That Was The Year That Was

Another year has passed us by in the blink of an eye, for me it's been a year of change with the arrival of Leah, the 2 weeks in Hospital and 7 months (up to now) of physio. Looking back on last years resolutions I acheived 1, a couple of nice tries and a couple of not a chance.

• Save for the future - I stopped using my credit card(s)
  
• Learn something new - Nope
  
• Get fit - I managed to lose 20lbs after my "knee issue"
  
• Give up smoking* - OK this was a cheat
  
• Re-gain contact with family members - Haven't managed to do this due to my ever growing family.
  

New Years Resolutions for 2007

• Get Fitter - not only do I need to work on my previously infected knee to get match fit again, I aim to lose a further 20lbs fat and gain 10lbs muscle
• Sort the house, garage and garden - SWMBO wants the house decorating, the fence fixing, the decking done in the garden and the garage sorting.
• Lose Mr Angry - I admit I get a little angry and agressive some of the time (driving, queueing, walking, talking, watching Derby County lose etc), I call these my "Daphne" moments and plan to "Chill" in 2008. In fact the only time I am competely at ease is at work. Where I should be the most stressed.
• Spend time with my family

Spending 7 months at home did my head in, I think I can also admit it also did SWMBOs head in.
it was great being at home with Leah (for me) but frustrating that I lost my independance (Driving, walking etc).

Anyway, Happy New Year to one and all and here's to a great 2008.

Damo

It's Chriiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiistmas (in the style of Slade)

a Noddy Holder

It's that time of year where the world goes mad, spends a fortune, gets drunk, gets pregnant, gets fat, has a lot of time off work. In other words, the festive Christmas period, it's also a time that SWMBO hates as she has to think of things to buy me that I actually want, normally I am forced into doing a list, but this year we are having a year off from buying each other as we are

a - skint
and
b - are concentrating of buying baby SWMBO presents instead.


This means I can now put a guide to my perfect Christmas present list without fear that it's too expensive or impossible to get.

For Him (ahem Me!!!)

Digital Photo Frame - (£30 - £200) The basic ones aren't too bad , they do exactly what they should do, show photos stored on a memory card, the advanced ones, also play movies, play music and stream photos wirelessly, I have a Samsung SPF-72V and love it

Digital SLR Camera - (£300 - silly money)
The next step up from the "point and shoot" digital camera, add lenses, flashes, tripods and you'll look like a Pro, you wont be able to take photos like a pro but you'll look like one, I want a Canon EOS 400D but can wait until I know what I'm doing.

Nintendo Wii (£280) Perfect gaming for all the family, just avoid the injuries, even SWMBO is interested in one of these and she hated it when I got my Xbox

Xbox 360 (£200+)
Get the Elite if you can afford it, you'll soon be playing movies on your XBox 360, if you can't afford an Elite at least get the Premium, and be online with your mates till the early hours, making your days drag as you'll get no sleep and anno your work colleagues who haven't got an Xbox as you'll spend all day talking about them.
Games to buy - Assassins Creed, PGR4, COD4, Halo 3

Playstation 3 (£300+)
Im yet to be convinced as they have yet to bring out Grand Turismo, I'd be tempted by Singstar but can play it on my PS2 at a lot cheaper.

T-Shirt (£10 ish)
You just have to have a T-Shirt from T-Shirt Hell, virtually every shirt is offensive in one way or another, my favourites are this one and this one, oh and this one for the kids.

NAS (£180)
If you don't know what a NAS is, (and I don't mean the rapper who married Kelis), skip this bit. Freecom FSG-3 is great, 500Gb of storage, email server, web server, media server, torrent client all built into a little box the size of a book. A bit noisy for the bedroom though.


For Her

Erm - I'm not so good at that, so I'll be very very brief

Underwear from M&S Not the cheesy stuff that us men really like from Ann Summers, but the "nice" stuff that they'll actually wear. (See what I did there with the "bried leading to underwear - Genius)
Gift Vouchers River Island, Oasis etc,

Ipod Fill it with music and they'll ignore you all day, the bigger the drive the more they'll ignore you.

Beauty makeover Better still a Colour Me Beautiful session. This may backfire however with you being accused of thinking they need it...

Book
Buy them one of the Sophie Kinsella books, they'll love it (SWMBO did)

To be honest I don't actually think females (apart from my mum and mother-in-law) read my blog anyway (correct me if I'm wrong).

For t'baby

Babys Laptop

Thats enough of that, I know for a fact babies don't read this blog (correct me if I'm wrong)

That Was The Year That Was

2006 has been a memorable year for me. In the space of less than 12 months, I have moved house, changed job role (again), got engaged (thanks SWMBO), got pregnant (well SWMBO did).

2007 is clearly going to be a very busy year with our new arrival in May, with this in mind, I have decided on the following New Years resolutions and putting them down on (blog) paper starting 1st January (funnily enough).

• Save for the future
• Learn something new
• Get fit
• Give up smoking*
• Re-gain contact with family members

29 December - I have already managed to give up smoking.

By the way, Happy Birthday SWMBO

*OK OK I never started smoking, but I'm aiming high.