My sausage casserole was a success and rather tasty as it happens – will be making another batch soon but I shall be making a chicken casserole tomorrow. So tomorrow after work I should arrive home with dinner all ready and waiting for me and there should be plenty left over for the rest of the week – likely to freeze this so that I get some variety.

Had a little sort out last night/this morning nothing major just trying to find a permanent home for the slow cooker and it has become apparent that what is actually needed is actually a major clear out. That however will have to wait for a little while.

Every year I like to post an entry about St Dwynwen’s – the Welsh patron saint of friendship and love. January the 25th is the feast day of Saint Dwynwen the Welsh equivalent of the more popular St Valentine.

A few years ago you would not hear much about St Dwynwen’s Day in Wales with the exception of a few cards on sale in a few specialist Welsh shops, the high street retailers preferring to focus on the more profitable Valentines cards. That was actually a good thing as you could buy flowers, chocolates and go out for meals on the 25th January and not have to pay “Valentine” prices.
I have posted the story of St Dwynwen before on the site but think it is appropriate to add it to this post.

Dwynwen lived during the 5th century and was, by all accounts, one of the prettiest of Brychan Brycheiniog's 24 daughters. (Obviously before the days of TV)

The story goes that Dwynwen fell in love with one Maelon Dafodrill, but unfortunately her father had already arranged that she should wed another. Maelon was so outraged that he raped Dwynwen and left her.

In her grief Dwynwen fled to the woods, where she begged God to make her forget Maelon. After falling asleep, Dwynwen was visited by an angel, who appeared carrying a sweet potion designed to erase all memory of Maelon and turn him into a block of ice.
God then gave three wishes to Dwynwen. First she wished that Maelon be thawed; second that God meet the hopes and dreams of true lovers; and third, that she should never marry.

All three were fulfilled, and as a mark of her thanks, Dwynwen devoted herself to God's service for the rest of her life.
Remains of Dwynwen's church can be seen today on the island of Llanddwyn, off the coast of Anglesey. (North Wales)

Also situated on the island is Dwynwen's well, wherein allegedly swims a sacred fish, whose movements predict the future fortunes and relationships of various couples. Visitors to the well believe that if the water boils while they are present, then love and good luck will surely follow.

Well after my success at making cawl last week I have invested in a slow cooker and am already planning on making a sausage casserole this week – have bought the ingredients that I was short of today so will have to see how I get on. However one of the rings on my cooker has stopped worked (burst into flames last week) so now I just have the one smaller ring to use when cooking. I have attempted to remove/replace the larger ring but seem to be having some problems getting the ring out of the cooker.

Had dentist appointment last Thursday and finally gave notice to the dentist that I would be cancelling my Denplan contract. One of the main reasons for cancelling has been that over the years the number of appointments with the dentist/hygienist have reduced.
The last two years I have been visiting the dentist 3 time a year and that has been costing me about £25 a month. When I spoke to the receptionist at the dentist she suggested that if I wanted to have more appointments they could raise the amount I paid monthly, I kindly refused and informed her that in future I would be paying privately for my treatment and arranged my next appointment for the start of September. The money that I would have been paying to Denplan will now be saved in a separate account (should be about £300 a year) and it is this money which I will need to use for any future treatments.

My ultimate plan is to find a dentist that does not charge £30 for a routine check-up, or starts to find work that needs to be done now that I am paying.

Well with the rain the remaining snow on the ground has vanished and I never got to use the bad weather as an excuse not to go into work. Some people did and as always a few people took the p#ss calling into say they were not able to make the journey as the road conditions were poor.

I had gotten used to the clear blue skies throughout the day so it was a shock to have to contend with the bleak dark skies which came along with the rain!

Half way though January and still not got any clear plans as to what I want to get done this year, I'm not sure if that is a bad thing or not!

It is photos like this that make me realise why I love going out armed with my camera. New Years Day and the snow began to fall and actually stuck but I was not able to get any decent photos as the light had escaped me, so I was hoping that the snow would still be around on Saturday so I could get out and about and take some photos.

I would have walked about three miles taking photos and hoping that my batteries would last while I was doing my circuit and it did – I actually took about 200 photos so difficult to know which one to add to this post. Of course not all the photos turned out as I had hoped but I am happy with the majority of them. I really will need to make sure that I get out more this year with the purpose of taking photos as it was good to go out and just take in the scenery.

Took out the subscription to access the 1911 census records and have already begun looking at distant relatives while adding and extending more branches to my own family tree, so it has already been worth the cost involved. I think this year might be an expensive year for my research as I am going to need to get a lot of birth and marriage certificates.

… and what a cold start to the year, I was going home at 3AM this morning and it was minus 5 – hopefully 2010 will be a good year for you all.

I spent most of yesterday sorting out my finances in preparation for 2010 and am hoping that this year I will be able to make some serious inroads with my debts and also continue to build up my savings. I mentioned yesterday that 2009 had seen some serious money needed to be spent on the car and since that happened I have been trying to become less reliant on credit cards and getting used to using cash, of course no one can predict the future but I am hoping that by the end of the year I would have been able to at least halve my month direct debit for my credit cards (at the moment about £80 a month is going for minimum repayments).

I will need to keep better control over my spending, looking back at last year, problems arise with my food spending and what I list as "misc" I have set up a new spreadsheet and will need to make sure that I actually budget more efficiently. I'm hoping that 2010 will also see me developing my family tree, I have done a fair amount of work on it over the past few years and am toying with the idea of buying a subscription to the 1911 census so that I can spend more time trying to trace other branches of the family, checking and the finances are there and I do have a few more days to decide.

My gym membership has ended and I am still wondering if I should renew it for this year as I have not used the gym for the last few months, might pop along there tomorrow to see how much they are charging for membership this year.

As we approach the last few hours of 2009 I have been busily preparing for the new year and have noticed quite a few of my Facebook friends leaving status updates saying how bad 2009 has been and how they are looking forward to a new year. I am sure that for many people 2009 would have been no different to any other year it is just that people expect you to be looking forward to the new year?

Anyway 2009 has not been that bad for me, in fact trying to remember the last twelve months and any significant events is hard enough – I suppose the last twelve months have been expensive where the car is concerned. I did manage to get away to Blackpool for a weekend and have been able to get out and see a little more of Wales – even going up to Cardiff! Was also happy to be asked to be godfather to a friends son.

Of course there are things that I wished I had done and that is what 2010 is for, my 101 list has slowly been worked on even if the deadline has passed by more than a year!

So this evening I will be watching as the bells ring in 2010…