Mia had to vote in the Finnish elections today so we had a day in Bristol. We went via Matt and Ali's again so that Ali and Yo could come with us to shop after the voting thing. We dropped Ted off to hang out with Rhys for the weekend, and Yo is coming back with us so she can stay over with Hattie. Experimental child swap. Changing the male female mix in the two houses and seeing if that affects our quality of life. Just testing. :)

We went over the Bristol and Mia voted at the Marriot hotel on College Green at the bottom of Park Street. Met some nice Bristol resident Finnish folk, who pointed us at the www.finlandinbristol.co.uk web site. Interesting. Then we walked up Park Street to Jumbucks, the Aussie Pie Co., and ate their wonderful Jaffle pies. I had a Russian Revolution, which was steak and gravy. Yum. I also had a nurble on Mia's New Yorker which is apple and custard. If you live in or around Bristol and haven't experienced Jumbucks, I urge you to check it out. Right now. Top of Park Street same side as JD Weatherspoons opposite Browns. Can't miss it. Loads of full, happy-looking people coming out of the door.

After that we wandered back down Park Street and went in a few of the excellent shops. Lots of shoe and clothes shops for the girls, and a comic shop which I've not been in before for me. Bought the new copy of Wizard (the comic readers magazine) plus a new copy of Frank Miller's Sin City book "Big Fat Kill" to replace the copy long ago that myself and buddy Brent Jackson read until it fell apart and then Brent papered his room with it. We also had a Starbucks too, which helped because I was flagging a bit by then. My current tipple in Starbuckys is a latte with an extra shot of espresso and hazelnut syrup. Yummy. Got me thinking about espresso machines. (see below)

Then we nipped over to IKEA in Fishponds/Horefield and wandered around the whole store, sitting on sofas, lying on beds, opening cupboards and stuff. Didn't intend to buy anything very much, just a couple of quid. Ended up spending about £50 including £14 for a really nice hobb fired espresso maker and some cheap but nice £6 cutlery for work. (I get exasperated by the fact there are no sets of cutlery in the school kitchen, and only one fork between about 20-30 staff. Argh!)

We intended to leg it over to what we refer to as "Ethnic Tescos" which is the the huge Tesco store next to IKEA, but it was half seven/eight o'clock by then and we were shagged. (We call it Ethnic Tescos cos it has a HUGE Afro-Carribean and Asian foods section on account of the local population mix. Really good. Only place I know where you can buy Jaggery.) Went home and hung out at the Kellands for a bit until we decided it was too late around 9.30pm and we really should go home. About halfway home we hit a huge dense fog bank and had to drive at about 15 miles an hour to stay inside the lines and avoid banging into other cars or the side of the road. Then as suddenly as it appeared it went. Weird.

Yo and Hattie went to bed and Mia and I rocked our computers reading funny emails and watching tutorial videos on Lynda.com till about 1-2am and then fell asleep to more "American Dad".

Big staff meeting to herald the start of the Spring term. This time we had it over at Christchurch Studios, our recording studio over in Clifton Village.

Prior to the meeting I had to take Hattie to the doctor to look at a bulge she has on her shin, feels like fluid and is bothering her a bit. Apparently it'll heal up on its own. So Hattie was with me going into Bristol, and sat in the green room at the studio watching TV while I was in the meeting. After the meeting there were a few bits of food, bits of bread with salmon and ham and cheese, plus real nice cake and tart, so Hat and I nurbled on a few of those before racing back to school to do a few more things before going back home.

I installed a new computer in the main office, copying the exsiting machine to it via Firewire. I now have another old blue iMac kicking around. That'll come in handy.

Swung by Christchurch again on the way home, picking up the School's copy of Final Cut to install on my laptop. Long overdue that I get up to speed on FCP, especially as we are cutting the video project on it again this year and I know next to nothing about it still. Dropped the computer off to the menders, and raced home.

Signed up for Lynda.com whhich has some absulutely effing brilliant online training courses for Apple products, including Final Cut Pro. For $25 a month you can access all their training online, which I signed up for but I'm going to cancel before the month is up so that the school will pick up the tab. Really good stuff and I'm recommending it to everyone.

More of the same today. Got a few things done, but mostly me and the dog hung out in my office all day. I got together a few of the old computers, Apple G4 desktops, from around the building, and took them apart a bit to see if they were functional or not. Mostly in good nick, so time to decide what I'll do with them. I may use one of the old 450MHz ones to run the Intranet we have planned, and reserve the 800MHz Quicksilver for a spot of video editing. Just need a bit of a hoover and bigger newer drives adding and they'll be right as rain.

