For as long as I can remember I've had little interest in General Elections - for various reasons - but this time around it's been different.

I watched all 3 of the leader's debates on television, read various online sources of election information and news, picked up numerous 'tweets' about it and pretty much soaked up any other media source of election titbits that came my way.

Why? Well quite simply for the first time in my life I actually feel the outcome of this election will affect not only my life for the forseeable future but that of my family as well.

What did I learn from the televised debates? Very little if I'm honest (did anybody?). We had what I personally felt was expected...

Gordon Brown bombarding us with facts and figures or 'substance' as the media moguls kept calling it;

David Cameron playing the 'pick me for change' card, but without actually really telling us what that exactly would mean to the average person in the street;

Nick Clegg happily playing the waiting game whilst G&D exchanged verbal blows before swanning in-between both and appearing as the solution to everything (but again without actually telling us anything!);

As for the minority parties well I didn't really see or hear enough about them - or rather their policies - to really make a judgement. A fact which I thought was rather surprising, especially here in Wales as we have Plaid Cymru. I wonder if any Scots reading this felt the same about the SNP?

Much of the media hype surrounding the debates focussed on what they wore, how they did their tie, did they look at the camera, did they address the person in the audience asking the questions, etc, etc - did anyone really give a rats arse about this stuff? Surely it's the policy details of each political party that we're interested in, after all that is where the devil is... isn't it?

I was brought up in a working class environment - my father a lorry driver and my mother a shop assistant - money was hard to come by and my parents worked very hard.

Growing up I remember the Thatcher years and the stories my Dad would say about the miner's strikes and in particular the violent scenes at the now former British Steel Plant in Port Talbot. Scenes which were replicated across the coalfields of Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire - remember Arthur Scargill?

I can also recollect the privitisation of British Rail - another wonderful Conservative government idea. I'm sure there are other bones of contention for those of you with better memories that I.

But all that is in the past now and I've kept an open mind - or at least tried too - for the 2010 General Election. I've focussed on what affects the house of DDWT now.

I am a married man with two young children and work in local government. These facts alone make me very wary of the Conservatives.

The proposed £6 billion savings that Mr. Cameron would look to slice off 'Government' immediately if he came to power worries me - how many jobs and services does that equate to? Then there's the debate of tax credits, oh and the inheritance tax thresholds to help the more economically stable individuals within the UK. I won't even be drawn into the debate over immigration....

Mr. Clegg was refreshing and offered - I felt - less of a gamble than a Tory vote but at least they appeared to be on the same lines ('ish) as Labour when it came to tax credits and the NHS. The only bone of contention for me was/is the immigration amnesty policy - the least said the better probably.

And finally Mr. Brown, whom basically gave it to us as it was - complete with his facts and figures (again!). He is no prime minister though and lacks the charismatic charm that goes with the territory. You only had to see Tony Blair in action earlier this week to confirm that. GB was a good chancellor, but not such a good PM.

So who did the house of DDWT vote for? My wife made no secret of the fact that she didn't have the same interest or indeed inclination to be interested (her words not mine) in the election as I did, and as such we had our own views on each party and their policies.

Having said that we both voted and given the information at our disposal and considering our own circumstance, we both decided that it was very much a case of 'better the devil you know that the one you don't'.

Only time will tell of course if that remains the case, but I've little doubt that whomever is the power holder in British politics some turbulent times lay ahead.

Did you know that today marked World Book Day 2010? Well nor did I until about a month ago when DDWT Junior came home from school branding a £1 book token and explanatory note!

So what is world book day? Well quite simply it is the biggest annual celebration of books and reading in the UK and Ireland.

I must confess to not being a bookworm by any stretch of the imagination but Mrs T and DDWT Junior are and I think it's great that such a 'day' exists - if only to generate interest in books for children and adults alike.

Our local school also got in on the act by asking all of the kids to dress up as their favourite character from one of the many books written by Roald Dahl - such as The BFG, George's Marvellous Medicine, The Twits, James & The Giant Peach, Fantastic Mr. Fox, The Enormous Crocodile and many more.

Here's a picture of DDWT Junior sporting his Enormous Crocodile outfit!

Incidentally if you haven't read 'The Enormous Crocodile' - like I hadn't up until a couple of weeks back - I'd recommend it, it's quite funny for little kids and big ones!

Had an interesting chat with my mate Rocky Richards in work today on the subject of dog blogging. I must confess to initially thinking that he was referring to that outdoor activity which goes by a very similar name, but alas I was thankfully mistaken.

