The Twelve Weeks Of Xmas

Hello dear readers.

Yes, we’re back to something resembling normality, with the bi-weekly blog right back on schedule

It’s about time too really. Not only so you lovely people in reader-land know when to switch off your computers lest your eyes should fall on this miserable attempt at sense, but also for yours truly to know where he stands (or if we’re brutally honest, sits). Being a non-worker these days anything that smacks of even the slightest amount of regularity helps to stop the days, weeks, and months from merging together quite so seamlessly.

And of course it's a process which isn’t helped when the world at large seems to be a couple of months ahead of me.

In Sickness And In Health

Hello dear readers!

Yes, just when you thought it might be safe to turn on the computer, the blog is back!

It’s been a while, but in fact it is only one bi-weekly blog post that is missing from your lives, a void caused by your friendly neighbourhood blogger attending the wedding of a particularly good friend.

The Great Flood

Hello dear readers!

Life can, at times, prove... Interesting.

Sometimes this interest is pre-planned, and much anticipated, often though it is the unexpected that make for the most interesting of times, as it rears up and hits us full in the face like a splash of ice cold water.

Yes, it can be those instances that really keep us on our toes, and provide the sharpest contrasts to out humdrum little lives.

This week’s was a doozy

Write On

Hello dear readers!

Yes, the wanderer has returned, and in one only slightly bruised piece to boot! I am of course referring to last weeks stag-do (That’s bachelor party for those Stateside).

Now anyone who is familiar with these kind of events will no doubt understand the necessity to draw a veil over the details of the day itself (What goes on stag, stays on stag!). Suffice it to say that 12  straight hours of alcohol fuelled, karaoke crazed, shenanigans left your friendly neighbourhood seated person a little delicate and very grateful that last Sunday was not Blog Sunday!

However, that is now all firmly in the past and it is time to address matters new.

Love & Marriage

Hello dear readers!

And welcome to what promises to be the calm before the storm.

No, I’m not talking about the recent atrocious weather that has seen areas of North Yorkshire hit with floods, and farmers dealt a vicious blow regarding crops and livestock. No, this particular storm is one that is more to do with Jack Daniels, social occasions, public speaking, and perhaps just a touch more Jack Daniels.

Yup, the next few weeks promise to be interesting.

The Unbroken Mirror

Hello dear readers!

Seven is a number that looms large throughout the human psyche, reverberating through folklore, suspicion, and culture both popular, and not so popular.

There’s The Seven Dwarves, The Magnificent Seven, Seven Brides For Seven Brothers, The Seven Samurai, seven deadly sins, and even seven golden virtues.

It crops up, again and again and again, and I guess that makes the subject of this blog one that contributes to the phenomenon because this time next week will see myself and my wife, Tina, celebrate out wedding anniversary.

I’ll let you guess how many years it’s been.

Going Underground

Hello dear readers!

Yes, after a slight delay caused by a completely expected literary festival, it’s time for the second instalment of our Wonderful Adventures In London (to be read in a loud and booming voice).

In this little snippet, there will be bus journeys, a museum, friends, the underground, and the third and final chapter of the three hotel rooms.

But wait! Where did we leave off in the first instalment. Well, if memory serves, we had just been moved from the Ibis Styles hotel and it’s spectacularly disabled unfriendly lay out to the much cosier Best Western hotel, that practically adjoined it and fallen into bed after a long and tiring day.

What follows are the events of the second, third, and fourth day of our mini-break.

City Slickers

Hello dear readers!

And so the wanderer returns!

Well, actually, the wanderer returned over a week ago, as did the wanderers wife, and, by a minor miracle, all the luggage too.

For those of you that haven’t the first clue what I’m going on about, I am alluding to our little trip to London, this Sceptred Isle’s capital city. There were thrills, there were spills, there were no less than three hotel rooms in four nights, and that’s just for starters!

One Step Beyond

Hello dear readers!

It’s going to be a quick one this week.

London, and my ever lovely step-daughter Sarah are calling and tonight, and the ungodly hour of 4:30 in the morning (yes, there is one. I checked). will see both myself and my wonderful wife Tina board a bus and begin the 6 hour journey needed to get there.

It will mean the next blog will be as full of adventures as my gut is presently full of take-out food as we take in the sights, sounds, and possibly the smells of the nations capital.

Now And Then

Hello dear readers!

Let’s start at the very beginning. It’s a very good place to start. (Or so a certain overly cheerful nun would have us believe anyway). The trouble is, I’m no longer sure where that is.

The last couple of weeks have been pretty good you see, weather-wise, at least, and that has seen your friendly neighbourhood blogger indulge in one of his favourite pastimes, namely doing a whole lot of nothing.

I’ve taken to rising at my accustomed hour of far too early in the morning, and transporting my breakfast, a pot of coffee, my dog, and my book into the newly furnished back garden to soak up a little of this should-probably-be-seasonal sunshine. It’s led me to do a lot of reading and a lot of thinking (yeah I know, never a good thing), and it is upon the latter subject I’d like to write today.

Feel The Burn.

Hello dear readers!

