And so we come to the end of 2014, this site really is becoming neglected, I have never been one for changing things around every few weeks but when you realise that I have only posted five entries over the last twelve months you need to start questioning why the site remains here.

Well it is that time of year again, has it really been 12 months, a lot has changed with how I use the internet and I am sure that for the few that will see this entry how you use the internet has also changed. Gone are the days of Fanlistings as most fans will ‘like’ the facebook page of a favourite tv show or actor.

Needless to say at the start of 2014 I made a list of six goals to achieve during the year

1. Renew my passport.
2. De-clutter my room.
3. Use my slow cooker to make a meal at least once a month.
4. Visit Beamish
5. Go see a show in a theatre.
6. Complete at least 10 years of transcriptions of Council records.

Overall I would say that like this site they have become neglected, my passport which would have been the easiest to achieve is still expired, I have as with previous years half heartedly started to de-clutter my room in fact have been doing little bits in the run up to Christmas – there is however still the tendency to keep hold of things just in case, the need to be more ruthless has never been so important. I spent New Years Eve clearing out and while the room still looks cluttered 5 bags were taken out for rubbish.

I do still use my slow cooker a lot, in fact once again I used it to cook my turkey crown but have not used it as far as I can remember to make a meal at least once a month. To clear up more space on my work top I am considering finding somewhere to keep the slow cooker when not in use, of course the danger is that it will get forgotten about and not used!

Beamish got put on the back burner as did going to the theatre, I suppose ultimately it was down to cost.

Work on the transcriptions of council records have been coming along slowly, I don’t think I have managed to complete ten years during the year but have made a fair amount of progress with getting the records “web ready”. It was nice during 2014 that the National Library of Wales contacted me asking to archive my Llangunnor Network site as a resource for the future.

However I did manage to get out and about during 2014 which a trip down to London in February to the Who Do You Think You Are Live event where I spent a day at the show, a day exploring the National Archives and generally having a look around London. I was also able to get a photograph with Natasha Kaplinsky.

I was also given a years membership to the National Botanical Gardens in Wales and did make a few visits during the year to take some photos – I have had the renewal forms for 2015 but am undecided if I used the membership to maximum potential.

I also joined CADW which gets me free entry to castles in Wales and reduced entry to English Heritage sites, that expires in a few months and again a decision will need to be made as to whether to renew it. I have if I recall correctly used it a few times this year to visit Kidwelly Castle and when I went with a friend to Castell Coch.

Attended service of commemoration for the start of World War One in Carmarthen at the start of August, I had contributed towards the costs and can’t say I was very happy when I turn up to discover that to effectively take part you needed to purchase a programme – all very nicely put together but you would have thought that they could have printed out a few order of services for those not able to pay the £5.

September and I ventured in my car to the Eden Project for the weekend, now I had been reluctant to go along as the spaces were supposed to be for people who want to make a change in their communities, while I do want to get the community engaged and working together I did find while I was there that people from all over the country had ideas that were much bigger than mine. I should explain a lot of them had ideas to buy land/buildings or make use of facilities already about – what I want to do cannot really be measured with bricks and mortar.

Besides that it was a good weekend and it was nice to talk to people from different communities and to share ideas. It could have been better if everyone had been staying in the same hotel, not that there was a lot of time but most of the people that I have remained in contact with were not staying at the same hotel.

A month later I held my first quiz night, which was a failure both financially and on the community engagement front, obviously more needs to be done to engage with the local people.

Did organise a craft fair late November that was relatively successful, managed to get a wide range of craft stalls but still finding it hard to get the large local population to come along – I think years of nothing taking place in the community has not helped neither has the fact that the most convenient location for activities is a sheltered accommodation community room but the residents don’t like outsiders.

Hopefully a Big Lunch event can be held at the local school this year and that will help to promote community.

I am sure that I would have done more during 2014 but ultimately it was a good year.

For the last couple of years I’ve always written something at the end of the year – a sort of digest of the last twelve months in my life and why break with this tradition.

