Elizabeth's First Christmas

It was our first Christmas with little Elizabeth this year and our first Christmas by ourselves. It was a wonderful day, nice and peaceful. Usually I dread Christmas as I tend to spend most of it travelling between my Mum and Debbie's parents or I am at sea. So it was so nice to be home this year from the 21st onward.

This is also the first year when I have managed to keep the spending in check. Usually I panic about what presents to get as I want people to enjoy them and then I end up spending far to much money. Well I think we will take a leaf out of my brothers book next year. Basically agree with everyone before Christmas a £10 or £20 limit on spending for Christmas presents for adults. This makes sense as firstly it removes some of the comercialism from Christmas and makes you think hard on the gifts for each individual. It also makes sense when you have quite a few presents to buy as it can get overly expensive.

Well everyone enjoyed opening their presents, Brenin got into the spirit by unwrapping his new giggly ball. He then proceeded to knaw a big hole in it. Mind you to be fair he did share with Megan as he knawed a hole in her new dog toy as well.

Elizabeth managed to tear open some her presents, with a little help from Mummy. She is too young at the moment to really understand Christmas. However she gave us lots of smiles which was wonderful. Next year and in future years we will have to get quite crafty with hiding the presents as no doubt she will go mooching.

Finally if this year is anything to go by Christmas is getting better and I think it will get better each year as Beth grows older. We are finally starting our own Christmas traditions and having Christmas the way we want it, long may it last.

The Eve of Christmas

Well Christmas is finally here, and for once this year I am looking forward to it. This will be the first Christmas for many years that I have not spent travelling between relations, or been at sea. Even more important, this is the first Christmas with our little girl, Elizabeth. I know she is only three months old and that she won't really know whats going on, but it is her who has made this year special. My wife Debbie does such a wonderful job looking after her and bringing her up as my job takes me away all the time. Hopefully one year we will win the lottery and then I wouldn't have to go away. Mind you I suppose I would have more chance of winning the lottery if I actually bought a ticket.

The only thing I don't like about Christmas is how commercialised it has become, call me a scrooge or an old humbug if you like. It really does my head in when I see Christmas things in the shops in August. Why can't we wait until December for Christmas rather than wishing our lives away. Christmas should not be about presents, it should be about spending time with those we love the most.

Technology

I thought I would try and write a blog with my phone. It is amazing how networked modern society is. What would happen if it all stopped working?

World View

I have now come to the end of my course and I feel I have learnt a great deal. It has at times been frustrating trying to get an academic head on after so long since last being at college. This was not helped by the course being a bit disorganised at times. Anyway one thing it has done is made me even more aware of world affairs. I feel that prior to the course I was reasonably world savvy, but now my eyes have been opened even wider.

It is worrying to think that we live on a knife's edge, with the western and eastern worlds in such delicate balance. I wonder what the world will look like after the current credit crisis, will the western powers still be in the supremacy or will the sleeping tiger come to the fore. Is the current crisis going to be anything like the Great Depression or are the media just trying to scare us to sell papers?

I sometimes wonder what we will see during the rest of our lives. Will their be resource wars as natural resources dwindle or will we find more efficient ways of producing the energy we need. All in all I think that for at least the next fifty years we will live in interesting times.

First Christmas

Nine days until Christmas and it will be little Elizabeths first christmas. I am really looking forward to christmas for once as I will be home with Debbie and our little girl. It is going to be so wonderful having christmas to ourselves. Last year I was stuck in the middle of the Med on Cardigan Bay. Previous to that we have spent Christmas traveling to see parents, so it will be so nice being able to wake up at home on Christmas morning. We will be able to start our own family christmas traditions and have christmas the way we want it.

I know Beth won't really know what's happening this year, but I am sure she will give us lots of smiles and giggles.

Normandy ICSC(M) 05/08 Staff Ride

I recently spent a few sobering days wandering around the battlefields in and around Caen. It is hard to imagine now what it must of been like on the 6th June 1944 as thousands of men struggled ashore under heavy fire. After 60 years the land is still scattered with craters from the aerial and naval bombardment of the German positions. However many of the fortifications remain remarkably intact, a sombre view of what once was.

Out to sea, battered by the elements stands a memorial to the allied forces ingenuity. The landings would require a huge logistical effort to ensure success and it was felt that it would take time to capture the French ports. Therefore the allies decided to take two harbours with them. These were known as mulberry harbours and although the American mulberry was destroyed by the great storm the British Harbour survived and can be seen to this day.

I sometimes wonder how long these fortifications will stand, will these lumps of concrete and twisted steel become the megaliths of tomorrow. In 500 or 1000 years will people look at these sites in the same way we look at the old burial mounds like Lanyon Quiot or the old stones at Men-an-tol.

I think the most sobering moments of the trip were the visits to the war cemeteries. The American cemetery consisted of 10000 graves. We saw the graves of the characters that the film Saving Private Ryan was based on and also the grave of Theodore Roosevelt, the presidents son. The Commonwealth cemetery was just as moving, and although smaller the number of headstones with the 6th June 44 on brought home the sacrifice that so many made for the freedom we enjoy today.

Pandora's Box - Is their hope?

I have just read a little about pandora's box and the story has a number of similarities with the story of Eve. Firstly in greak mythology there were gods and men and after an argument Zeus created a woman and sent her to Epimetheus as a gift, when they married Zeus gave her a box (in reality it was a jar) which he told her never to open.

If we now compare this to Eve, firstly god made man, then he made Eve. They were instructed not to eat the apple from the tree of life.

In both cases curiosity won over, Eve ate the apple and persuaded Adam to do likewise, they were then cast out of the garden of Eden and sin came into the world. In Pandora's case she opened the box and all the woes of the world, disease, despair, malice, greed, old age, death, hatred, violence, cruelty and war came out of the box. At this point she shut the box leaving only hope inside.

In both cases curiosity had the better of the human race, whichever way you look at it. But what I think we should ask is; if Pandora shut the box and kept hope inside, is their hope in the world or is it still shut away waiting to be released? Either way, hope for a better future is all we have and whether it is shut in the box or not, it doesn't matter. For if hope got out of the box then their would be hope in the world, and if it is shut in the box then their is always the hope that it will come out. After all hope is hope.

Well it's Thursday today and I get to go home tomorrow. Since Mini Me (Elizabeth) arrived I have found it harder to go away each week. I do sometimes worry about the world she has come into as the future seems more uncertain now than it did ten years ago.

Mind you looking at this picture, she seems to have taken a page out of Doctor Evil's book so maybe she will conquer the world.

Slowly Getting To Grips

Well I think I am getting the hang of this. All I need to do now is find something profound to write about

First Time Blogger

Well I thought I would enter the modern age and start writing down thoughts. I have always wanted to keep a diary but never managed it. Hopefully if I blog at least once a week then in years to come I can write a biography of an ordinary life.