Have now been back at work for a couple of weeks – and only just getting time to write up my blog – so here’s a quick roundup….



Christmas Day was fun – without being stressful. We asked Sam, Claudia, Adrian, Jane and Nathan round and everyone had to bring some food – with the result that we didn’t have to cook it all, and could concentrate on drinking Christmas pudding flavoured martinis and unwrapping George’s huge pile of presents.

Boxing day was, as usual, full of intentions. We intended to go out for a nice long walk, but it never seemed to happen.

I managed to pick up some kind of bug – maybe it was the flu that almost everybody appears to have contracted over Christmas – but I had a sore throat and my neck swelled up…. Nice.

Over the last year, it seems that every time I’ve stopped work for more than 3 days on the trot, I’ve got ill. It’s tempting to put that down to overwork, but the last six weeks have hardly been frantic. With both the yacht video and the museum animation out of the way I’ve been working on a couple of less difficult projects and generally mopping up administrative jobs. Nothing stressful.

It’s more likely that it’s a combination of working pretty hard – Even when I’m not on tough deadlines, I do fill my work time pretty comprehensively – and having George. George isn’t a difficult child by any stretch, and he’s a joy, but he does mean neither of us are ever really off duty.

Of course, that’s set to remain the case for a good few years – in fact the rest of our lives if I’m honest, so I’ll have to be able to cope with it without getting ill all the time…

We managed a visit to Lisa’s sister and nephews in Worthing – lisa’s parents were away in Italy for Livia’s Christening.

By new year’s eve, we hadn’t done very much and didn’t feel much like doing much. We spent the evening in with Sam. I went to bed around 10:30 because of my sore throat, but couldn’t sleep, so I was up again in time to watch the London fireworks from the loft.

So, then: new year’s resolutions:

1) outsource: I’ve decided to instead of doing all the work myself, hire people in so that my work can expand without me having to do everything. This is quite a big change and I’m a bit scared because it means trusting other people with some of my creative work, spending money, and leaving my advertising going so I’m generating work even when I’ve got enough to keep me busy!

2) Get fit – no change there then – it’s a bit cold for running right now, so maybe I should be going swimming one day per week…

3) Make a charity offer – offer my clients the option of paying 5% more on their bill and offer to match it so I can pay 10% to a charity. Hopefully I can set this up once I find a way to make it make sense, and find a charity to work with…

Lisa’s is to not buy food with packaging – so she’s trying to buy veg and fish loose rather than pre-packed. She’s been going into Somerfield unpacking vegetables and leaving the wrapping at the counter when she buys if she can’t find loose veg – letting the supermarket dispose of the waste….


New year’s day didn’t amount to much either, with both me and Sam not up to much – me because of the sore throat – Sam for other reasons… and by now, lisa was desperate to get out of the house.

Still, Friday and Saturday we went to my parents’ for another Christmas – My Mum’s hip seems to be getting a bit more mobile and even though the doctor’s not letting her leap about, she still managed to have a lunch for some of her friends. George was happy and popular throughout and even Dad seemed very cheerful.

Andrew has now recovered sufficiently from his back injury to go back to work, and is hoping the company, who are laying off drivers left right and centre keep him on.



Vegas
It looks like the trip to Vegas at the end of the month is on – I’m going to be shooting a documentary in the desert, meanwhile, Lisa’s Mum is looking after George and Lisa and Sam will be staying in Vegas and having fun.

We’re booked and planning the trip….



Documentary in the shops – but shouldn’t be
In the meantime, I’ve just been told today that my last documentary is now available in WH Smiths. Which would be great – if it wasn’t for the fact that my distributors haven’t given anyone the right to make it into a DVD, so somebody somewhere is distributing it illegally.

More on that story as it comes in….


Anyway, what other news?
We made a bungled attempt to set up two of Lisa’s friends with a Sunday dinner at the weekend. Bungled because all but one of the guests were ill (everyone seems to be this Christmas). Still, it was a nice dinner

Lisa and I went out for a nice meal on Tuesday (to the OXO tower restaurant). Very good food – and rather poncy – crab salad with sweetcorn icecream – along with mashed potato that appeared to be mostly butter and had to be served in a cup!

It’s a great place to eat, and they had a wine water. I can barely keep a straight face talking to wine waiters. I mean, really, it’s very nice, but it’s only a drink. You don’t have a pea waiter, do you, or a mash waiter…

This one had a French accent which always helps and always somehow seems as though it’s being put on when it comes from a wine waiter.


We got back to find George had been sick in his cot… he’s still running a bit of a temperature, but seems OK, and happy enough.



Oh, and Russ has been made a Lord… well, he’s got an MBE for running DEFRA’s Civil Service’s gay society. A great surprise to him, but he’s delighted and we’ll never hear the end of it!