Well we are getting on towards the end of the first month of 2012 and my aim to try and write here a little more frequently has not exactly gone to plan. I’ve got two draft entries that I just can’t seem to finish off.

Let hope this does not become the third!

After thinking about volunteering last year and speaking to someone at a local charity about helping out I have made a commitment to help out every Saturday – when I say commitment it is likely to be until I get board or something better come along.

Hate to say it but it is true, so far I have done three weeks and have to say generally I am enjoying it – however I do find some of the people who come in to get free books rather irritating.

The rule is simple each person can take three books for free but it is very tiresome when you get traders or others who come into the store and want to take advantage!

I was on my own for most of the day yesterday sorting out books and dealing with people coming in with donations and people taking books, found a very nice book “The Complete Chronicles of Narnia” in hardback it looked like it had never been opened and I thought it was too good to be put out so put it on behind the counter so that the people in charge could make the decision on Monday.

Anyway one of the last people who looked around the store came up to the counter so that I could check the books she had – she had her quota but noticed the book and asked if she could have it…WTF

Healthy Planet

I have noticed that a lot of people are coming to the site after doing a search for Harveys, or the Lima wardrobes – unfortunately a lot of what I had written about these for them to be picked up by search engines were lost when the site had some work done in a few months ago.

Basically I spent a year comparing the prices of two of Harveys Boxing Day offers to see how the prices changed over the 12 months and found that the price did indeed increase at points during the 12 month period but they charged exactly the same for the products on Boxing Day 2007 that they did on Boxing Day 2008.

The point I was trying to make back then is that Sales are pretty much pointless, if you see something that you like and you want to pay the price listed then just buy it – I would of course recommend looking online to see if you could get the same item cheaper elsewhere!!

We’ve finally arrived at the start of 2012, and what sort of year does it hold in store for each and every one of us? There will be a few who believe that we will not get to see the end of the year as some global catastrophe will befall the planet, well either that or the Mayans decided not to carry on with their calendar!!

Watched the firework display in London on television and have to admit I thought I was watching V For Vendetta when all the fireworks started erupting from Big Ben and even through it was a great display I do have to wonder how much the display cost and more importantly who footed the bill?

I must be coming up with a new way to celebrate the new year as for the last two years I have spent the evening cleaning up and New Years Eve 2011 was spent no differently with me still going through some of the stuff that I have removed from the shed at my mothers. I have found a new home for my collection of Doctor Who books and magazines, having cleared out my old craft magazines – they are already loaded into the car ready to be given away.

I was not able to save my radio controlled Dalek – the moment it had been thrown into the shed was the moment it was destined to be thrown into the bin.

New Years Day was spent rather quietly at home where I cleared out the fridge – no more turkey for me which is rather shameful as I could have made a batch of turkey curry and frozen it for later in the year with the amount of turkey I had left over.

Managed to watch a few films during the day, saw It’s a Wonderful Life and The Muppet Christmas Carol – both fantastic films and two more films that I have managed to watch this holiday season.

Washed the car today and will have to remember to not use the jet wash after a stinking 4×4 has used it as I had to drive over a pile of mud which had been taken off the said 4×4 so I spent a few minutes just pressure washing the ground to clear all the mud out of the way. Here’s hoping I will be able to wash the car at least once a month.

We arrive at the end of another year and in the past I would normally do some sort of digest of what I had been up to over the past twelve months. I know that I have not really devoted the amount of time to this site that I used to and even when I did post some sort of update it felt half hearted.

As with every other year that has gone before, 2011 came and went and I cannot think of anything that I’ve done that is of note – I don’t mean that to come across as being negative and I’m sure if I really thought about it I have not just sat in front of a computer screen for the last twelve months.

I spent my 33rd birthday getting up at the crack of dawn and driving three and a half hours to North Wales where I climbed the highest mountain in England and Wales – Mount Snowdon. I do regret that another year has passed and I’ve still not managed to make to New York or Australia, both destinations that I wanted to visit for as long as I’ve been online.

As my last entry stated I have finally called it a day with my “101 things in 1001 days” project three years after it should have ended and while looking at some of the items that I had not accomplished I was surprised to find that some were relatively straight forward with no real excuse for them not being completed.

2011 saw my family tree research slow down considerable, maybe because over the last few years I have spent loads of time building the tree and to extend on this means having to visit record offices and spending time looking through church baptism and marriage records – this would involve a trip to Warminster and an overnight stay to make the most of it.

I have however already restarted work on my research by ordering a birth and marriage certificate, so at the moment waiting for them to arrive from the General Records Office.

I have however been keeping my research skills honed by working on a new project, in fact I’ve spent the last year and a half working on it and will eventually reveal all!
I’m generally happy with how I’ve been managing my finances over the last twelve months and having cancelled my Lovefilm membership yesterday I’m looking forward to being able to find another use for the £13.27 a month subscription. Anyway over the last twelve months interest earned from the majority of my accounts amounted to £88.97 an improvement on the £55.65 I earned in 2010.

I am not sure yet it I will come up with a list of goals for 2012 but have already said I will volunteer a few hours every week to help a local charity – so will see how that goes.

I have decided to officially end my 1001 Project three years after it should have ended and it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth.

Okay a few things I saw a programme on television a few days ago (Obsessive Compulsive Hoarder) and it was someone in work who mentioned that the bloke (Richard Wallace) kept newspapers as he wanted to keep a keep a digital record of events – this is something that I do but at the moment I scan what I think might be useful and recycle the rest of the paper. I’ve known for some time that I am a hoarder and don’t like to throw things out that might be useful or hold some sort of sentimental memory for me and watching the programme scared me, as all it would take is for me to slow down on the scanning element for the papers to build up!!