He was in fact talking about a blog which he'd started to write about his new addition to the family - an Alaskan Malamute puppy.

I'm no dog lover but the dog blog will I'm sure will make good reading as Rocky plans to jot down all of his day to day activities and routines whilst rearing the pup - which he is due to pickup this weekend.

So all the best mate - good luck with the new addition and the dog!

Now Mrs T is an avid reader of OK! magazine - which incidentally I bought her a subscription to for her birthday - and I couldn't help but chuckle this morning when its contents spilled out across the table.

There lay the marketing man's (or women's) dream - the ability to buy celebrity greeting cards online, where YOU are the celebrity!!

I can think of a hundred and one people whom I know whom would fancy themelves as a bit of a celebrity. Can you imagine what it's like to be "papped" by a herd of paparazzi and see yourself all over a world renowned magazine…?

Well, apparently now you can thanks to the celeb loving folk at Hallmark Cards and OK! magazine. There are over 20 different cards to choose from with everything from cards for your husband or your best mate's birthday to amazing invites to make sure your party is the bash of the century!!

Here's the promotional blurb that came with it...

Have you ever imagined having your wedding covered or announcing the birth of your baby in OK! magazine? Well now you can! All you need to do is go online and add your favourite photos as well as headlines and stories and you're away! Super stardom can be as fast as a next day delivery away!

Now where did I put my digital camera? I'm off to create my very own big scoop stories today - and my sister can be the first 'celebrity' headliner!

I decided to go back to work today and break myself back into work mode gently rather than face a full on onslaught on Monday morning!

Thankfully the plan seemed to work as I managed to get the usual pleasantries out of the way and clear most of my stock piled Christmas/New Year emails.  So hopefully come Monday things should be more relaxed - which is always a nice thought when it's your first full week back.

No doubt I've just put the mockers on it now though.....

As I was in work it also meant back to having a lunchtime run along Swansea Bay and my word what a run I had today!  Somehow I managed to set myself a new personal best time of 41 minute 6 second run for my regular 5 mile run.

I was all the more surprised by my time as despite having put the miles in over Christmas I personally felt that the intensity was missing.  I was also feeling physically tired and the bitterly cold wind made for rather uncomfortable conditions.  Still I'm chuffed to bits and am now more eager than ever to try and nail a sub-40 minute time!

Continuing with my recent spate of watching films, tonight was the turn of ''Ghost Town' starring Ricky Gervais.  It reminded me a lot of 'Ghost' but without the gorgeous Demi Moore and was considerably more funny in a way that only Ricky G could carry off.  Not great but well worth watching, especially if you like/loath dentists

I don't know what you guys think, but personally I thought the stuff served up on television (including satellite) over Christmas and New Year was pretty pants on the whole.  It seemed to be the typical re-runs of previous years 'top rated' films - as far back as you could imagine.

In retrospect though, is this any different from any year?

Perhaps this will explain why I spent so much time watching DVDs over the holiday period - especially as I don't tend to watch too much TV as I'd rather be physically doing something rather than sitting on my bum.  Still it made a refreshing change I guess and allowed me some time to catch up on what I'd been missing or in some case thought I had!

I sat myself through - 'Indiana Jones and The Kingdom Of The Crystal Skull', 'Quantum of Solace', 'The Love Guru', 'Kung Fu Panda' and 'Mamma Mia'.

As with most things people watch on TV there is a level of expectation, often raised by previous films or indeed particular actors.  With this in mind, I suppose that is why I felt 'Quantum of Solace' in particular was a major disappointment - the emphasis (for me) being far too much on the stunts and not enough on the substance of the script.

I'll be honest though, despite 'Mamma Mia' being what I'd call a chick flick it was the one film out of the lot that I enjoyed the most.  So if I were you I'd take a chance and watch it

Mrs DDWT and I actually sat down tonight to watch Sky Movies and the premiere of '300'. It was the first time we'd seen a movie in a few months - well even if it wasn't that long it certainly felt like it!

As for the film, well it was certainly one for the boys (toy soldier stuff you see) as I'm sure the only plusses for the ladies would be the bare, taut and well defined/developed torsos of the Spartans.

Having now watched it, I can see why some people thought it was on the gory side.  For me the only thing that was misplaced were the sparse (yet unnecessary) sexual scenes, which felt out of context for the film as a whole.  After all it was a film about the battle between 300 Spartans (Greeks) and the Persians in 480 BC!

The acting and effects were first class and were combined magnificently to give the film a very Greek mythological feel, which obviously was the director's intention.

