Wednesday 31 December 2008

New Years Eve - Snow

It's been a foggy New Years Eve today.

Got back a little early from work to find that it's been snowing all day, but only in a square mile or so around our house.

Samwise said that he'd wished for Snow at Christmas, so I guess that he's got his Christmas Wish. Slightly late, but close enough, and just for him, as the rest of the city appears to be frozen, but doesn't have snow!

Thursday 25 December 2008

Christmas Day (just)

No point in going down the pub after work, as I'm on the late shift/on-call, so I took the car in to work today. I was allowed to leave early at 15:30, but only after all but 3 of us had gone.

Got home to a mega-excited Frodo and Samwise. They are usually allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve (which usually turns out to be pyjamas). This year they went up to bed to find that Ben 10 and Dr Who bed covers had been magically put on their beds.

They both had real trouble going to sleep. They went to bed early around 7 pm. Samwise didn't get to sleep until about 9 pm and Frodo was still awake and trying to spot Santa at 10 pm. They were both fast asleep at 11pm.

Santa finished delivering his presents around midnight. (Check out the Norad Santa Tracker if you don't believe me) ). All wrapped and under the tree, with an extra surprise of a Nintendo Wii and a new TV set up in the playroom (they'll find that one last tomorrow).

Merry Christmas!

Wednesday 24 December 2008

Christmas Eve

It's Christmas time again. Lots of work places wind down for Christmas - my place as usual winds up!

Didn't get home until 7:30pm tonight, because somebody was panicking and demanded an unnecessary server reboot, even though we'd agreed earlier in the day not to do it.

Got back just in time to nip out with the boys to a neighbours Christmas Party. They host one every year, just before Christmas - how they manage to do this with everything else that's going on beats me. They lay everything on and ask for a donation to a charity, which I'm quite happy to do.

The boys had a good time, and I got to chat with a few of the neighbours. I also met a couple of mad old ladies, who I've passed before now in the street walking their dog. We found that we had a few things in common, and had quite a laugh.

It's now officially Christmas Eve. I've got one last stint in work - hopefully I'll be allowed to shoot off early. I'm on call Christmas day and Boxing day - I've been assured that call outs are very rare when the systems aren't in use - but there's always a chance that something unexpected might happen. Rumour has it that any Christmas day call outs will be allowed to be responded to the next day - but that has yet to be confirmed.

The Goose is defrosting in the kitchen, and we're almost ready for the main event. The boys have been told that there's only 2 more sleeps to go. So time to wish all of my blog readers - whoever you may be - a Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Sunday 21 December 2008

Giant Christmas Greetings

I've just received an E-Christmas card from La Princess. Nice to see that she's not forgotten us (probably because I bought the T-shirt and poster from Artichoke).

Friday 12 December 2008

Forgetful Santa

Grandma took Samwise and Frodo to see Father Christmas at a local grotto last weekend. Samwise had seen him earlier in the week on a School trip to a different place.

A couple of days later Samwise said to me - "You know what Dad, when I saw Santa again I had to remind him what I'd asked for the first time, because he'd forgotten!".

Magic!

Monday 8 December 2008

Xmas Do's

The work Xmas party was on Friday. We were at the Crowne Plaza hotel again this year - the usual sort of corporate booze-up, meal and Dad-dancing session that these places put on at this time of year. We were mixed in with a few other companies who'd also booked some tables.

As some sort of team-building exercise the manager who'd booked the do had decided who was going to sit at which table - rather than it being a free for all. Managerial 'hosts' rotated tables between each course. This put a few people off, and there were a few last minute no-shows as a result. Personally I found that this arrangement worked OK, since our department has expanded rapidly over the last year - I got to chat to a few people that I've seen around, but wouldn't normally have spoken too.

I managed to get a taxi home, without too much trouble, as I dived out of the hotel just before the music stopped, beating the rush to get a cab.

Saturday was a "meet the Dad's" night out - a first time get together with some of the other Father's from Samwise' year at school. This was a good night out - a few pints out and a lot of natter - "which one is your child?", "what do you do?" and a mutual agreement on who is the hottest teacher at the school.

Monday 1 December 2008

Church of the Bright Green Neon Rabbit




Took my own picture of this on the way back from work the other night. Not as good as this one of course. I thought I'd better get a snap, as the Liverpool Biennial public art event is due to finish at the end of November, so they might switch it off soon.

National Blog Posting Month 2008 - Blew It


The target was 30, and I did 17 posts in 30 days, - oh well, there's always next year...