Day 1830 (31/12/2014)

New Years Eve

Had a few emails to send, then get an overdue a hair cut.

And then I went to the gym, for my new session, 15 minutes on the bike, then did 2 lots of weights on my arms and 1 lot for my legs, doing, 15, then 10, then 5 repetitions. Then doing 15, then 10, then 5 repetitions of sit-ups with 10kg of extra weight. Then I did 10 minutes on the cross-trainer then 5 minutes on the running machine (which involved some running).

And then I did all the weights and sit-ups again. I was going to finish off with a swim but the pool was too busy.

Then off tonight to Gary & Elaine's to see in the New Year.

Day 1829 (30/12/2014)

Finishing some outstanding work and then relaxing.

My wife made some quite nice soup, cream of brussel spouts with garlic, cheese and ham croutons.

Tasted a lot better than it sounds.

Day 1828 (29/12/2014)

An icy cold start to the day.

Then a busy morning paying in a couple of cheques and buying some new trainers for the gym, as my old ones have broken.

Then off to give blood, for the first time for quite a few years.

Apparently 1 point of blood weighs around 1.2 lb's so even though I couldn't go to the gym today I still lost a bit of weight. Nowadays they make you drink 1/2 litre of cold water before and afterwards, so no tea & biscuits for me but I did have a jacobs orange club biscuit, my first in years, so it was a fair swap.

Then home and spent the day working on a newsletter to send out for work.

Day 1827 (28/12/2014)

Getting back to normal but lost all track of what day it actually is.

Used up some of the Christmas left overs making a curry today, which I thought was quite nice.

Getting back to work tomorrow although I have done a little bit over the last few days.

Day 1826 (27/12/2014)

Christmas seems to have flown by but we still seem to have a fridge full of food & drink and I have hardly touched the chocolates or nuts (admittedly for the month before Christmas I kept eating the nuts).

I went to the gym in the afternoon, for quite a full work-out and a swim.

It was knackering.

Then back for a quick bite to eat before we took Granma home. On the way back we drove thru Bristol to look at the Christmas lights which were very nice from College Green up Park Street and then into Clifton Village, which is really lovely nowadays.

Then back home to collapse on the couch and Christmas is officially over for another year.

Day 1825 (26/12/2014)

Boxing Day

I desperately needed my sleep last night after a busy but fun day. I think me and my wife could could sleep for a week.

After a relaxing morning we went round to my mum & dad's for the evening.

I think the below photograph proves my mum's kitchen is big enough as we were all able to get in there, albeit that it was a bit of a squeeze, so really she could do Christmas dinner there but I am happy to do it.

Thomas was at the football and joined us later.

Day 1824 (25/12/2014)

Christmas Day

Last night was hectic as it is every year and like every year I was saying that next year will be different, we will be more organised but I honestly mean it this time.

The dinner seemed OK but may have been a bit cool by the time we sat down.

Unfortunately Thomas was very well and didn't maker dinner but he came down at about 5 ish, and was then on good form when we were doing Christine's quiz.

A great time hopefully had by all as I know we enjoyed it but we have loads of food left.

And I had a great present from my wife.

I can't wait to the start of every month next year.

Day 1823 (24/12/2014)

Christmas Eve

Still really busy but I managed to go shopping at Tesco's for a few last minute things in the morning and then picked up the turkey at lunch time.

I had to go to Bristol for a meeting afterwards which again delayed the day and I still have two report as that need doing.

Kelly made a stew for dinner, which I thought was quite nice but she didn't think was that good.

Day 1822 (23/12/2014)

It appears to poor old sickly Thomas is very allergic to a few things.

I should say we didn't decide to scribble on his arm and stick things in him, that was the hospitals doing but now we know then hopefully we can change a few things and Thomas will be a bit better and have more energy.

I put some of the stuff in the storage unit today, so we have a little bit more room downstairs.

Went to the gym, possibly the last visit before Christmas as I am very busy tomorrow, possibly having to go to a meeting in the afternoon.

