Mutterings for the Minority An insight into the world of DDWT

Support the Team Thomas Sport Relief Challenge

Yes it's official, Team Thomas have decided to take part in Sport Relief 2010!

On Sunday 21st March 2010, Team Thomas - all four of us - will be heading down to Singleton Park to take part in the Swansea Sport Relief Mile in order to raise money for poor and vulnerable people.

The Swansea Sport Relief event offers a choice of distances to enter - 1, 3 or 6 miles and to make things a little more fun we've decided to do something a wee bit different.

I will kick things off at 11 am by doing the 6 mile event before joining Mrs DDWT and the little 'uns for the 1 mile event at noon. That is assuming that I run the 6 miles in under an hour of course LOL! We haven't decided if fancy dress is in order or not yet (any suggestions for costumes?).

We've never done a family fundraising event all together in the past, so we thought it was an ideal opportunity to try something different and help people both at home and overseas who aren't as fortunate as ourselves.

So why not sign up and enter the event, it's only £5 per adult and £2 for children under 16 or for just £12 you can register 2 adults and 2 children.

If you don't fancy taking part then why not sponsor Team Thomas instead? Remember every penny helps so even a £1 would be extremely welcome.

So go on you know you want too...

Welcome to 2010

Felt rough as heck this morning but that was nothing to do with alcohol, it was because Mrs T and I were playing Lego Indiana Jones 2: The Adventure Continues on the Wii until gone 2am this morning!

Sleep deprivation coupled with 2 early risers (aged 18 months and 5 years old) are a recipe for non-existent patience syndrome - no matter what day of the week/year it is!

So with our fridge in desperate need of some semi-skimmed milk I decided it was time to take the kids for a walk into the village to stock up at the local co-op, regardless of how cold and frosty it was.

We were suitably frozen by the time we got back some hour and a half later! Little wonder then perhaps that as I type - albeit late evening - that the snow has started to fall quite heavily (and not before bloody time too!).

Let's just hope it lasts until the morning so that we can have a family snowball fight!

Oh I almost forgot - Happy New Year everyone and all the very best in health and happiness for 2010

One year on

It's hard to imagine that a whole year has gone by since my Dad passed away as it really doesn't feel as if its been that long.

Over the last few weeks, I've been dreading this day for lots of reasons - how my Mam would be feeling a year on, would my sister still be taking it badly and would I finally succumb to the grieving which rears its head every so often.

Now that the day is here and we've been through the whole first anniversary of everything (birthday, wedding anniversary, etc, etc) everything seems to be that little bit easier.

My Mam has spent the day with us and we've treated it as any other day to be honest, which I think is (and always would be) the best thing to do. The strength and courage my Mam has shown over the past 12 months is admirable and I take so much positive energy from that - as after all she has suffered the biggest loss.

I've little doubt that as each day passes us by it will be another step forward to life getting back on track - as it must - and things will get easier.

We'll never ever forget my Dad regardless of the amount of time that passes by, but life must go on and with a young family that is what I intend to do - as I know my Dad would have wanted.

Baby's First Christmas

Christmas Day is special every year, but this year it took on an even greater significance in the house of DDWT as it was our baby daughter's very first Christmas.

Despite being only 6 months old, she was a dab hand at taking with Christmas wrapping off her presents from Santa - with the help of DDWT Junior of course!  Needless to say they both had a great day and were well pleased with what they received.

It was also pleasing that despite being awoken at 06:30 - to shouts of "Has Santa been yet?" - that my turkey dinner went down a treat with everyone.  So much so that I'm considering changing career and becoming a cook/chef rather than a web developer.  Only kidding!

But as happy as the occasion was, it was also tinged with sadness as it was also the first Christmas without my Dad.  It was hard on times to get upset, especially as my Mam was with us for the day.  In fact I took great strength from the way my Mam handled the occasion and it made me realise how important it is to look forward and not back at times such as this.

Anyway, for anyone who is reading this - may I wish you and your families a very Happy Christmas.