Cats love catnip

 

One of my Christmas presents

A new fancy knife sharpener. 

 

Christmas eve fun

We had friends from the rugby club over on Christmas eve, original plan was to find somewhere for us all to eat but due to it being so close to Christmas were unable to find a table for us and the kids, 12 in total.  I ended up offering to cook some beef.

Finally got to watch it

 Although I lasted about 45 mins before falling asleep.

Christmas dinner at the Clark's

 Rolled boneless turkey crown with all the various sides etc.  Yum!

Mmm, chilled mussels

 We didn't fancy them so gave them to the cat. Mmm....

Boxing day lobster

Big prawns, crayfish and crab too!   Arthur likes his seafood too.

Turkey and Ham soup

 All the family enjoyed my soup

Cold cat

 We've been away for 4 nights and left the cat at home. Our neighbours daughter popped in each day to say hello to her and feed, water and clean her litter tray. Because it was just her at home I set the heating to 14. She does have a coat on! Anyway, we forgot to put the heating back on before we got back so am using a portable heater to help warm the front room whilst the central heating and air con kicks in.  I think the cat may have been a little cold.

Forestry school

 Arthur did a forestry school session with one of the rangers 

Watching the Liverpool game

 April and the kids were in the hot tub so I snuck back inside to watch the Liverpool game.

And so it begins

 We arrived at the forest holiday cabin on Friday early evening.  I woke up early on Saturday so thought i'd have a little dip in the hot tub.  Mmmm

Well that's a bit wet

 The head of development at the rugby club messaged me this morning, asking me to take a look at the pitches as he was given a flood warning for the pitches the previous night.  The full size pitches themselves are fine but the surrounds where much of the younger age groups train are under water.  Not my problem.  About to head to a forest holiday and a hot tub!

Height update

 Flo and Arthur height update.  Flo 133, Arthur 120.  He's 4 cm taller than Flo at the same age.

Nobody died

 We finished the Cthulhu campaign last night and it was good fun.  A few of us lost a fair amount of sanity but we all survived! 

Cthulhu balaclava

My character

Cthulhu cookies

 It's the finale of our Cthulhu campaign tonight so April kindly made me some Cthulhu cookies to take to the pub tonight.  They look great!  She said they were a bit of a pain though.  The cutter I bought sticks to the dough.

Last d&d session of the year

 

Two new sets of dice from the group, very kind of them.

Got my Christmas dice lights out

My monk 

Getting a bit congested in there

Tonbridge Castle Christmas Fair

 We popped to the castle after lunch to have a look around the Christmas Fair.   It was very quiet as most schools haven't broken up yet but it was a bit shit. I got fleeced £12 for two goes on a hook a duck (they were elves) fair ground ride.  We had a quick walk around and left soon after.

Afternoon off

So took Arthur and Flo to the Leicester Arms in Penshurst, a village pub near by.  Lovely.  Only 1 day left before i'm off till the New Year.  Although i'm working on Christmas and New Years Eve (am I?)

Great policy guys

 I'm in the office today and am on a bank of 20 desks on my own.

Brilliant.

Appraisal

 In other work related news I had my annual appraisal with my boss this morning and it went well.  He's writing it up now but it's meet expectations in all categories except a couple where he is going to grade me higher.

It's been years since my last appraisal, my last role was also an FTC but I didn't have to do one.  Seems a bit pointless.

Wait and see

 I put my appeal in for the flexible working request yesterday, they had a meeting today to discuss, but not heard of any outcome just yet.  I guess they have to write it up.

Not bruised enough

 This is the state of my injured shoulder 5 days after the game.  All you can see is a slight greeny yellow discolouring. With the way it still hurts I was expecting much worse.

New car

 The new car arrived on Monday.  I had my first shot in it yesterday picking the kids from school.  It's lovely.  Will take a little time to get used to the size.  It just about fits on the drive...  Audi Q4 Etron.

Whoops

 I dropped my work laptop yesterday.  I was trying to get open a keyed access door but it wouldn't open so I moved to another scanner and tried that.  As I was switching hands I accidently dropped the laptop onto a tiled floor.  Oops!  It still works but have told IT and they're going to build me a new one.

Ribs and wings

 I made ribs and wings for the Clark family on Friday, Turned out well, although it turns out Arthur really doesn't like spicy food.  Whoops!

Christmas at the club

 On Sunday we had our annual Christmas party, the kids had a great time.  Pretty sure the coaches had fun too.  We ended up leaving at around 4:30 (11:10 start... urgh).  We then had one of the other families coming round ours for pizza in the evening.  It was a big one.  I love the new friends we've made at the club whilst coaching the minis.

Well fought win

We played Whitstable 2nds team on Saturday and it was a tough one.  Cobnditions were tough with lots of dropped balls.  We won 14-20, with all 4 of our tries flyinging down the wings in the corners.  The Whitstable lads were big but we outplayed them at rugby.  Great fun in the end.  I smashed their no. 8, their best player at the end of the first half with a terrific tackle.  He didn't come on in the second half, i'd like to think it was because he couldn't continue but I think his first team that were also at home needed some help as they were also getting beaten by Tunbridge Wells 2s.

 

Pitches moved on Sunday

 Change of pitch on Sunday!  Looks a bit damp to me!

How strange

Just received this e-mail this morning.  It's the first I heard that I was on a radio show... 

Hello Stuart,

Just caught your interview on Sky Sports Radio's Big Sports Breakfast - loved it!

One quick question: are you planning to do more podcast appearances in the near future?

I ask because what you shared would resonate with a lot of other audiences. The challenge is most people don't realize how much time it takes to find the right shows, craft personalized pitches, and handle the coordination.

That's exactly what PodPitch solves. We're like having a personal booking agent, but at a fraction of the cost. Our users typically land 8-10 interviews per month without spending hours on outreach.

If you're interested in scaling your podcast presence, I'd love to show you how it works. Takes about a few minutes.

Worth a quick look to explore?

Neal @ PodPitch

P.S. Mentioning your Sky Sports Radio's Big Sports Breakfast appearance in future pitches would definitely give you an edge with hosts.

Arthur's nativity

 I went to Arthur's nativity yesterday afternoon and it was very good.  Not much about Jesus and only lasted 30 mins! 

Spooky cloud formation on Wednesday night

 The minis coaches had a meeting at the rugby club on Wednesday evening to discuss various issues.  Walking back we spotted this cool cloud formation.  Spooky!