I had written an entry on Christmas Day but due to technical problems it was lost, I have done some cleaning of the database files and can finally post again.

Christmas Day came and passed in a flash, something not helped by the fact that I did not wake up until gone midday and immediately had to start preparing dinner. I had hoped to go to the Christmas Day service at the local church but had completely missed that due to oversleeping but had managed to go to a midnight mass service the night before – which might explain why I had overslept.
With all the cooking I was able to sit down for my starter just before 5pm and in the end I had opted for that old favourite – prawn cocktail. Followed shortly afterwards with Christmas dinner with all the trimmings.

I had asked for practical presents as I am very difficult to buy for and did not want more junk that would take up space, so got a few DVD’s and blue-rays, loads of the traditional deodorant gift sets so should not need to buy any for a good few months. I really will have to get my gifts together so that I can take the customary photo.

Since my last update I am happy to say that with the help of a good friend I have gotten rid of the old television, microwave and some other small surplus electrical items that have been cluttering up my room for way too long. I am hoping that this will be a turning point in my hoarder mentality as I actually “allowed” my friend to take a load of my old videos to dispose of and will be finding more that will go to the same place. Some of my family tree computer disks have been copied on to a hard drive so I can get rid of the physical cd’s. It has freed up some space and the magazine no long issue the cover cd’s but the information can be downloaded so that will ensure that they can never build up again.

I have also looked with a more analytical eye and what else I could do to make better use of the space that I have available to me and hope to be a lot more proactive with my approach to keeping order in my living space going forward a major challenge will be for me to not be as sentimental towards things as that is leading to a lot of clutter.
Merry Christmas – Nadolig Llawen

It does seem I very rarely update this blog any more and I sure that may have something to do with how busy I have been.

After my last entry I went back and did nothing about cleaning my room the old microwave and television are still in the same place but I have now added a halogen oven to my gadgets and it does seem to make cooking easier – but of course takes up more space on the work surface!

Spent a few hours last night and this morning “sorting” the room as bumped into the landlord yesterday and he mentioned that someone was coming to inspect the place on Tuesday, so that did prompt me to get some sort of appearance of normality in my room. As I have said what must be hundreds of times before it is clutter that is my biggest problem, anyway only one bag of rubbish was put out so not sure exactly what I have done because that is about right for rubbish on a weekly basis.

Attended a council training session the other night, do feel a little guilty about wanting to put my name down for these courses as it costs £30 per person (and is paid for out of tax payers money) and I do feel that maybe that money could be put to better use in the community.

Oh yes I am at the moment sporting a beard – all part of Movember, I know that it should just be a moustache but well it is to raise awareness of prostate cancer and will be gone by this time next week – I will be sure to take some photos of the various stages and post them online.

Unsurprisingly it has been a few months since I last updated and reading back over my last entry very little has changed.

I have however ended my volunteering at the book place, I had taken the majority of September off to think about what I wanted to do last week when I returned I handed in my notice – today was my last day and it did feel strange to be leaving but I know that going forward that too much conflict would be generated and I don’t like some of the things that are developing at the store.

Work was done on a new leaflet for the council but as I thought it was too late for any new ideas so what I had done was shelved but hopefully when it comes to redoing the leaflet I will be able to have more of an input. Strangely enough I was asked to do some tweaking to the edition they are going with so will see how that looks.

Would you believe I still have my old microwave and television taking up space in my room, last time I mentioned that I would be making more of an effort to de-clutter – not sure what has happened to that but will need to get something done as I have a lot of books taking up space as well.

Currently reading “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” by Roald Dahl see the film adaptations so thought I would take the time to read the book.

Was it really the 10th June since my last entry?

Of course it was and I am being kept just as busy with so many things to do that trying to think back over the last two months for anything interesting to talk about is very difficult.

I still do my volunteer work at the book place every Saturday but am not sure for how much longer I will be able to commit to this – various reasons that I may go into later.

Councillor business has stopped for the summer but I have been asked to report back on how I felt the council was operating as a new member. Not sure what they actually want me to do as it was the chairman that asked me at the end of the last meeting. I am going on the assumption that he wants my views on what it was like as a new member of the council.

I was also sent out a pack which the council has developed to welcome new residents to the community and I think it could do with some changes – but am unsure if the information was only sent out to show councillors and that all decisions on the contents have been finalised at some previous meeting.

However I have taken it upon myself to create something else – at the moment I am working on a different layout but keeping the information the same as the original, I also hope to highlight information that I feel a new resident would fine useful. Have not decided how I will approach the council with these – depends on what happens at the meeting.

Regular visitors will know of my constant battle with trying to keep my room tidy, watching a programme about hoarders I realised that I could be called a hoarder. Not as bad as the people on the show but I am sure they were like me at one point and I managed to find a book (at the shop I volunteer at) about de-cluttering your home and along with the advice given on the television show I feel that I am ready to be a lot more ruthless than I have been in the past about getting rid of stuff.

I have finally come to the realisation that my video collection is worthless – I do have a video player and I did actually buy a device so that I could copy them on to my computer and then on to a disk but quality issues made me realise that was a pointless exercise, so they will be bagged up at taken to a charity shop.

Other things that I will be getting rid of –

1.Old Clothes
2.Spare Television
3.Old Microwave

Also thinking of getting rid of some of my crafting supplies, it has been a good couple of months since I last made any cards.

Quite shocking for someone that had nothing to write about I have managed to waffle on for so long.