Day 1821 (22/12/2014)

I had so aimed to have a quiet few days build up to Christmas but I have taken on a massive enquiry which needs to be done and keeps growing and growing.

It will be something that makes the papers, well the financial sections anyway and is quite interesting but I would rather have the time off.

We received Kelly's gift a vegi box which is full of loads of lovely stuff.

It is true to say that I am an old grumpy git and I never feel Christmasy until after Christmas dinner when I 'm slightly pissed but I had a clementine, which was really nice and nearly put me in the mood for Christmas.

Another gym session in the evening.

Day 1819 & 1820 (20 & 21/12/2014)

The weekend is here and so is Kelly.

Picked my car up, which now looks a lot better

and smells lovely as they also gave it a valet.

The last few days have been manic doing urgent reports. I still have a few more things to do until I can relax for Christmas.

After the gym last night I am now at my lowest weight all year, actually my lowest weight for a number of years but still nowhere near where I should be or is where it is healthy to be, so lots more visits to the gym.

Lovely lamb dinner on Sunday.

Day 1818 (19/12/2014)

A really busy day as I replaced all the broken springs in the furniture, so hopefully our guests will be comfortable at Christmas.

This is technically manual labour and my hands are now hurting but it only took a couple of hours and probably saved me a few pounds by doing it myself.

Then I went shopping. The following is copied from my company Facebook account as I couldn't be bothered writing something fresh.

This year for Christmas rather than sending out bottles of booze to a few close clients & colleagues we instead decided to use the money to buy things for the local food bank.

I phoned them beforehand and they said that they really needed cans of meat, like tinned ham, spam and corned beef, so that's what we bought.

Whilst we are happy to help people less fortunate than ourselves it is a disgrace that there are people in this country that rely on food banks.

Our MP's should feel ashamed but I very much doubt any of them do or ever would. Tory, Labour, Lib-Dems, they are all the same and we do not support any political party but we do try to support various charitable groups and to help people when we can.

OK so the company paid and I use an accountant to make sure I only pay the tax I have to, so I am a complete hypocrite but I don't try to evade tax and it just seemed the right thing to do. Clearly its not because I am a nice guy, as I'm not, I'm the least nice person in my family but I am luckily in a position to do it.

Obviously the last paragraph wasn't on the Facebook page.

Then off to the gym, again.

Day 1817 (18/12/2014)

Early start and dropped my car off at the garage for them to repair the scratches from the other week.

Then doing an urgent and fairly complicated report trying to prove a connection between someone and a company, which hopefully I did in the end.

I have done a few enquiries lately where the scale of fraud is staggering; If it wasn't for the fact that these people have all been caught and face loosing it all and may be even doing time inside, then I would consider using my talents for the other side.

Then off to the gym at around 8 in the evening, where I did my new routine and even went for a swim, so didn't get back home until about 9:30pm and was knackered.

Day 1816 (17/12/2014)

Derby was very wet but it was an interesting day doing some training for the Rail Accident Investigation Branch.

Then a long drive home and an urgent report to start putting together.

Day 1815 (16/12/2014)

Very busy preparing for tomorrows presentation and then had to do an urgent job for someone, which meant no time to go to the gym and I will be arriving in Derby at about midnight.

Day 1814 (15/12/2014)

A busy day doing work and I went back to the gym for my routine of 15 minutes on the bike at level 8, then doing the weights, on reps of 15, then 10 and then 5.  Then sit-ups with additional 5kg of weight doing reps of f 15, then 10 and then 5. Then 10 minutes on the cross trainer and then 5 minutes on the running machine, which even involved some running. Then 15 minutes of swimming to finish of and to relax (slightly).

Last month I was planning on repairing the sofa and chairs in time for Christmas but I've left it far too late to get it done, so I'm going to have to do it myself; which is annoying and previously has been painful when I've nearly stabbed myself with the replacement springs.

It isn't me that breaks the springs, honestly, but there are two people in the house, who like clones of each other, both let themselves fall down on to the sofa and the chairs, which seems to have more of an effect than me sitting down slowly.

