We finally got our garage back to normal after I jammed the car full with all the Christmas and New Year cardboard, plastics, cartoons, surplus clothes and headed off to the local civic amenity site.
It really is amazing how much packaging accumulates over a 2 week period and judging by the number of people at the site, I was far from being the only one who felt that way! Don’t get me wrong, it’s great to see so many people using the civic amenity sites across the country, but I do wonder how much fuel, etc is being used/wasted and the environmental effect by having so many people transport their own waste to such sites.
Begs the question why the manufacturers and/or supermarkets don’t do something about the packaging materials they use at source – rather than pass it on to the customer. But hey, that’ll cost them money and cut into profits so that ain’t gonna happen is it. Cynical aren’t I.
On a more positive note, I went for my first run of 2009 today and was over the moon with my ‘achievement’. The run of 72 minutes 31 seconds was the longest continous run I have EVER done in my life and at the same time the distance of approximately 8 miles is the longest continous distance I’ve ever done.
Despite feeling leg weary at the end of it, to say I was chuffed was an undertstatement! Whilst I know it’s no mean feat really for a 37 year old man – given how many OAPs run the London Marathon, etc – it still means a heck of a lot to me personally.
Maybe my dream of running a marathon one day isn’t such a pie in the sky idea after all 
Happy New year to you! So here we are on the very first day of 2009 with lots of people probably nursing hangovers, others laden with new year resolutions and some like me just looking forward to what should hopefully be a healthy and happy year ahead.
The Mrs and I welcomed in the new year browsing and shopping online (sad but true!) in-between watching the BBC’s iPlayer coverage of the new year being welcomed in by fireworks around the London Eye.
In keeping with the theme of the day I decided to invest some time rummaging through my wardrobes in an attempt to sort out what now fits me and what doesn’t – not to mention what can be considered fashionable or not as the case may be! I’m an official hoarder you see
Now don’t get me wrong the fact that I’m now hovering just below the 16 stone mark is very pleasing, but the sheer number of clothes I’m having to get rid of is scary! Take my work trousers for example, I’m passing 13 of them onto charity, leaving me with only 4 left. Now that tells me a lot….I’ve got too many work trousers and God only knows how many other clothes will be finding themselves a new home.
Oh well my loss is someone elses gain and for me that’s a positive start to the new year.
Poor old Katherine Jenkins. How difficult it must have been for this talented multi-millionaire songstress to come clean and reveal to the tabloids that she’d done various drugs in her pre-stardom days. Grown men and women have leapt to her defence and expressed admiration for her having the strength to come clean.
Oh come off it. I mean really, how hard could it have been for her. She’s well liked (as the public/media reaction illustrates) and financially secure (having recently been awarded a £6 million pound recording contract).
Can you imagine the outcry if a lesser known/squeaky clean personality had come out about their past misdemeanours. Need I say more?
Of course there is the issue of Christmas being just 51 days away and a certain ‘Sacred Arias‘ album having been released just a couple of weeks ago – so it couldn’t be one massive marketing and media push by her agent could it?
Nah, our Katherine is too nice for that. Surely.
It’s not been the best of days really. Our Zanussi FL1082 washing machine started leaking big style this morning and some baby items got damaged in the process.
Now you’re probably wondering what the connection is there, well I’ll tell you. Mrs DDWT – currently in the midst of baby ‘nesting’ mode – decided to ‘spring clean’ some baby items in the washing machine. However, whilst the wash was in progress the said baby items got jammed in the seal between the washing machine drum and door – cue a ‘burnt’ seal and damaged baby items. The end result was a leaky washing machine. Grrrrr.
With tempers flaring – “what the hell did you want to wash x in the washing machine for?” – I decided to take solace in the Yellow Pages and find a local Zanussi repair centre. Fortunately, there was one in Morriston – ‘H. Phillips’. A quick call and estimate later and our repair said he’d be with us shortly to collect the washing machine – which he duly did.
Some 3 hours or so later our washing machine returned and was thankfully now back in it’s original state – i.e not leaking! The service was excellent in fairness and I’ll be sure to use them again if the need ever arises (which I hope it doesn’t!).
Unfortunately, the whole episode meant that a leak had sprung in my wallet…. to the tune of £75.
I don’t if it’s me but there seems to have been one hell of a lot of road traffic accidents in the Swansea area over the last couple of weeks.
This week alone I’ve seen (well driven past) at least 5 accidents, all of which appeared to be shunts. All of this has been whilst driving approximately 12 miles a day (roundtrip) to work and back. That’s a lot of RTA’s for such a short distance.
Perhaps the poor visibility and saturdated road surfaces haven’t helped matters or maybe that’s just a coincidence. There’s no doubting that drivers appear to be driving faster and in some cases tailgating more than ever before. A reflection of the ever increasing pressure on people to be at destinatation A before X time perhaps? Let’s face it, life today is a hell of a lot quicker than it used to be. That’s no excuse mind you for being aware of what’s going on around you – especially whilst behind the wheel.
Talking of saturation, it’s quite astonishing to think how much rain we’ve already had this month and with some the forecast being for up to 4″ of rain over the next couple of days, it’s little wonder that Janaury 2008 is heading for the wettest January since records began in 1914.