Vinyl on the wall in the bar

I spent the day today working in the office and the bar, the morning I was putting all my photos and such like on the walls in my office – and then tidied up the place, looks much much better now.
In the afternoon I watched a YouTube video on how to best (cheaply) display album covers on a wall so I popped out to Wickes and then Tool Station to get the items I needed. The strangest thing happened through, the L-Shaped hooks that I wanted weren’t in Wickes so I Googled them and found they were in Tool Station so I walked up to the catalogues to look for it and the page was open on the item I needed. How spooky is that??? I was astonished and took photos and told the family – so creeped out!

So I got what I needed and then came home to do the DIY – the result I am so very pleased with as you can see below, just a shame that some of my very favourite albums were ruined by damp so I couldn’t use them.

Went and had dinner when Tash and Charlotte came back from the JR having seen Vics, Danny and Theo – nice toad in the hole and Emma cooked crepes for us which were nice.
Watched a bit of TV but everyone was knackered so early nights all round.
End to a good weekend

Office wall

Bar wall (before)

Bar Wall (after)

I’m a Great Uncle…but we already knew that!

I don’t think it needed confirming but I am officially a “great” uncle!

Victoria and Danny had their baby today, Vics was in labour all day and had a boy in the evening – they’ve called him Theodore.

There were complications etc along the way which had Tash worried but all is fine now and they’re okay I think.

Everyone will want to go up there to the JR and see them, I’ll wait until they out and home and comfortable.

So that’s likely to be the first of many for the family and the size just keeps increasing!!
P.S. There was a sweepstake on the date of his arrival and I missed out by choosing the due date around 17th Jan – I think one of the nieces up in Edinburgh on Gareth’s side of the family won - £200.00!!

Cowley Road Meal – sort of

Met Wayne and Kerry in Be At One this evening after a decent day’s work and we had a couple of cocktails as usual and then wandered down to The Coconut Tree. It’s a bit cramped in there as they push the tables up close of each other but it was fine – we’re slim!

Chose some food and it was fantastic, so tasty – really enjoyed it, I was even eating the mushrooms!

Had a few beers and at 11.15pm we went over to Café Tarifa and had a couple more in there – it was too late for Jack to pick us up – which pissed me off and we got a taxi home.

Wasn’t too happy about it but it is what it is, straight to bed, really good evening.

Decent Weekend – busy!

Friday:

Finished work and decided to have a few beers…ended up on the Gin and Tonic and Tash on the wine and then had a bit of a blowout and got drunk! Watched a film and eventually went out to the bar and slept out there until 5.00am. Loud music and loads to drink – plenty of dancing but all on my own!! Bit sad but had a good evening!

Saturday:

Hungover of course, woke up around 10.30am and then did some work pottering around the house and painting things for Tash. Tash & Charlotte took Mum out for afternoon tea at Crazy Bear and then popped into see Derek afterwards and he was fine, but I watched Jack play football – he got 25 mins and they lost 4-2 against Berkhamsted. Felt for him because he’s been playing well and started two matches. I took Bess and she was annoying, spilled my chips and boiling coffee! Home and dinner and another film in the evening which was nice – although not very good. Tom Hanks in A Wonderful Day in the Neighbourhood – load of shite!

Sunday:

Up early – more household DIY carried out today, fixing the door frames upstairs and clearing leaves in the back garden. Tash went for a run then we went for a walk with Bess in the meadow and ended up at the White Hart for the Farmer’s Market – not many stalls, and we had a coffee which was nice. Pottered around at home and cleared out the loft as well and then went to Sue’s for dinner which was nice and we watched Princess Diaries which Charlotte and I enjoyed. Came home and then went to White Hart again but with John, Pauline and a student call Una for the pub quiz, had a few pints and the quiz was hard – we came third (out of four teams)…but it was a nice evening and it went on late though so we didn’t get home until about 10.45pm – I watched some of MOTD and then went to bed

A good weekend all told

Normal day, normal diary entry that will never be read again!

Normal day working in Raintree – they had yearly conference or something so I was left alone in the office for much of the day. It’s fine though, I had loads to do so got on with it with no fuss

Went to Wheatley afterwards and cut through Blackbird Leys and Garsington – great shortcut to get there. Mum was there and I stayed an hour. He refused food but apparently had walked to the bathroom – his own request – so that was a bright point. Not much else to report really, it’s such a sad sight seeing him in there.

Took ages to get home and was in about 7.00pm crossing Tash at the bottom of the road as she went to boot camp at the gym – just dinner and relaxing for me!

Watched Silent Witness and then to bed again by 10.00pm! Pretty non-descript sort of day really.

Oh, over in the States the Democrats pushed ahead with the impeachment proceedings against Donald Trump – bit pointless really as the Senate is controlled by Republicans and they’re so partisan they will throw it out without any proper due process. Massive waste of time and money!

Morning in London, afternoon in gym, evening in front of TV

Travelled to London today to run a training session with a Hodder user so that they can run reports for them instead of me…not ideal but that’s what they wanted! Went fine and without incident and gave me a chance to catch up with things on the way there and back.

Half a day and back to Oxford by 2.00pm so decided to go to the gym, asked Tash but she wanted to paint the doors at home instead!

Worked really hard at the gym, 20 minutes on the bike had me sweating like mad and then 2000 metres on the rowing machine and then other stuff, was there until 4.00pm so a decent session for once.

