Looking back but moving on...

So, here we go again! It’s New Year and that means new starts. There are new gigs to attend, new bands to see. New lists to start, new birds to find. New targets to aim for, more miles to cycle. Looking forward it all sounds exciting stuff - in reality, it’s just another year like any other! Nothing much changes, does it?

Santa's been!

Christmas 2008... see my Blog posts for 2005, 2006 and 2007 for a full re-cap, it was exactly the same this year! And that means it was a great Christmas - we like it to be a quiet time in this house. We ate lots (though not too much), we drank a fair amount (though not to excess) and we played the Jive Bunny Christmas CD whilst we opened our presents, and drank Buck’s Fizz, on Christmas morning. We have our traditions here, and we like to stick to them! Tradition has it that Lynda must drink Sherry whilst preparing Christmas lunch, it also dictates that I have a rather large malt whisky to accompany her. After eating a delicious lunch of turkey (what else?) with all the extras we then settled down in front of the TV and didn’t really move again for the rest of the day - apart from topping up the food and alcohol levels that is.

Lynda makes a great Christmas cake!

A 3 mile walk on Boxing Day and then a 20 mile cycle ride on Sunday will, hopefully, have burnt off a few of the calories that came gift wrapped in all the food and drink I’ve enjoyed over the festive period. If not then I’m going to have to make sure I up the pace a little on the daily commute to and from work next week. If nothing else it will have got a few miles under my belt as I attempt to cycle a minimum of 2,500 miles in 2009.

New Year’s Eve and we did the usual. We stayed home; we ate way too much food and drank plenty too. The fireworks kicked off all around us at mid-night but this year we stayed in front of the TV and watched the firework display from the London Eye instead of standing in the bedroom window watching fireworks here. It may not be the most exciting way to spend New Year but at least it means we don’t have to fight the crowds to get a drink in a pub or get ripped off for a taxi fare home. Staying home also means we don’t have to face some drunken Muppet who wants to take on the world come mid-night. It’s also easier to stagger to bed when you don’t have too far to go!

Today Lynda & I managed to revive another of our traditions, that the weather put a stop to last year, we went for our New Year’s Day walk. We covered just over 6 miles along the roads and footpaths around our local area. It’s not the most scenic of walks at times but at least it means we get some exercise and fresh air without having to get the car out. Driving on New Year’s Day may not be too good for our driving licences either! “No oshifer I’s not been drinkin’, onisht!”.

Feeding the local wildlife.

Icicles by the River Derwent.

Although today’s walk wasn’t a birding outing - I didn’t even take my binoculars - I did make a note of everything we saw and by the time we returned home I already had 31 species recorded for my new 2009 “10-Mile List”. Once again, birds seen within 10 miles of home will be the main focus of my birding over the next 12 months. Last year I set myself a benchmark by recording 136 species within my chosen zone. This year, I’d love to better that total but it will take a rather special run of birds to help me do it.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Christmas re-cap...

Okay, so maybe Christmas is just a little predictable in our house but that’s just the way we like it. I’ve just had a look back at my Blog entries for Christmas 2005 and 2006... they could both have been referring to this year.

Christmas day started with the usual hot bread rolls for breakfast, washed down with Buck’s Fizz - a great way to start Christmas morning! In the background we had the Jive Bunny Christmas CD playing - yes, we DO own that CD and yes we DO play it! After breakfast, we sat around the Christmas tree and opened our presents.

Our Christmas tree... after Santa had been!

Lunch was the traditional Turkey with all the trimmings, but without the festive Brussels sprouts. Quite why anyone would want to risk spoiling a perfectly good meal with those I do not know! In keeping with tradition, whilst lunch was prepared, I had a whisky (or two) and Lynda opened the Sherry. A rather nice bottle of wine helped the Turkey dinner go down a short while later. Not bad going for one morning… Buck’s Fizz, whisky, Sherry and then wine.

Now, after the Turkey we hit a little problem. We still had Christmas pudding to face! I’m sorry to say that we didn’t get to eat it until the following day, as we were both too full of Turkey! It’s the first time ever that I’ve not been able to eat my Christmas pudding after my lunch - guess I must be starting to show my age! The afternoon was then spent in front of the TV trying not to fall asleep.

