Well.....

That's Christmas out of the way again.... I was rather shocked and surprised that Andrea had bought me a 19" wide-screen TFT after my near death repair experience with my old Dell 17" monitor (which is working perfectly now I might add) .... but the new 19" wide-screen is very nice I must say....

Fomo boy got a brand new bike complete with front and back suspension and an adult sized cycle helmet after his face skidding exercise outside the Laugharne doctors surgery on his old bike... amongst some other trinkets such as a fusball table (sp) etc etc...

The sullen one got a Nikon S3000 camera as advertised on "Hollyoaks" well done that ad man it worked....

Xbox boy got a Samsung ES74 digital camera as his main present which he seemed pleased with...

Andrea got a necklace and bracelet and a scarf from me (how bad do I feel after opening a 19" wide screen TFT monitor ???) Ahhhh well we hadn't discussed ground rules.... fatal I guess

I'm currently recovering from a VERY nasty cough/man flu/pig flu episode, I'm even on the red smarties from the doctors to knock a chest infection on the head ... I think it's working time will tell .... needless to say I'm not getting much sleep and last night I spent the best part of the night sitting up in a chair as that seemed to reduce the incessant nocturnal coughing.... Normally I would have gone downstairs but my father in law and mother in law were struggling with a slowly deflating air bed in the front room at temperatures more akin to the Arctic than South Wales....

However we did have a very good Christmas dinner which went down very well with all that attended and it was washed down with copious amounts of wine and beer... although I didn't partake that much being prone to retching/coughing fits that seemed to drag on forever....

No arguments or disagreements overall ... things went rather well and harmoniously.... 

The only blip to the proceedings was Andrea's ex doing his usual last minute arsery at Christmas time insisting that several hundred answer phone messages had been left on our "blank" answer-phone  and Andrea's mobile and that apparently the "expensive" annual drop off at Gordano services had been arranged months ago.... (not)..... as usual it was last minute and totally unacceptable considering we had guests arriving for Christmas.

It was made worse by Andrea's ex's new woman (follow me ?) texting the sullen one and saying how unreasonable Andrea was being about not wanting to fork out £££'s so that her ex could see his kids....That did grind a bit and it's blatantly obvious that his new woman is being fed one line and his kids another....There are no secrets in our house everybody is fully aware of how things are and have been from the start and he isn't doing himself any favours with the kids.... there is no wool being pulled over any eyes.... whatsoever.....

To be perfectly honest I'm quite a bit fed up of all this pussy footing around,  I've always been very much tell it like it is...... I have no beef with her ex wanting to see his kids, in fact I actively encourage it, I would be the VERY LAST person to stand in his way as would Andrea......... and I wish I had the opportunities he's had.....but I don't see why we are some how seemingly and erroneously on his part duty bound to fork out any cash for him to see his kids....

That is his responsibility not ours..... We pay for everything else they require and need for the remaining 360 odd days they are with us, with bugger all NO financial burden upon him whatsoever, I suppose if he was paying any maintenance then we might be more "agreeable" to sharing petrol costs..... but as it stands ....no....simply no.....not happening....We have enough outgoings without adding to them and especially for someone else’s benefit.

I can see the day that if he carries on pulling arsery/stunts like this that things will be a changing.....He's lucky the CSA haven't got him in their sights ... but that's probably because his ex wife isn't as deranged  draconian as mine.... and she managed to get the house for a knock down price, the kids and several thousand pounds via the CSA.

but he's pressing ALL of the wrong buttons at the moment....

Anyway ......

Happy Christmas !!! :)