As the URL for Xanga is about to slip off the bottom of the address bar I thought it wise to update now rather than in two months time!

What to say though?! I'm so boring these days and do so little of interest to myself least of all others. I am glad in a way that almost everyone I used to read and who read me has drifted away so that I can be left alone to bumble on about my simple life. I guess I should be happy that there is so little drama in my life and of course, in a very real way, I am. It would however be nice to have something to put up on Xanga that I can look back on in a few years time and know exactly what was going on right now.

then again... you should never wish for things that you just might get!

Well, yesterday was lovely. Patrick, Fintan and I set out on Sunday morning, having had a shorter than usual walk around the park, and we headed Northwards and through the City of Belfast still asleep and recovering no doubt from the Saturday night before and we went up the Shankhill Road (SCARY!) and with no particular destination in mind we found ourselves climbing up into the high hills and out of Belfast. The view is breathtaking - although as the driver (and a scared one at that) I could only glance very quickly as I ensured we stayed on the road and not hurtling to our deaths.

We had quite a long drive from there and ended up in a small town called Crumlin and from there went for a lovely walk into and along the Crumlin Glen. Having the car - as I'm no doubt saying all the time, has been wonderful and with the weather slowly improving I am happy to see we are all able to get out and about and see more of this wonderful country.

Pictures to follow soon I hope.

I want to write a proper blog but it's getting late and so I will just jot down some bits and pieces for now and hope to come back soon!

I'm pleased to say that my aunt had her mastectomy and at the moment seems to be fine. She has never been the kind of person that appears to let things get to her, she seems to glide through life not letting problems get to close to her. That said I can only go by the face she presents to the world, I do hope it is true though as she hasn't had an easy life so far and I'd like to think that she has coping mechanisms. She will have to have chemotherapy now and again I'm hoping that it doesn't make her too sick; she lives with my parents and as stated in an earlier blog all three of them moved to Wales a while back to have an easier life away from the stresses and strains of life in a city like Birmingham. Keep her in your thoughts if you will.

I am still not smoking! I have downloaded an app to my phone which calculates on a daily basis how much money I have saved and so far it is about £230! I stopped mostly for economic reasons and so it is good to see just how much I am saving by resisting the allure of nicotine! Going to the gym regularly helps, I am not sleeping very well and now when I wake at 6am I get up and head to the gym instead of trying to go back to sleep, or even worse, head downstairs to smoke whilst watching terrible TV programmes!

Talking of TV... two weeks ago Patrick and I decided, finally, to give up TV. It has been very liberating - and a money-saver too! I find that I am reading more, listening to great radio programmes again and also doing more about the house and outside it. I did watch a LOT of TV - sometimes more than 12 hours a day. Years ago when I lived in London I didn't have a television for many years and never missed it and now of course with the option to watch some TV online I have the luxury of picking and choosing when and if I want to watch something rather than sitting in front of it absorbing anything and everything that is on it. If nothing else the freedom from TV advertising is amazing, I firmly believe that the persuasive effect of television eventually affects us all and contributes to negative feelings of dissatisfaction for our lot in life. I DO believe that if you are unhappy about something you should change it but I worry that advertising suggests that the only way you can change your life and the only way to improve it is to keep buying stuff! I have rejected that a long time ago and so getting rid of the TV was the correct thing to do - wish I'd done it a long time ago!

Finally, driving continues to be the biggest and most exciting adventure! The last few weeks Patrick, Fintan and me have packed some food and water and jumped into the car on Sunday morning and driven out to see some of the sights of Northern Ireland. It's been very liberating to just head off to wherever we fancy and to have the luxury of being able to change our minds if we like and go somewhere else instead. I'm hoping for a summer of decent weather so we can get away for long weekends in the car - I'm going to start shopping for a tent soon, SUCH FUN!!!