Boxing Day was a similar day to the day before. We had an extra hour or two in bed, got up and had breakfast, I went for a short walk to fetch the papers and then we sat in front of the TV and did nothing but eat and drink. Yep, we sure are predictable at Christmas.

This year's Christmas cake - made by Lynda using enough Brandy to put you over the drink/drive limit!

Thursday came around just a little too quickly for my liking and it was back to work. I spent most of the time carrying out an end of year stock take, eating chocolates that had been given to us by a supplier and wishing I was at home. I wouldn’t say we were quiet at work, more like dead!

This morning Lynda and I took a trip into Derby for a look around the sales. I’ve still not quite worked out where my sudden liking for shopping has come from but once again, I rather enjoyed it. I came back with a shirt, a scarf and a new leather jacket. Next weekend I may well go in search of cheap CD’s. If the right deal comes along then I’m also on the lookout for a laptop computer to use on a wi-fi connection around the house. That will have to be the right deal on the right laptop though!

So, that’s it for another year. All that is left now is New Year's Eve and all the food and drink that goes with it. We’ll be staying at home as usual and will no doubt be treated to a free fireworks display as the rest of the world goes firework mad at mid-night.

I think I'm just about ready...

Right, there’s little more than a 24hrs until “the big day” and I’m just about ready! A little earlier, I won the battle of the wrapping - it was a close call but I eventually got the better of the paper and sellotape. One or two of the scars I’m left with may be with me for some time though! Leaving me in charge of scissors, sticky tape and paper is never a good idea.

I had planned on going out birding this morning but it never happened. For one, the weather has turned somewhat yucky - we’ve had rain, mist and fog for the past day or two - and on top of that I couldn’t be bothered to drag myself out of bed in time this morning. The thought of walking around some disused gravel pit in the fog just didn’t appeal somehow.

In the end, staying at home proved to be not so bad. A single Greenfinch visited the bird feeders in the garden this morning - the first one for many months - the Coal Tit that has been coming for food occasionally over the past few weeks put in an appearance again and then a pair of Blue Tits covered just about every inch of the garden in search of spiders and insects.

Okay, so these aren’t the sort of birds that would normally get much more than a second glance when out birding but today they were garden highlights. For me even the most common of birds can be special, given the right circumstances.

It also looks like we may get to have a "Christmas" Robin in the garden for the first time in a number of years too. Although common enough in the area the Robin is a bird that has never really taken to our little urban garden for some reason but, for the past six months or so, we have had one or two coming to the feeders. Hopefully, come Christmas day we will have a visit from the one bird associated with Christmas almost as much as the Turkey is!

So much for looking forward to seeing Bluehorses at The Flowerpot! I didn’t make it! And, I’m NOT happy about it! After a couple of days of small warning twinges my bad back kicked in again on Friday afternoon, and for the first time in around 8 years I missed a Bluehorses gig at The Flowerpot!

All thoughts of returning to the gym with a vengeance have obviously gone out the window again, that will now have to wait either until later this week or even after Christmas! I will get back into the routine of doing a workout 3 or 4 times a week though.

I forgot a little snippet of “news” last week… I’m a winner! Albannach, one of the bands we follow, had a competition on their web site to win a silver pendant of the band's logo and I won! Even though the band are based in Scotland the pendant will be coming over from America, where it is being “made to order”, so when it arrives I’ll post a picture or two on here.

On Sunday, I started my Christmas shopping. I don’t like to start too early but then again, I don’t like leaving things until the last minute! Sunday seemed like a good compromise to me! Well, it was still a whole week before Christmas Eve! I’m nowhere near finished though so there is still plenty of time for a last minute panic!

One last little bit… A “grasser”, sorry , an Autograss racer, has set a new speed record! 82 mph, INDOORS!!! Phil Cooper, ARC5, set the record at the NEC, Birmingham! There is a video of it below, just click on the arrow in the centre of the screen to play - you may have to click twice!