Smoking

Like a lot of people I was absolutely delighted when the smoking ban was introduced in England! It meant I could go for an ale and not come away smelling like I'd been kippered! The only problem now is that because you can't smoke inside, lots of people have a cancer stick while walking along the street - which of course means on a regular basis that I end up with a face full of second hand smoke! After a while I thought that if it's ok for them to blow their waste fumes into my face then why isn't it ok for me to do it back to them! So from now on anybody who delivers me a face full of smoke I'm going to try my absolute hardest to overtake them and release my own special fumes in their direction! Although I'll not try too hard!

Just Testing

Quite often recently I've been updating my blog using email, however for some stupid reason it likes to stick HTML formatting in which I don't like! So, I'm trying an application I've just got for my phone and this is me testing it!

Humph!

Well - the time has come to back to work tomorrow, and am I pleased about that?! Am I buffalo! I can feel a severe dose of the back to work blues coming on!

2009

I decided this New Year that I wasn't going to bother making resolutions as they'll just be forgotten about by February. I decided instead that I would try and make commitments instead. This year is also going to involve making some massive decisions too, both me and Katie have to find new jobs this year and more importantly decide where. It all really depends on where the jobs are but I know where I fancy living and it doesn't involve London!

Hopefully this year should be a more creative year for me and Katie, we're both a bit arty (Katie more so than me) but don't seem to be able to make time so hopefully this year we'll get the chance.

I'm also going to try and really cut back the amount of drinking I do - over the course of the last year I've really begun to lose the desire to drink lots. Lots of the boozes available are really not nice and I often find myself thinking "I'll have a pint of that just because it's the best of a bad bunch", but why? If I don't really like it then what is the point of drinking it! I absolutely love a good real ale and a good red wine but their availability isn't always great, there's always a neat Jack Daniels which really floats my boat but I don't want to just drink spirits. I think I'm going to try and just have drinks that I actually want to drink, not just what's on offer! I want to lose weight so reckon doing this should help - as well as stepping things up in the gym and watching what I eat! This starts tomorrow!

This Year

I'm very pleased to say that I had a very relaxing and enjoyable New Year. Me and Katie were invited by Paul and Mary to join them at a cottage they had rented in Craster on the Northumberland coast. Normally New Year is a massive anticlimax for me, with all the build up and expectations it invariably turns out to be pretty dull and uneventful and I normally end up completely sozzled! Although I did end up being a little bit drunk this year it wasn't the usual throwing drinks down my throat session. I had a bad chest during the evening and so decided to go out and get some fresh air about eleven, I just went for a wander round the village and it was extremely quiet - the only real noise I could hear came from a couple of cottages who seemed to have a sort of party going on - the rest was provided by seagulls and the sea crashing against the harbour - it was lovely! After taking a few photos I slowly wandered back to the cottage and welcomed in the New Year with Big Ben donging away on the TV and a glass of champagne in my hand. It was fantastic to spend the new year with Katie and her family and I cannot help thinking 2009 is going to be a good one.