I’ve finalised my accounts for the last year and rather disappointed to see that total interest (earned from savings) has fallen to £80.10 for 2013, this is down from the £92.10 for 2012 and £88.97 from 2011. However the total amount of my savings continues to grow so most likely poor interest rates from the accounts the money is held in – I will need to take a look at moving money around to maximise interest.

Let’s see if I can get over £100 interest next year.

Car loan has now been repaid so I have more disposable income each month but unlike the last time my loan ended I want to make sure that the money that was being used to repay the loan is being ploughed into savings as I am sure that I will need to replace my car again and want to avoid/limit the amount of any new loan that I may have to take out.

I don’t do resolutions but I did want to set myself some goals for 2013 and all I came up with was the following –

# Make better use of the food stocks I have at home
# Reclaim the floor space in my living space.

Needless to say these were both soon forgotten about and not achieved, I really will need to make more of an effort to use my food stocks and not buy new food. I’m hoping at with food left over from Christmas I will be able to go a little while before having to go out for essentials. My living space is still an atrocious mess and it does seem rather pointless to say that I will clear it up and maintain it for yet another year.

Over the last twelve months things have generally been good, I’ve had a few opportunities to get involved with the community in Llangunnor with various activities that engage different sections of the community.

I helped to organised and carry out a community litter pick – something I have wanted to do since becoming a litter champion in 2012. The event was organised with outside assistance from the people who are promoting “Time Credit” in Carmarthenshire. I would have hoped that the community council would have realised what an advantage Time Credits could be to improving community engagement with the council.

2012 also saw the folks at Llangunnor Church get together to organise a working party to maintain the graveyard, with my ongoing research into the graveyard I though this would be an ideal opportunity to record some information while also doing something worthwhile. They even signed up to the Time Credit scheme so I get rewarded for my time spent.

Friendship Centre opened up at the local chapel and again I felt it was important to assist in anyway I could with this venture as it is another community resource with a great set of people who are actively trying to make things better.

Start of June saw me helping another community spirited individual with a Big Lunch – this should have been a great free event but it had such limited support from the community at large that I was disappointed and it goes to show how much work is needed to recreate a community in Llangunnor.

June was also my 35th birthday and I spent it up in Cardiff going to visit the Doctor Who Experience and spend the afternoon walking around the Bay.

An article appeared in the local newspaper during August regarding the litter picking activities that I have been doing had I hoped would spark up some more local interest but nothing, I still however speak to people when I am out and about clearing litter.

2013 saw me travel about a little, not overseas but went for a few day trips and something that I really should make more time to do, September I used some of my well earned Time Credits to go to a food fair at St Fagans – fantastic weather for this time of year and also travelled again with Time Credits to the Christmas Market in Birmingham – both trips effectively free of charge

I also went to visit old school friends, Nathan and Kate down in Ringwood and to celebrate the wedding of David and Nicola in Scotland, it was lovely to see Davids parents again after such a long time. My first visit to Scotland and to Edinburgh was great and somewhere I would love to go again but maybe not driving the 8 hours to get there in one day!

Not much work has been done on the old family tree during the last twelve months, I did visit Bath and find the final resting place of my Great Great Grandparents (with thanks to a chap from Bath for doing some research for me).

November I did what you might call my first photo session at a wedding, certainly something which was not planned and was as a favour to a fellow councillor but what a stressful situation to be in – made all the worse when it appeared that the official photographer did not turn up at the church. I handed the disk of photos that I felt were acceptable to them yesterday. As I see it I charged them nothing so they cannot complain about the photos taken.

I suppose I should mention work even if only in passing been pretty much the same as always – working for the Government is certainly not the guaranteed job many people seem to think it is and things will only get worse with cutbacks and the eroding of employee rights. Personally I plod along do my job and go home.

I have spoken about Christmas previously and as I sit in on New Years Eve watching television and the firework display in London with a glass of port and a bunged up nose to toast in 2014.

We shall certainly find out what it has in store for each and everyone of us…