How do you decide if something you have is trash and should be gotten rid of or kept – I have a load of card craft magazines all stored just in case I need to refer to them at some future date. It is only now once I have typed that do I realise that I have not needed to look at them over the last twelve months. I have a vast collection of VHS videos that for years I have been storing and it is only recently that I have decided to get rid of them but even this is being doing in a slow and ordered pace.

Today I have started to empty the shed at my mothers, as she wants all my books gone so she can reclaim her shed – looking at some of the things I’ve already taken out the majority of stuff will end up in the bin as it has been destroyed by damp and my brothers.

A few weeks ago someone in work asked the question – How does someone know if they are having a breakdown?

Today I went out to get a Christmas tie, I never knew it would be so much trouble to find one in Carmarthen. I tried both BHS (I asked here and they had no idea what I was talking about and finally pointed me in the direction of the normal ties) and Marks & Spencer with no luck and even a visit to the numerous budget stores like B&M and Poundland proved to fruitless.

Eventually got one from Debenhams who were having yet another special EVENT the prices have been the same for the last few weeks regardless of any special offer they appear to be promoting.

Got some drinks (soft) for a work buffet we’re having this week, still not sure how much would be needed for the twelve of us and it somehow feels wrong that I have bought the premium brands even though I normally get the budget brands for my own consumption.

I did manage to get the the clothes recycling bank yesterday and have unloaded all the clothes from my car and spent a little time last night going through my wardrobe and clearing that out.

Well home now for my lamb stew, which has been in the slow cooker for the last few hours and iron my shirts for the week ahead

Well since my last entry I have completed a great deal of my Christmas shopping, rather alarmingly this has to be one of the only years that I have not made a list or budget for presents. I have asked family what they want and have gone out and bought them – think it is much easier to get what someone actually wants or needs.

I still need to get a few things and am awaiting a few deliveries but the fun will be when it comes to wrapping them all up, luckily I still have wrapping paper left over from last year.

In other news December is looking like it will be a busy month, with work Christmas dinner and the work night out it is probably a good thing that I am not looking at what I am spending.

Been busy over the last few weeks having a clear out at home, I have a load of old clothes that I have had to admit I will never fit into again and have these bagged up to go to clothes recycling and took a bag of new things (yes still with the labels on) to a local charity shop.

Also decided that my VHS collection needs to go, I had originally hoped to replace each video with the DVD but since joining the amount of DVD’s I buy has gone down considerably with me only really buying a few DVD’s in the January sales.

So far I must have gotten rid of about 20 videos and the majority of these were ones I was “forced” to remove from my mothers house a few months ago that have been sitting in a bag in the corner for the last few months!!

However all this space I appear to be creating will be filled when I move more of my things from my mothers shed – my collection of Doctor Who videos and books, and old school books.

Will have to remember to remove my old microwave to my car so that I can take it to the tip at some point, that is something else that has been sitting in the corner for nearly a year.

Time is very much like a handful of sand and slips away all too quickly no matter how tightly you grip.

Nearly two months since my last entry and I have had no more parking tickets since I began “hiding” my car which shows just how Carmarthenshire County Council operates it car parks in Carmarthen.

Today I officially started my Christmas shopping, when I bought my first gift – well ordered it online actually to save a few pounds (buying locally the CD would have cost £9.97 online it was £6.99 and hopefully I will get cash back as well)

So since the last time I wrote -

* Met up with old school friend
* Weekend away with work colleagues

I will talk about the above in the next couple of weeks

Got to my car this morning to find yet another parking fine, (Have gone a good few months without having one so still cheaper than actually having to buy a permit or daily ticket) I had a feeling when I parked up last night that I would get one but always wanting to push my luck I did not “hide” the car.

Of course yesterday the local council changed some of the parking spaces from long stay to short stay, I did notice last night but thought I would chance it – I did get to my car earlier than I normally would and got to the car park just before 9am. As I had guessed because the area I had parked in was now designated short stay my car was all alone and stood out like a sore thumb as all the other cars were parked in the long stay.

What aggrieves me the most is that this was an easy hit for the council enforcement officer, they saw the car and zoomed in on it (knowing that it would have been left overnight) and I know from past experience that they would not have checked any other car to see if it had a valid parking ticket. Looking at the paperwork I was caught at 8.20am which is fair enough as the car park is monitored from 8am but any other day I have safely left my car until at least 10am sometimes longer when it is “hidden” in with the other long stay cars.

My policy of hiding the car will not change as mentioned before it is not worth me buying a ticket or permit as the only day the car is in the car park after 8am is when I work a late shift.

If I pay within 14 days I will only need to pay £25, this month was already a tight squeeze on my finances with me already cutting back so looks like I will be using food from my cupboards and freezer for the rest of the month.

I am sure that the news will be full of the events that happened in New York back in 2001, it becomes one of those moments that people will always remember what they were doing on that fateful day ten years ago.

It was a Tuesday and back then I was working part time and not working on Tuesday, I can remember sitting at the computer with the television on in the background when they reported that a plane had hit one of the Twin Towers in New York. I was watching the news and at that time no one knew that it was a terrorist attack and I can remember thinking no wonder a plane hit the building as they were flying so close – I was watching live reports and could see a plane in the background approaching the second tower and hit it.

The rest of the afternoon was spent watching the confused news reports.