2008 End Thoughts

End of the year for 2008. Tomorrow is a new day, as they say. I was considering relationships recently. I attended a wedding on the 22nd December, it was by candlelight and I guess you could say it was romantic. It was a civil ceremony, the participants were gay, I don't know if they were disappointed by not having a church or not - I disagree with eclesiastical law here (even if I can't spell it!). In the speech there was quite a few mentions of compromise and sharing and the two were linked closely together. What makes love's bonds so strong? Common interests and companionship yes but I also think there needs to be a physical dimension for me; a feeling of pleasure through being close or intimate with the one you love. My wife and I were joking (at least I think she was joking) about a novelty gift she saw in a gift shop recently - it was a wife's bat for beating away her husband's morning advances. Where is this post going and what's the reason for it? I'm not sure. I guess I'm saying that each of us has a different set of needs and a loving relationship blossoms when we find a partner who both has needs we can satisfy happily and who in turn happily satisfies the majority of our own needs. The tricky thing is that needs are diverse in type and they change over time, that'll be where the compromise and sharing comes in. Boy, love is hard and complex.

I shall raise my glass to all my readers tonight and wish you a hopeful and peaceful New Year. God bless.

Post-Christmas Doldrums

Between Christmas and New Year I tend to feel a bit low. It's the knowledge that I'll be returning to work soon and that all of the Christmas celebrations will be over. There is such a chill in the air here outside that it feels much colder than it normally does and we don't even have the excitement of having snow on the ground. The shops are full of sales and people lapping up the items but we're kind of stuck between wanting to do stuff with the kids but not wanting to keep dragging them around the shops. I'd like them to remember more from their childhood than boring shopping trips. It's so cold though. Yesterday we sat in the car watching the kids in a local play park, it was freezing. In my low spirited mood I'm more inclined to stay at home and watch films or play videogames but that's not possible as a parent. At least, not until after bed time. Ughh! I wish there were more things to do as a family around here - or that I was in a better mood to find something more interesting for them.

My Christmas present this year was a box set ultimate collectors edition of James Bond films - all of the films with an extra disk per film of extras, excellent! I also got a scarf, some socks, some skin care smellies and a Game voucher. I haven't got anything in mind yet for a game so I will probably wait until something comes along that I think would be good.

I watched the film SAW this week, I thought it was good and obviously open for a sequel, I have SAW II so I'll probably watch that some time soon as well.

A couple of things borrowed from the public library recently: Fallout 3 (Xbox 360) and Hell Boy II The Golden Army. I'm a big fan of the first Hellboy movie so am looking forward to watching the sequel.

December Song

It has been a lively last few weeks, I've had to do quite a bit of travelling for work hence my lack of posts and lack of time in general. Work in general has been more than a little distracting lately anyway, there is big change on the way and I don't know if I want to stay to go through it all. I've lived through several big changes already and I'm starting to get "change fatigue" - I don't think it actually improves things either, so its all a big waste of time.

I'm set for Christmas, more or less, and I'm actually starting to feel a little bit excited for the children. I was at my children's school's Christmas carol concert in the church and almost welled up the children sang so lovely. My daughter played guitar and recorder in a group at the front of the church. I was very proud of her. Actually, the end of the longest school term on Friday was great for a number of reasons:

• I began my holiday (apart from Christmas Eve when I'm working)
• It was the last day of school term, so the holidays were starting
• My children were both in the church to sing carols and I was there to watch
• The church was a lot warmer because they had installed heaters this year
• My daughter was performing music
• My children were feeling better (they have had time off being sick from school this week - my son missed one of his chances to perform for parents in the school nativity - I had taken the day off, I was upset not to be able to see him but glad I could be at home to look after him)
• My daughter won the Citizenship Cup for the term by being a good citizen in her school (she's been longing to win it forever)
• My son won the Child of the Week certificate for his humorous and entertaining performance of the cockerel in the nativity play (shame I missed the second performance but lots of parents who saw him said he was brilliant)
• My daughter came home with a gold certificate for house points and my son came home with a silver certificate for house points he had earned

I was very pleasantly surprised by all of this good news from the school, it made me forget about my worries at work and focus in on my family, which is what life should be all about.

I wish you all a Merry Christmas and a peaceful New Year. I hope you spend some quality time with your loved ones this Christmas.