2012... I remember sitting in school one day when I was about 10 years old and I worked out how old I'd be in the year 2000 and here we are in 2012. Though I couldn't have foretold the rise of the internet I can't say that the world has changed THAT much over the years. I do have a car now but it doesn't fly and the likelihood of my commuting to the moon and back is very unlikely.

But here's to 2012. I hope you have a great year ahead and make the changes where they need to be made. 

It's almost Christmas and for once in a while I'm here in the UK to celebrate it. I'm not upset about this even though I won't be uploading the customary picture of me on the beach in Gran Canaria on Xmas day. We decided that it was getting too difficult to find people to house and dog-sit for us over the Xmas period.

So, here I am at 5.00am on Christmas Eve (I've been up since 3.00am as I'm still not sleeping) and have been watching movies online and enjoying the stillness of the house and indeed what seems like the whole world at this moment. I've got a busy couple of days ahead cooking for Patrick, Conor (who's over for a few days) and the odd guest or two who might reasonably expect to drop in and find some food ready for them. I love it! I'm always happy feeding people and as this is what we tend to do at this time of year I'm in my element.

We decided to really go all out to celebrate Xmas this year and I bought and erected and then decorated my first tree in what must be at least ten years, It's a bit of a dog's dinner as I didn't realise it came with decorations and lights and went out and bought some lovely pieces with a 'Scandinavian' edge to them, but I love it!

People always used to assume that because I went away for Xmas to a hot climate that I must hate Xmas but nothing is further from the truth. Due to my pushing for it we have mince pies, turkey, Xmas decorations etc.

I'd better be off as it's time to start cooking some food for my partner and our guest.

Merry Xmas to all my Xanga mates - so sad that there are so few of us left.

I don't know what's going on exactly but for weeks now I have not been sleeping at all well. I've never been what you might call a heavy sleeper but recently I've not gone past one hour before waking up. I try to go back to sleep but wake up again and so on. It's been so bad recently that I've taken to getting up and going downstairs - sometimes only two hours after I went to bed.

I know that partly it is due to my diet which has been poor for a while now but alongside the sleepless nights have been some very involved 'stress dreams'. I will have these dreams that start out okay but then suddenly whatever is going on starts to unravel and I'm the only person around that can put whatever it is back together again. I had a dream the other night that I was organising traffic and just when everything seemed to start flowing well another road was opened and it got worse. I actually had to pull myself out of the dream and Patrick heard me saying "enough!" as I surfaced. The worse thing is that the dreams exhaust me and I end up falling asleep all over the place.

I'm considering buying some natural sleep remedies to see if they work but I do have to try and figure out what's going on long term.