12/01 Our Swiss friends came over for a long weekend, our Australian friends stayed for 2 days, Blake has not been awarded a place at his junior school so we've to find another school for him and his sister, grandma went to Portugal to support a dying, now dead, husband, and oh yes, we fitted in Christmas! Am I looking forward to next year? only if it's nothing like this one!

11/01 Kitchen is finished, we've sanded and oiled the sitting room floor (not a job I'd recommend to anyone!), and now can't decide if we've done a good enough job of it. All else in the sitting room was relatively straightforward, if long winded, so it is more or less done too.

10/01 Kitchen floor turns to saga, what a surprise! The screed subfloor has decided to subside under the wood floor in the next room, so we have to find a builder to do this little job before they'll come back and fit the floor. Once done the floor decides that the latex shouldn't dry out, so we have to wait a week with all the appliances in different rooms while this goes on. Not so bad but we've started the sitting room, a major exercise that included taking out the fireplace, lifting carpet, and wallpaper removal; so the contents of that room are around the house also.

09/01 Holiday at the start of the month, Club Med in Turkey. All very French, everything geared up for the French, which was OK for us parents, but Blake & Lydia didn't like the kids clubs that much because they couldn't understand what was going on: so Mum & Dad got to see lots of them! Kitchen redecoration started, we have a plan!

08/01 A trip to Wales to see friends was punctuated with yet another trip to casualty, this time followed with a brief stay on the ward for Lydia, who had developed a viral gastroenteritis. Net result is fluids coming out of every orifice as soon as they are put in, fortunately they stayed just long enough to prevent an extended stay and a saline drip. Is anyone else's life punctuated with all these mishaps? Lydia enjoyed her Birthday party, a joint affair with her 'boyfriend'.

07/01 Nothing of note happened - phew...

06/01 Blake's birthday, and our wedding anniversary, was somewhat dampened by having a sick little chap that stopped us going out that evening. This turned out to be fortuitous (?): Lydia fell out of bed that evening and split her head open on something, we still don't know what, so we had a happy 3 hours in casualty! Blake recovered sufficiently overnight to attend a birthday party, and his own the following day, it was only the parents that panicked about canceling it!

05/01 Both Blake & Lydia have learnt to ride a bicycle! Noticing they both careered down the garden on their respective scooters, we decided the time had come to remove the stabilisers on their bicycle, Blake promptly rode around the garden anti clockwise, turning right eludes him at the moment!, and Lydia after her initial coyness rides up and down. Showing his keenness at football, Blake took a tumble and broke his collarbone!

04/01 - Blake and Lydia now have a playhouse at the end of the garden, shame that the weather is dictating that they don't get to play in it that much. Lydia won first prize for her Easter bonnet at nursery. Both Blake and Lydia won prizes at Blake's school Easter fair. Dad has got round to relaying most of the paving in the back garden, utilising the surplus sand from the new drive.

03/01 - Blake and Lydia have at last got their fishtank, cabinet finally completed by Dad. Now stocked with a range of Zebra Danios, Neon Tetras, some Guppies, and Dad's Plecostomus. Both share in the feeding regime, and some of the cleaning!

02/01 - Neil - Continuing our run of good fortune I've been made redundant, after a mere 4 months at the place. Am I bitter, frustrated, or angry? Too right! The directors obviously can't see the obvious coming, so perhaps I don't want to work there anyway!

02/01 - We got around to painting our bedroom, we've moved away from the rather garish green, which looked OK in bright sunlight, to a salmon pink / terra-cotta colour. Dulux Thai Magic 04 if you're really interested.