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…

Today I attended a funeral of a family member, someone who I should refer to as a close family member but for circumstance never got to be called grandfather by myself or my brothers but rather by his first name. I have no idea what he felt about that he did have grandchildren that called and knew of him as granddad. I am never good at funerals, saying that this is only the fourth I've attended and I am sure it will not be my last.

This poem was read at the service, I can find no details of an author and it seems that it may be known by different names.

Don't grieve for me, for now I'm free
I'm following the path God laid for me
I took his hand when I heard Him call
I turned my back and left it all.
I could not stay another day
To laugh, to love, to work or play.
Tasks left undone must stay that way.
I found that place at the close of the day.

If my parting has left a void
Then fill it with remembered joy.
A friendship shared, a laugh, a kiss.
Ah yes, these things I too, will miss.

Be not burdened with times of sorrow.
I wish you the sunshine of tomorrow.
My life's been full, I savoured much.
Good friends, good times, a loved one's touch.

Perhaps my time seemed all to brief;
Don't lengthen it now with undue grief.
Lift up your heart and share with me
God wanted me now, He set me free.

Author – Unknown

Gwynfor Owen Lewis passed away on the 21st December aged 86 and just a few short weeks away from his 87 birthday but I need to remember that it was this time last year he was not expected to live more than a few days (in fact he was dead for a few minutes) but somehow managed to fight for every last moment of life, and to be honest with you there are very few things that you should fight for but life has to near the top of the list. He died peacefully after attending a Christmas party at the residential home – his fight finally over.

UPDATED POST 02/01/2010

Been a few weeks since my last entry (no surprise there), got loads of excuses but all have been used before. Well thought I would post an entry but discover that my version of WordPress is out of date so I set about updating it and only when I get to the last stage I discover that it will not work as I have the wrong version of MySQL – so checking with my hosting company I discover that I have to delete my old database and create a new one (I am typing this entry up while I wait) which has now been set up but I will have to update a few things so please if you see something not working leave me a message!

So Christmas was good, can’t really complain about the presents the photo to the left shows some of the things that I got (well the ones I was able to take a photo of) you can see I got the traditional deodorant and was expecting to get some sort of cook book. The big box is a memory foam topper and piled on top of it are a few new clothes that I also got.

I only had an issue with two presents that I got, the secret Santa present from work which was a "DEAD FRED" pen holder. Everyone else on the team seemed to have a gift that they actually wanted I got a pen holder – but I should not be ungrateful. The second present was from my father and as usual was clothing that was way to small for me. It would not be a problem except for the fact that I've had ill fitting clothes for the last few years and they take up space in my wardrobe. I was however able to take it back and swap it for something else.

The second photo shows the rest of the presents I got, you will see I had two DVD's to add to my collection and two new books, some chocolates/biscuits that I really should not eat but it would be a waste not too. I also got a new wallet to keep all that money I'm planning on saving!

I do however think that next year I will have to consider who I buy presents for, I was rather annoyed not to get something from a relative considering that I have always got her something in the past.