country! Our effort planting 2 trees hopefully helped!

I then came home and began catching up with the many tasks oustanding on the boat: pump-out, water, (I haven't filled up for over 2 weeks!), hoovering, cleaning, washing etc.

I then decided it was time ofr Christmas to start so I put up the lights on the outside of the boat:

My little fibre optic Christmas tree was looking very sad so I decided it was time to buy another one. A quick visit to Homebase confirmed they had sold out so I decided to see what 'real' ones they had! I fell in love with such a cute little potted Norway Spruce - only about 2 foot high. £20 later and I had a tree, some lights, one strand of tinsel and a few baubles - doesn't it look fine!?

I can now start feeling Christmassy as I begin the endless cycle of Christmas concerts and shows at school this coming week.