Weekly update...

What credit crunch? We went shopping on Saturday and everywhere was busy, apart from mobile phone shops, jewellers and TV shops. Gaming shops were packed, big money passing hands as kids buy new games for their Xmas systems. Alex handed over £25 of his hard earned on a new game, he's cash rich, still hoarding plenty from Xmas and he's had a tooth out, so he's coining it in.

Family are all OK. Caz is still on the mend, she is still feeling some discomfort as everything settles down and thanks everyone for their phone calls, cards and good wishes. G has got university offers arriving now and will be doing her A levels shortly, she's miffed as the place where she works has cut her shifts back (impact of credit crunch), so she's not bringing the same wages home and Alex is outspending her.....

We'll be thinking of a holiday soon, with the £ as it is, everywhere will be expensive, so may have to look outside of the Eurozone this year, I'm not sure where, but so long as beer isn't five quid a pint, the beach is nice, the sea warm and the weather hot. Not sure what the options are, so hours of research ahead.

We went to see Bedtime stories at the cinema today. It's a kiddy film, but it was pretty funny and I enjoyed it more than Beverly Hills Chihuahua.

I've packed all my hi-fi separates away this weekend, held a small private ceremony before they were put to rest in the loft. Got a USB turntable with an amp attached and that's it, can listen via the PC now and have a kicking set of new speakers for the PC, courtesy of my sister. Got the daunting task of converting loads of vinyl to MP3 over the coming year, but determined to give it a go.

Just also installed one of the new printers we've launched at work. What a bit of kit. Does absolutely everything including printing your pictures off of your mobile via bluetooth. No I'm not just saying it's good, it really is. Everyone likes its glossy black look, so it's been approved by those that matter.

On a final note, if you're planning to buy anything. Check out this site. It houses just about every promotional code you'll need. Make sure you stay with the big boys as a lot of the fringe internet players are under real pressure right now. Empire Direct went down last week, I was looking at a TV deal on their site only the week before, so shop carefully.

A busy week....

Phew, that was a busy week. Caroline is on the road to recovery, still experiencing pain, however feeling brighter in herself. Georgina has had a couple of offers from university, so she's relieved (just got to get some decent grades now). Alex is delighted, as we've upgraded our PC at home and he can now play his Spore game on it. I'm happy as the PC is much better specced than our last one and everyone can stop complaining now!

Thoughts are already turning to summer holidays. Georgina has her eye on a break with the girls once her exams are done. All was going well until they checked out their potential hotel on Tripadvisor and learnt that it was a total dump. They're back to the drawing board. We're having a think too, with the weak pound at the moment, everywhere is going to be expensive.

As an example, I was in Amsterdam this week, a pint of guinness worked out at around six quid a pint. The rip-off moment came when I was charged five and a half euros for a small bottle of Evian out of the mini-bar in the hotel, robbing so and so's. Worst is, I'd drunk two before I realised. More fool me.

We went to the cinema today to watch Beverly Hills Chihuahua. Alex had spotted it in the trailers when we saw another movie recently. Definitely one for the kids, probably more for girls than boys. Don't go and see it unless you've got kids with you, honestly.

Week ahead is really busy, life just seems to be flying by at the moment, are you keeping pace?

The patient returns home...

Just to say Caroline is now home, took nearly four hours of waiting to get her discharged. Operational control of the house has now officially been taken back over, even though physically she's not really able to cope, the new command and control structure has been re-instated and the washing machine has sensed that it's rest is over.

They reckon it will take six weeks to recover, Caroline can't drive atall during that period, so that's going to be interesting, the taxi firms are on high alert and booking summer holidays on the strength of it. Whether my wallet can take it, is another matter.

The Discs are out....

Caz has had her op. I've been to see her today and she's groggy but in good spirits. I've taken in the essentials, a mobile phone charger, a box of After Eights and some J2O's, that should get her going.

After four hours getting her checked in yesterday, I was ready to do a complete process review with the hospital CEO, there is so much waiting about to do in hospitals, it's organised chaos. Everyone knows what needs to be done, it's just getting it done. The bottom line is that many of the processes - in my view - could be triage based, done by experienced nurses, rather than waiting for an available SHO or registrar to become available. Anyway, let me put my box away or I'll be blogging for hours.

Back to family. G has a cold, she's off college. I'm steering clear and have a date with my Soprano's DVD when I get back from the hospital later tonight. My mum has fallen over whilst on holiday in Oz visiting my brother and I got a flat tyre on the way home from the hospital last night.

If I spot any magpies, I'm looking the other way! Will give a further update shortly.

Hospital here we come

Caroline is in hospital for an op tomorrow, to get the discs in her neck sorted out. They've been causing her pain for about six months now, so we're pleased that they are going to get sorted at last.

I'm on house arrest for three days, keeping the place ticking over, so watch this space. I'll have a spreadsheet knocked up in an hour with everything timed to military precision, the place will be running like a well oiled machine.

I went to a dinner at Man City last night, Mark Hughes and a few of the players were there and they participated in a Q&A session hosted by Fred Eyre. I thought they were all really lacklustre and lacking personality, what an opportunity missed. I was a bit miffed as Mark Hughes had the same suit, shirt and tie combo on as me, he could have checked with me beforehand, it would only have taken a quick text or call, still if you're a man with his problems.....

I signed up for the Manchester to Blackpool bike ride today, it's about sixty miles and is held in July, so I'm going to get in training on my bike. I like having something to aim for. I went out on the bike last weekend and did about ten miles, my backside ached like billio for three days, so I'll work on my John Wayne walk in the meantime.

Hoping that 2009 is everything that you thought it would be a week ago!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all our friends and family from The Joneses.