Hopefully I shall have some free days to do this and change the blown bulbs around the house before everyone comes over for Christmas.

Day 1812 & 1813 (13 & 14/12/2014)

Cold & frosty start to the day. I took all of the laptops & stuff from the course back to the storage unit and then a busy day catching up with all the stuff that had come in during the week.

On the way back from town I drove past a house down the road from us which appears to have had a gas explosion overnight.

I was driving so didn't take a photo but found the news report anyway.

After a week away from the gym I went for a 30 minute swim in the evening.

Update - Sunday 18:00 - Lovely roast beef dinner today.

Yum Yum Yum

Day 1811 (12/12/2014)

The course finished with everyone passing the exam (well its not that hard and they have access to the internet) and they all deemed quite happy.

One of those on the course was quite high up in the West Midlands Police, a police force I'm currently in dispute with, so when he asked about doing courses for them I told him that I don't think I would be welcome at his force given our history, which surprised him.

As I had said this in front of the man who runs the policing department at the University I told him about my recent issues but he told me that he already knew as someone from the Metropolitan Police had phoned him to tell him all about me and what had happened this year.

Well that's nice of them, the utter C**TS. I really do hate the police nowadays, the sooner I have nothing to do with them the happier I will be.

I should say the guy at the University said he told them that it was nothing to do with them so they would carry on using me for my expertise and that they thought there would be two sides to the story.

Then a long & tiring drive home.

Day 1810 (11/12/2014)

The day was a bit split as I had to give a talk in the morning to a group of younger student on a policing degree course at the University.

Then it was back to my course for the day.

Then out for a curry.

Looking forward to going home tomorrow evening.

Day 1809 (10/12/2014)

Another day of the course and did not quite manage to catch up as we had a few interruptions and had to finish early as it was an open evening at the University and they wanted our room.

We went to a Chinese buffet for the evening which was nice

but not as nice as the one in Taunton.

Day 1808 (09/12/2014)

My day started with the same breakfast and we are still trying to play catch up on the course but thankfully we have 5 days with this one.

Off to CoCo's a Caribbean restaurant in Preston tonight, for jerk chicken which was quite nice but the place was more a cafe than a restaurant.

Day 1807 (08/12/2014)

The morning started with a healthy breakfast

OK there was a bacon sandwich afterwards but it started healthy and it wasn't a full cooked breakfast just a bacon sandwich (with a sausage as well).

The off to the University of Central Lancashire where we are running the course this week.

It was a bit of a pain as we had a few problems and some of the students didn't turn up but it should be OK for the rest of the week.

In the evening me and Kevin went out to a nearby Italian for dinner. I had the calamari and then a lasagne.

  

Day 1805 & 1806 (06 & 07/12/2014)

Busy weekend getting ready for the course next week in Preston and catching up on the report that should have been in a week ago.

I'm not doing too well at scrabble at the moment.

On Sunday I made a lovely dinner with some lamb cutlets but I couldn't have any wine with it as I had to drive to Preston in the evening.

The drive to Preston was a nightmare as the motorway was closed only two junctions before I needed to get off and I ended up on a 30 miles detour.

Day 1804 (05/12/2014)

Bit like yesterday as I'm really busy but I just can't get the enthusiasm to write the reports for a client.

In the gym and doing other work stuff.

I have never watched "I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here" before this series but it has been quite good and Ant & Dec are fantastic as always but it just seems wrong when you hear Vicki Michelle talk in her normal voice.

It really only sounds right when she speaks with a French accent.
  

Day 1803 (04/12/2014)

Really busy but I just can't get the enthusiasm to write the reports for a client.

In the gym and doing other work stuff.

Day 1802 (03/12/2014)

A very cold start, winter draws on as they say.

I was speaking to a guy I know who works at the BBC and who has contacts at The Guardian. I told him about my interesting year, so I may be appearing in print to tell my story.

The man came to repair the windscreen.

Then off to the gym and then work.