Yes indeed, with the festive season now well and truly over it was time to take down the Christmas deccies and pack them away in the loft for another 12 months. The task didn’t go off without some rumblings of discontent from DDWT Junior however, his mutterings only being calmed by the promise of baloons et al for his 4th birthday next week.
In fact the whole day has been a rather busy affair. We’ve had umpteen deliveries – Next sale, M&S sale, Toys’R'Us sale, etc and my dad having to go back to hospital due to some post-operation problems (which thankfully turned out to be ok). Mrs DDWT got a few bits and bobs for DDWT Junior’s birthday – whilst I built aeroplanes, buses, robots and such like out of lego (in between watching Tom & Jerry, Scooby Doo and Go Diego Go). I also somehow managed to find the time to repair a broken toilet seat, don’t ask.
Our movie watching ritual has continued into the new year, with us watching ‘The Sentinel‘ last night. Quite a decent movie really, but how corny is it that Michael Douglas should be having an affair with Kim Basinger eh?!?! Must have been something to do with his self-confessed addiction to sex – and here was me thinking that’s normal behaviour
The house of DDWT hasn’t long surfaced this morning after an unexpected late night – the plan was to go to bed early after having a few too many late nights th elast few weeks. We ended up seeing in the new year watching ‘Hot Fuzz‘ – having now become fans of Simon Pegg since watching him on the Jonathan Ross show a few weeks back. Now there’s a guranteed laugh for you!
The plan for today is to welcome in the new year with a nice walk along the river tawe and Swansea valley canal. You simply can’t beat the fresh air and some exercise
Connect2 is a UK-wide project that aims to improve local travel in 79 communities by creating new walking and cycling routes for those everyday journeys. In terms of south west Wales, this would mean valuable funding for improving the cycle link at Afon Tawe bridge, Clydach and Gowerton, Penclawdd and Crofty. There are many similar projects throughout Wales.
So PLEASE vote now and help improve the already amazing cycle paths and routes in Wales.
I had a pleasant surprise today to see that this very blog had been given a mention on the British Heart Foundation blog – as a result of my ramblings about the Swansea Santa jog.
You can read the article for yourself here, but better still why not take part in one of the many BHF events and raise some money for a worthy cause.
I’m glad to report that DDWT Junior returned to school today and although he’s not back to his normal 100% self – he asked to go himself! It does seem however that lots of his classmates are suffering with similar illnesses as the class number has dwindled to less than 10 this week.
We took the opportunity this morning to see how tall the little fella is now as well – partly because he also seems to be displayed the classic symptoms of growing pains. Anyway he now stands at 107.5 cm or 3ft 6′ – which seems to me to be quite tall for someone who is 46 months old. But what do I know.
My work took me to Gloucester today to see how the County Council had setup their call centre. It also gave me an opportunity to have a look at the ‘Solidus’ system from Sony Ericsson – which was quite impressive I hasten to add.
The timing of the trip was a week out however, as last Friday the Osprey’s were at Kingsholm (home of Gloucester RFC) for a European Rugby Cup – which would have been an ideal destination post-meeting time. Oh well maybe next time.
Our return journey via the A40 (as opposed to the M4 – anything to avoid the toll bridge you see) I got my first glimpse of the new Amazon building on Jersey Marine. It is MASSIVE and a great coup for this area, especially in terms of the economy and regeneration. My only concern however is what ‘sort’ of jobs will be on offer and how much they are likely to be paid. Time will tell I guess, but I doubt very much that Amazon would be a bad company to work for – especially given their global size and status.
On the subject of the Opsrey’s I had the misfortune of watching them misfire (again) against Leinster on the box earlier. Granted they were missing 9 senior players, but given the squad Lyn Jones has assembled surely they could have got a result against Brian O’Driscoll’s men? I’m beginning to think that the time for change at coaching level is fast approaching.
Talking of TV, I saw the much debated ‘Swansea at Christmas’ advert on ITV tonight. Despite my initial optimism BEFORE seeing it, I really felt deflated after seeing it – it could literally have been anywhere in the UK and I felt it came across on the cheap side. What a major disappointment, considering the vibrant and stunning area we live in.
I decided to ‘try’ my knee out again today by accompanying Razor on a lunchtime run. Whilst it was better than last time (a week ago today) I still felt considerable pain boh during and after the 36 minute run around Swansea Marina and SA1.
It really isn’t looking good for the Reindeer 10k a week Sunday and to be quite frank I don’t want to risk doing some serious damage to my knee by pushing it unecessarily. Thankfully this Sunday’s Swansea Santa jog shouldn’t pose too much of a problem, but only because it’s a 2k circuit.
Talking of Santa, do you remember THAT video I mentioned last week? Well here it is – so please be gentle with me ….