I enjoyed it (unlike Mrs DDWT) and thought it was worth watching.  I'd recommend it to anyone who likes films such as '55 Days at Peking', 'Braveheart', 'Troy', 'El Cid', etc - if that's not your bag, then I'd leave well alone to be honest.

Seeing as the stomach bug has literally knocked the stuffing out of me, I was off work today.

I decided to spend some time catching up (in between frequent vists the loo) with some of the books which have been gathering dust on my bedside cabinet.

Today's digest was "Get into bed with Google" by Jon Smith. A very handy little book (quite literally) from which I picked up quite a few little gems - which I'll be certain to use, when I'm back to my best!

Like most of Wales, we awoke this morning to find a 1cm covering of snow outside - which was totally unexpected as the forecast had been for 'light snow showers'.

Having been up since around 7am DDWT Junior and I got to see most of the snow and the snow showers, as by the time Mrs DDWT surfaced from bed (around 9am) most of it had started to melt away in the warm 'ish spring sunshine. Come mid-morning and you'd never have said it had snowed at all!

With the afternoon sunshine, I decided to take the family down to Swansea's new central library - which they hadn't yet seen. Having been before I was in little doubt that they'd be impressed and I was proved correct as we spent the best part of an hour and a half in the children's area alone!

It really is a super library and if you are ever in Swansea, then I'd recommend a visit. You can even grab a bite to eat or have a nice cuppa in the coffee shop adjacent to it in Swansea City Council's civic centre.

I suppose it goes without saying that we couldn't leave without DDWT Junior borrowing a couple of dinosaur books and Mrs DDWT picking up her usual batch of autobiography's - Marie Helvin and Leslie Grantham in this case. Me well I went for my usual techy stuff, "Going to Bed With Google"!

No visit to Swansea is complete without a visit to the beach, so we took the short cut from County Hall straight onto the beach. At this point I thought it would be a good time to take a snap of the progress being made on Swansea's highest (to be) building - Meridian Quay - since the last time I took a picture.

It's grown quite considerably as you can see!

After last week's weight horror show, I decided not to put added pressure on myself by weighing this week, especially as I have been exercising and watching what I've eaten. I couldn't have handled the disappointment of not losing any weight this week.

Anyway, yesterday I did a 30 minute stint on the elliptical worker (10.8KM) and I did another 30 minutes today (11KM) and burnt 302 calories in the process. So I'm getting there, albeit slowly.

No this isn't an explanation as to why people from Swansea are referred to as 'Jacks', it's about a book I've just finished reading.

The book was called 'The Swansea Jacks - From Skinheads to Stone Island' and was as the title might suggest about football hooliganism or terrace culture as it is often referred to nowadays. Now you're probably wondering why the hell I'd want to read a book of this nature.

Well there are several reasons to be quite frank... I'm a Swansea fan and am intrigued by our 'hooligan element' and their literary skills (LOL); I was curious if I knew/recognised any of the 'faces' (which I did); but most of all it was because I have an interest in the world of football hooliganism - purely from a psychology perspective I can assure you!

As an ex-semi professional rugby player who represented his country, I'm intrigued (and always have been) as to what makes these men/teenagers (and some women believe it or not) get out of being a football hooligan. Now I'm not referring to the people who walk around clad out in the latest Stone Island, Burberry, Aquasanctum gear for bravado - I'm on about the real hardcore element who purely want a scrap with the oppositions firm/dressers call them what you want and get one hell of a buzz out of doing so.

I just find it odd that you don't get this sort of needle between rival sets of rugby fans - well none that I've witnessed anyway - but you do with football. Is it because the 'aggro' is on the field perhaps?

I suppose I always remember what a football playing mate of mine used to say - "The real hard lads in school played rugby, whereas the lads who thought they were hard played football" - now personally I don't entirely agree with that statement, but I can see what he means to an extent.

Anyway, back to the book. It's pretty much a warts and all story of the top Swansea 'faces' over the last 30 years or so broken down into sections by each hooligan. It was an ok read, but I felt the book was let down by a lack of consistency between each section - which could vary between 2 pages to 20+ pages.

From what my memory recalls of the media reporting about various bouts of trouble involving the Swansea Jacks, the book is a pretty accurate reproduction of the facts. It certainly won't be everyone's cup of tea, but if you're a local and follow the Swans then it should hold enough interest for you to see it through to the end.

The next book on my reading list is 'Killer Web Content' by Gerry McGovern - which as the title suggests is the complete opposite end of the spectrum in terms of my book reading habits!