Christmas and New Year 2006-07

It's been a hectic few weeks and this is the first chance I've had to post for a while.

We went over to Norfolk for Xmas to see the family. Drove over on the morning of Xmas eve and the roads were very quiet so didn't take as long as the horrendous journey when we went over for Dad's birthday (over 4 hours). Walked round to my sister's after lunch and had a play on the Nintendo Wii. Edward was able to show me how to play various games and everyone else felt free to sit on the sofas making "humerous" comments about my technique. A quiet evening in front of the TV having a few drinks with my parents. Xmas day was a late start, (nothing to do with the "few drinks") but I had a delicious breakfast of scrambled egg and smoked salmon on toast and we then settled down to wait for Alison, Andrew and the kids to come over before opening the presents. We created a small mountain of wrapping paper (which was tidied up for the recycling bin), thanked people for the presents they had given us and had a bit of a play with the toys (my racing grannies were funny as one of them kept veering off). We then had a go at playing a board game version of "Deal or No Deal" that Sonia and I were given by her brother David's family. It kept people busy making the little red boxes before we could start, and several readings of the rules to work out what we were supposed to do, but it kept us busy for a while until it was time to set the table for the big meal. Sensible portions of turkey, roast & mashed potatoes, etc etc etc were followed by Colston Basset Stilton and Port for Dad and me. We all settled down to watch the movie and other stuff on the TV while the food went down and after a while Gemma's boyfriend Chris turned up, so we had another round of present opening before a light supper and Dr Who. Once everyone had headed off we had a few more drinks in front of the TV before collapsing in bed. Boxing day was quiet. I checked the local paper shops to see if The Guardian was available (it wasn't). We had a visit from Elaine and headed back to Nottingham after lunch as Sonia had to be at work the next day.

Wednesday 27th December was a cold but clear morning. Sonia headed off to work, grumbling about the lack of leave and the rota that meant she had to cover the office. I waved her goodbye before wrapping up warm and catching a bus into town where I met up with friends. The three adults and four children walked down to the canal to find a narrowboat owned by John, a mutual friend, who had offered to take us all out for a trip. Once we had found him moored near Castle Marina, we left the kids and hit the nearby Sainsburys for the vital supplies of bacon, cobs and beer. We got underway and headed off towards Beeston and The Trent. I took lots of photos along the way and these can be found on my flickr.com site. We made it through the lock at Beeston and after turning round on the Trent moored near the lock before heading to The Victoria pub for lunch. A couple of pints and a good warm lunch later and we were back through the lock and headed back to John's mooring at Castle Marina. We left John to secure the boat, with some promising to meet him in the Lincolnshire Poacher for a few pints. I headed home to see how Sonia had got on at work and to down load my pictures.

The rest of the week was spent quietly at home, playing with the pictures for posting on Flickr, buying & installing updated antivirus software, buying a "pro" account for Flickr, and sorting out some UNISON case papers into date order ready to send to the lawyers.

New Years Eve came along quietly, and stayed that way. We caught a bus into town before they stopped running and met up with friends in the Lincolnshire Poacher. Once they had all gathered together we headed over to Chris' house to see in the New Year. It was all very civilised, no vomiting, no smashing of glasses, just lots of beer, food and "a good time was had by all". I think we left at about 1.30 a.m. and managed to flag down a black cab on the Mansfield Road who took us home for £10.

New Year's Day was not as nice as New Years Eve at first. A bit of a hangover - self inflicted, so no sympathy forthcoming. We decided we needed some fresh air and a walk so we drove over Attenborough Nature Reserve late in the morning. We couldn't get into the car park as it looked like everyone else had decied to do the same, so we turned round and drove off to the canal and weir at Beeston lock top take some pictures after a walk along the canal that I had cruised along on Wednesday.

The next day (Tuesday 2nd Jan) was my first day back at work and I had back to back meetings: 9 to 11 meeting of UNISON stewards in the department, 11.30 to 12.30 Joint Trade Union meeting with stewards from the other unions in the department and then 12.30 to 1.30 a members meeting about the restructuring of the County Council. By the time that had finished, and I had to spoken to some members who wanted me to come to a meeting in their workplace I barely had time to drink my home made soup before I headed home to write up the notes of the meeting, prepare some letters and deal with some other UNISON paperwork. Not a wonderful way to see in the New Year at work, but necessary given all that's going on.

You can see why I've not posted, been a bit busy.