My old machine has a very noisy fan so I'm going to drop it down the menders tomorrow so anyone can stand being in the room with it when it's turned on. Also my Lacie external drive just randomly turned itself off the other week and hasn't come back on since, so I have to send it back to the manufacturer. Weird fault. Hopefully they'll replace the thing under guarantee and recover my damn data. We'll see.

More about this later.

First day back at work after the Christmas break. Nice easy day. I thought it was odd that we were going back on a Wednesday, but sure enough term doesn't start till the 9th and I have a few days to get my brain in gear before things get silly.

Nothing wacky happened while I was away although a few people complained about problems to do with the phones and backups. Routine stuff and easy to sort out.

Looking forward to the weekend. I've kind of gotten used to having time off and started to get a taste for it.

Up at the bloody crack of dawn to make sure Mia made it into work. I even drove her into Trowbridge so she didn't have to catch the 8.10 train. There's dedication for you.

Came back and told Hattie of the plan I had for her 14th birthday, a trip to Glastonbury shopping for Wiccan/Witchcraft stuff. She was thrilled and asked if her boyfriend Jack could come too. Sure thing. Somehow along the way we managed to arrange to pick up Matt's wife Ali and daughter Yolanda from Shepton and drop Ted off there for the afternoon. Looks like we got ourselves a shopping crew.

Hattie bought a ton of great stuff, including a really nice wand with a crystal in the end, an athame (is that how you spell it?) or ceremonial dagger, a HUGE spell book containing 5000 spells for just about everything, some herb teas and black candles etc. She had a really good time.

This is a penance, you know. I didn't take her seriously about the whole Wicca thing initially, believing it to be a teen fad. But she's still into it months later, actually quite knowledgable and seems to take it very seriously herself, so I'm taking an interest. I'm a dad, we're supposed to be supportive. But hey, I was into all this stuff in a big way when I was a kid anyway, and am a deeply spritual person myself, so I really don't know why I was so MIDDLE AGED about it to begin with... I'm just getting stubborn and pissy in my old age, I guess.

a dagger exactly like Hattie's Athame

Got back and collected Mia from work. She and I played a kind of two player half assed Texas Hold'em till about 1am, waiting for the washing machine to finish so Mia could have some clothes for tomorrow at work. Really tired by bedtime, but managed to listen to Mia watching the first season of "American Dad". Really funny show from the Family Guy team. Fell asleep laughing to myself.

Picked the kids up at around 12.30, and we got back to go shopping for food and other bits. Home later we unpacked all their stuff and it transpires Ted has left his Playstation 2 down at his mum'shouse in Cornwall, 4 hours drive away. Ah well,he'll get it back in due course, and the break will do him good. We have a PS2 but having his own means he can play it when he likes. But then one of my New Year's Resolutions is to encourage Ted to do more with himself other than play PS2 or computer games. I don't mind the games, I was in the games business for about 15 years, but it's the sociable aspect. He needs to get out more, even if it's just to play ps2 games with his friends.

Anyway nice relaxing afternoon hoovering and cleaning. I want the house to be spotless when Mia gets home. Shit, when did I turn into THAT guy?

I dunno, I think I do stuff like that these days to prove to Mia that I'm not a total slob. I have that tendancy, for sure, but I don't want to seem that way to others. Ah, hubris.

Picked Mia up at about 10.30pm, which equates to about 12.30am Finnish time so she was shagged after travelling all day and the lateness of the hour. We got home around 11.30pm and didn't stay up very long. Mia has to work tomorrow, a shocking piece of planning for someone so organised, and so I have to get her up in the morning because there's no way she's going to make it unaided being so tired.

Set my alarm for 7am.

Ow. Another hangover, second in a row. Drank a load of wine and ate a lot of really yummy game meat, like pigeon and wild boar. Plus bread pudding made with brioche and baclava... I nearly killed myself with overeating.

Stayed over at M&A's but woke at about 10am to run back to Frome so as to let the dog out and get ready for another social engagement today. Robin and Alison from a few doors down invited me over to their house for drinks on New Year's Day. Oh well I thought, hair of the dog won't do any harm.

Six hours later after talking myself silly and drinking a buttload of champagne and beer, I'm back home surfing the internet and trying to sober up enough to do the things I had planned for this evening. Not much luck. Decided I'd best watch a movie and sleep it off. Got a busy day tomorrow, picking up the kids from the M5 where I left them on the 28th and much later on picking up Mia from Bristol Airport.

Ahhhh. Nearly got to the end of my Home Alone break, and it's been wonderful. Okay I'll qualify that, I love Mia and I love the kids, but being without them for a while has really been good for my head. Just having the space to think and relax without interruption for a few days has been invaluable. Okay so I wasted a lot of time doing nothing in particular. But as a friend of mine said before Christmas, I can't think of a better way to spend time than to waste it.