Friday 1 January 2010

Merry Christmas and a HAPPY NEW YEAR!

So here I am sitting on the sofa once again, giving an update of the latest shinaniganz of us here Devonshire Hodges!

Christmas Day


One of the many decorations Naomi made to decorate our flat!

Some of you quicker off the mark might have noticed that just over a week ago (I'm writing this on Jan 2nd) it was Christmas day.... So happy late christmas! Well this Christmas was the first one me and Naomi have spent together as a married couple and I think the whole excitement of it all got to Naomi as I was FORCED to wake up at 5.30 on Christmas morning to open our sockings. After this initial annoyance the rest of the day was rather pleasant me and Naomi offered to baby sit for Jo Brown as she was working Christmas day so we fed Luke at lunch time, which consisted of lots of lovely picnic style foods including my favourite of Cheese & Pineapples on sticks YUM! After lunch however we made the short trip up to Barnstable to visit Naomi's Parents at her Grannies Farm were we got our Christmas Turkey fix!

Boxing Day

Not only is Boxing day my Mother's Birthday it is also the home of one of my favorite traditions the Cardiff Boxing Day ride. These two things enabled me to have enough will power and actual power to get up and drag Naomi out of bed at 7am to drive up to Cardiff for the 10am bike ride! Fun times, the bike ride itself was rather entertaining where I'd decided to test out a new technique of Beer only Hydration, its effects were negative... the ride also allowed me to test out my amazing bodge:



(all you non cyclists skip this paragraph) Basically what had happened, I rode my bike on Christmas Eve, realised my hub was playing up, took it to bits realised all the springs on my free hub had snapped me realising this at 6pm, and knowing I'd need my bike for boxing day had to come up with some kind of temporary fix).

We stayed in Cardiff for a couple more days maxing and relaxing, and then we went back down to Barnstable to see Naomi's family for a couple days, these days were nice and educational since due to Naomi's brothers experimental tendencies we discovered that a salt shaker has adverse effects upon the appearance of my wife:


(Naomi's gonna kill me for uploading that image)

Although it was nice spending time with our Families I was very much looking forward to getting back to Plymouth as the Christmas break had lined up a new opportunity to show of my DIY skills:



Ikea had gotten the better of us and forced us to buy a new TV cabinet and some wall mounted CD racks.. and yes they are still attached to the walls!

The final bit of update hot off the press and happily sitting in my stomach's is our first "proper" roast. Last updates roast was more of a off the cuff slap up roast, this was a pre mediated roast, and with the help of Jamie Oliver's perfect roast potatoe guide, it was the best darn roast I've ever had (Obviously your's are really the best mum, but for a home made roast does gets extra satisfaction points!)


Moments later normal Naomi magically transformed into a fat and full Naomi

That is all for now!