My Xmas season has finally finished! The missus and I headed to Camden after work to meet my friend Sarah. Sarah and the missus were meeting for the first time and we also had to swap Xmas and some birthday gifts. The missus and I browsed the market until it was time to meet and then we went for a catch up and a blow-out Chinese buffet - so pretty ( Read more... )

On Thursday last week myself and the Missus met friends Viv and Rita for a trip to the theatre to see the musical version of Kinky Boots. We were all big fans of the film and while the Missus and myself had seen the play before (on separate occasions and not together) it was a first for Viv & Rita ( Read more... )

To finish off the weekend Kate and the girls with me and the missus took on a couple of exhibitions at the museums in South Kensington. First up was the Wildlife Photography exhibition at the Natural History Museum. I go to this every year (so does the missus now, she is hooked too) but this is the first year that I have managed to get Kate and the ( Read more... )

On Saturday we met the missus after her shift and headed into the Garrick Theatre for the current adaptation of Don Quixote they are showing. David Thewlis (as the Don) and Rufus Hound (as Sancho Panza) were brilliant - the whole production was great ( Read more... )

I had my birthday last week and turned 45. For some reason the number almost seems significant but the best I can come up with is 45rpm (the speed single's used to be played at) or with even less relevance, Colt 45s. As it happens I was working in the morning (having done a sleep in shift at work the night before) and came home just in time to ( Read more... )

The missus and I are enjoying a couple of days off work together - our first of the holidays (and for a long time before that). When we woke this morning we started to discuss possible plans for the day. The idea that stuck was a trip to Chelmsford. My missus lost her mum when she was a little girl and that is where her mum was buried. For various ( Read more... )

Where I work (because it is a 24hour service) it expected that staff will work either Xmas of New Year and if you can't work one then you will work the other. This is as true of managers as it is of support workers. I spend Xmas in Wales doing family stuff so I am expected to work New Year and this year was no exception. This year in fact I ( Read more... )

One new experience I had when I returned to Newport of the holidays was that a prostitute offered me sex for cash. It might seem weird for a man in his 40's but that has never happened to me before and since it happened I spent some time reflecting on the situation and my reaction to it ( Read more... )

Another year, another Xmas. I was back in Wales again for the festive season much as usual, this year with a couple of differences ( Read more... )

It was nice to see one of my ideas come to fruition at work this week. One of the many ways in which we measure the success of our service is how much our guys participate in the community. There is always an element of this in our work. Many of our guys attend colleges, have voluntary jobs, shop locally, use public services etc. One of the ways I ( Read more... )