Back home and couldn’t be bothered to work so relaxed in the bath and pottered about and then Tash and I watched Silent Witness and me, Charlotte and Tash watched Jo Jo Rabbit – I really enjoyed it but I don’t think the other two were particularly impressed. Had a funny conversation with Charlotte as she couldn’t understand that Hitler could be alive but ALSO an imaginary friend – so odd her way of thinking sometimes it really is. She just couldn’t comprehend that a real person can be an imaginary friend…I didn’t know there were rules for imaginary friends!!

Once all done, off to bed for an early night around 10.00pm for once!

Pleased with my effort at the gym, yes I know it’s January and everyone’s like that, but I so want to be in shape in the summer this year…perhaps this is the year I manage it….doubt it though!

House Day

Tash has it in her mind that January is “make up jobs” month!

So the pull out larder is no more…we emptied it and then I took out the pull out shelving and changed the doors so these are swing instead of pull out now. We thought we had shelves in the shed – nope! So we need to get some made and hopefully the guy at her work can do something for us.

Took ages to do this. Charlotte and Miles came home from their weekend in the log cabin in Hereford and stayed for dinner, opened a couple of bottles of wine and watched The Terminal – Tom Hanks film, wasn’t interested but really enjoyed it. They left so Tash and I watched the end of the other film we’d started – Peppermint – and then bed at 10.00pm, end to a decent weekend

Mum’s Birthday

Supposed to be working in the morning with a tel call but they’d forgot – bit pissed off by that to be honest as they’d requested be do the session at the weekend!

Did my tax return instead…joy! Bit worried about this one to be honest because I think we’ve gone too far with dividends to Tash – scared of a hefty tax bill coming our way.

I picked up Tash from the gym where she was having a coffee with Zoe after yoga and we then went to the Nursing home in Wheatley and met with Mum and we took Derek down to the Harvester by Asda. Pushing him in the wheelchair was quite hard work but it was only about a 15 minute walk and it was fine.

Nice bit of food and drink and he didn’t have much but we think he was glad of the time away from the home and Tash was very organised in ensuring Derek had some flowers and a card to give to mum, Tash has been amazing she really has. Walked back to the home and said our goodbyes and then we went straight to Didcot to catch the second half because Jack was playing (he’d started) and it was a typical lower league match (17th v 18th) – Jack did well what we saw and was unlucky not to score. He got subbed near the end and they won 1-0 so that was pleasing.

Couple of drinks in the bar and then home to get ready and sort/walk Bess – she’s much better now and fully recovered from her illness.

Went and picked up Mum and then parked down Manzil Way and went to Malikas Indian Restaurant – Jack joined us and we had a lovely meal. Couple of beers and glasses of wine – Tash drove, Jack went off to meet mates and we got the cake brought out again! The manager then came over and offered free drinks – I said no but Tash and Mum had another wine and Mum was a bit tipsy by the end of the evening when we dropped her home.

I think she had a good birthday and appreciated what we’d done for her in trying to make it enjoyable. Louise didn’t come down or anything which isn’t very good at all – I am not going to raise it with her though – no need and it’s her that’s missing out.

A good evening, home about 10.30pm, watched a bit of MOTD with a coffee and then bed! Lots of jobs tomorrow!!

Giving Blood

Gave blood this morning and just got home – all went well and as usual posted a tweet with a photo of a Club biscuit, it’s the only time I get to have one of them!!

Decided to cycle there today, good decision, the traffic as usual was a nightmare, it was so nice not to be caught up in it – will definitely do that again.

But the cycling was hard work, my legs just had no strength in them at all. It will be interesting to see how quickly/well I do it in 6 weeks time assuming I manage to continue with some sort of exercise regime…it’s January of course so I am interested in losing some weight. But then I also want to for the Mexico holiday, I so want to look good for that after the New Years Eve game where everyone said I was the fat one! Bitter much??? Me??

Skiing in the Alps to start 2020

Just got back from 4 days in Les Deux Alpes and it was fantastic fun.

Jack found out he wasn’t playing football on Saturday 4th so we booked up and went skiing. Drove down on New Years Day night after his football match for Didcot where he got a full 90 minutes and we took his mate Aleks. The journey down was fine and got there at 7.00am local time, slept in the car for a bit and then dumped our stuff in the hotel and were out on the slopes by 11.00am.

Decent hotel, good location and loads of slopes. Lively resort in the evening as well as on the slopes themselves – stopped in Pano Bar every day for a couple of beers.

Evening meal and breakfast included, slopes shut at 5.00pm so slept and relaxed before dinner and then afterwards out to the pubs/bars (The Polar Bear and The Secret Bar, also the Windsor pub!)

Skiing was great fun as always, I wasn’t as pathetic and hurting/aching as I have been in the past, perhaps the gym sessions in December helped?

Aleks and Jack got on really well so that was a relief, he is a nice lad to that helped, he got us a couple of coffees on the slopes so that was good of him, we did buy him a lot of drinks and food, but it was fine.

Coming home wasn’t so good – we were caught in traffic trying to get out of the Alps so it added over an hour to the journey and we stopped for food instead of driving through. I did drive a 6.5hrs stint from 8.30pm to 3.00am so that was tough going. Tash drove the UK side of things so I could sleep and that worked really well.

So a really great holiday, will upload some photos but I’d recommend to anyone to go there if they asked me.

Skiing holidays are so hard to beat…it’s never boring seeing the mountains and you’re just so detached from the real world – I love it so very much. We all do!