It has been 14 long and arduous days since last we met (well, from my point of view at least), and that time has been filled with a lot of sitting around, a fair amount of telly watching (Thank you Line of Duty), and a distinct lack of actually doing well, anything really.

Doesn’t sound much to write home about does it? Certainly not anything to base a blog post on. I mean, yeah, I may have a knack of making ten words do the work of two but that’s stretching it, even for me. Luckily there is a reason for my inactivity and it’s that I’d like to share with you today. 

Coffee Time

Hello dear readers!

Today you find a much caffeinated blogger. A man who is operating at well past the recommended capacity for such things and trying to stop himself typing at a million worthless words a minute.

This is not due to any energy drinks, you understand. There have been no Monsters, no Caraboa, and definitely no ruddy hued bovines to stimulate this tired mind. No, I prefer y stimulants to be of a more natural variety. For preference I like them black as night, strong as sin, and fully equipped with the power to melt the enamel straight off my teeth.

In other words, I’m a coffee fiend, and that will be where we begin this week’s offering.

The Bug In The System

Hello dear readers!

Today is a day which finds your friendly neighbourhood blogger feeling just a little flat. A tiny bit out of sorts if you will (and even if you won’t to be fair).

The most probable cause for this is a dose of the common cold or some other related bug that has left me with a faint but persistent headache, a small case of the sniffles, and a thirst for cups of tea that seems unquenchable. Of course as is the way, these days, my MS has decided to lend a hand in proceedings, and a mega-dose of bone-deep weariness has decided to drop in to lend it’s support, alongside it’s friend and neighbour, Mr Brain-Fog. All of which is… Smashing.

And really, it couldn’t be timed better, because this week was the week of my injection.

'A Book?' He Wrote.

Hello dear readers!

And a happy Mothers Day to one and all!

Now, I’ve blogged on the subject of my most sainted mama before, namely here, and I think it’s fair to say that the post still stands as testament to the really quite remarkable woman that I owe my existence to.

For this week’s offering I want to move away from the hearts and flowers, and the Hallmark cards and I want to get just a little bit selfish. This week I want to talk about me, (me, me!) and something that is becoming more and more important to me as the years tick by. Something personal. Something I have always aspired to; and something that I am, in fact, doing at this very moment.

I’m sure you’ll be relieved to hear that I’m talking about my writing.

Born Too Soon

Hello dear readers!

We are living in interesting times.

The pantomime of Brexit is, as we speak, continuing unabated, with various options from The P.M.s deal, through to no-deal, to possibly Noel Edmonds ringing up the banker popping to mid-stage and shouting ‘oh no it isn’t’ (oh yes it is!). Possibly there’s an unheard of deal behind you. Whatever the resolution to this strangely hypnotic farce, and whenever that resolution occurs (if at all) it will mean change, the only constant upon which anyone can rely. Things change.

Sometimes this is for the worse but every now and then, it’s possible to catch a glimpse of a brighter future, and that’s what has happened this week.

Essential Oils

Hello dear readers!

And apologies for the slightly more prolonged than planned absence from these hallowed pages. This was due, not to ill health, or misfortune (well…), but to a mostly expected but lengthier than planned outbreak of churchy-ness, (namely a christening). I thought it would be over relatively quickly. I thought that I would have time to get back and write. And of course, I thought wrong.

It makes a change from missing missives to be down to such causes. In the past there have been blips due to hospitalisation, relapses of my MS, and general icky illness on behalf of myself or my ever-sainted wife, Tina. If truth is to be told however matters of health are pretty good right now, especially for your friendly-neighbourhood-seated person. And that brings us rather nicely on to the subject of today’s blog.

The Drive

Hello dear readers!

You know, sometimes it’s easy to forget just how long I’ve been doing this.

I mean, there’s the odd ‘time-hop’ on Facebook, but I don’t always look at the date on those so perhaps that’s not the best measure, when it comes down to it. This week however, something has occurred. An event has arisen that happens as regular as clockwork and, as it’s potentially blog-worthy, sand as I know I blogged about it on it’s last occurrence, it puts a definite bookmark in the old diary.

Yup, this week saw new car day!

As Good As A Change

Hello dear readers!

Today you join an energised and focused blogger. You join a man who, although with out all that much of a plan would at least have the wherewithall to carry a plan out, should one materialise.

Sadly, this is not par for the course, and one of the many adjustments that has been forced upon me by the revelation that I am living with MS is the growing realisation that such days may be just that little bit rarer… And that the absolute polar opposite is more than just a possibility.

Out With The Old

Hello dear readers!

And welcome to my first official post of 2019! Yay!

Yes, the festivities and the hootenany are now things of the past as we march headlong into the new year. In fact it’s possibly progressing just a little too fast for my personal liking. Two weeks into January seems to have arrived with more than the due haste and of course it’s left a few little jobs to do…

January is renown of being the month of new starts, of health kicks, good habits, and reaching those goals which were just missed in 2018 (and 2017, and 2016…). It is a time for renewal. A time for making a start on those new year resolutions, but of course before that can happen there is the inevitable cleaning of the decks, and that’s what faces us now.