Falling At The First Fence

One of my New Year's resoloutions was to blog more regularly.  Seeing as its now the 17th and this is my first blog of 2013, I'm not doing very well am I?

It's been a bit of a unusual start to the year though. It's a poor excuse, but the only one I have. Before Christmas I scratched my eye. That healed up but then it became infected, so I've been on antibiotics and now all is well again.  For a while though, I couldn't even open my eyes, let alone read or face a computer screen. Thank goodness for my Ipod, I think its the only thing that kept me sane.

At the start of the year, when everyone else is getting back to normal, we start with another celebration which is my youngest son's birthday on 5 Jan.  Poor thing having a birthday so soon after Christmas, but he was due on Christmas Eve, so it could have been worse!

This year was the first year he didn't have to go back to school after the holidays on his birthday and, as it was a Saturday, and like the rest of the males in my family, he loves Leeds United, we paid another trip to Eland Road, stayed at a hotel and had a meal out in the evening.

Although I'm not a footie fan, I must admit it is beginning to grow on me.  It's a great atmosphere walking towards the ground with the fellow fans, and the family stand is full of different generations, grandads, dads, mums and offspring, all united in a common cause.

As it was his birthday, I was a bit worried that the score might not go the right way, especially by the way Leeds were playing (1-0 down at half time) and the fact that it was a knock out round of the FA Cup.  In the end, after a valiant effort by both teams, it was a 1-1 draw, resulting a replay. Thank goodness that didn't spoil the celebrations!

The reply was on Tuesday, and again, after being 1-0 down at half time, Leeds pulled it off winning by 2 goals to 1.  The next round, against Tottenham, is at home on 26th Jan and there are mumblings in the house about getting tickets. I'm not sure my nerves can stand it!

The boys only went back to school the following Tuesday and then on Thursday we took them out for two days (naughty, naughty) to pay a visit to the Emerald Isle.  My other half has a lot of Irish reletives so we vist regularly, and this was a 50th birthday celebration.

I'm not entirely sure that it's a good thing to go to Ireland in early January, it just adds to the excesses of Christmas, but a good time was had by all.

This week I thought it would be back to normal, but on Monday was struck down with a heavy cold. It's not man flu, so I can keep going, but as you can imagine, not much writing has been done recently.

I have, though, been catching up on some work and general paperwork, and am determined to get into a good routine soon, both with working from home and with the writing.  Wish me luck.

I hope you all have had a good start to the New Year, and now I would like to wish you, rather shamefaced, a belated happy New Year.

I'll be back again soon, I promise!

Linda