Saturday was pretty unexciting, about the only highligt was that Portia and Bobby chased a deer in the woods. Today was also slow but I got some shelves up and started again on the lounge cupboards.

Went round to Peters after work and we pulled the engine and gearbox from the Traction. Interesting as its the first time for me. Pretty simple, not that I expected otherwise and Peter regaled me with a tale of pulling the engine and gearbox from a Light 15 in a campsite on a rally. How they lifted it out I don't know! Of course the list if things that need replacing just got longer and longer as we worked.

Now its out, we have some more stripping down to do, but really now there is some very messy cleaning to do, followed by repainting etc. This is actually a good thing as it was pretty grotty under there and now it will allow me to get a head start with the engine bay detailing

Peter wants to drive over to CTA in Holland weekend after next and I am scheduled to go with him. Thats causing me problems with Laura as the weekend after I am in Barcelona and she is going to be sitting at home. Roll on the pet passports clearing in a few months so we can start driving abroad again

Busy days - lots of small tasks expanding to overfill the day. Don't seem to have the edge to concentrate enough to clear them out of the way. At least the breadmaker works well - if I had bought it then it would take a hell of a long time to clear the cost out of the savings. However, what it does do is give control over the content of the product and it looks like some experimentation will allow some variety to the bread - all the basic recipies seem simple enough.

Got to break this cycle of late to bed, late up. Problem now is that I am only just getting tired now, but then its too early up in the morning and so not sharp enough in the day. If I can get up early enough tomorrow then with a bit of luck I will be tired earlier in the evening.

Got pulled up by the Sales Manager today for not giving a positive enough spin on the years results, so I reckon that I really do need to shift to an upbeat position. Yah! OK lets see what tomorrow brings

OK, another wasted day. Well not quite, but lets see if we can get a balance here between optimism and pessimism. On the upside, we saw Mum for the first time in a while and I had a very pleasant chat. She seems well and the presents were great - can't wait to try out the breadmaker. Trouble is the guilt, she has spent a lot of money on us and we didn't even give her anything even though I have a much greater disposible income than her. We are giving her an old PC so that she can get online and she will need a lot of my time to get up and running, so maybe there is a trade-off. I can't really afford to spend more money on her but I can afford time (especially if I can get my life sorted out).

Something else I can do for her is to detail her car, even though she doesn't think that she needs it I think she will be pleased with the results and if I finish it with Autoglyms SR then the finish should last for a while By then I should have some pads and products so I may finish with the Clearkote carnuba wax for some instant pop.

So, on the upside then an old lesson relearnt - you should spend what you have, if you have time spend that, if you have money then spend that instead. Receiving gifts gives pleasure to the giver so that was good but there needs to be some balance.

On the downside, another wasted day and again a factor was a late start. As a penalty I kept to my rule that if I did not wash the car before taking the dogs out then I don't get to detail it.

We still have to start the wish list - maybe I should start that in a minute. I should already be packing up and moving upstairs to get ready for tomorrow but I will push it out for another 25 minutes. Target is to finish off down here, start the list and make an action plan for tomorrow.

Not much material acheived today - looks like a pretty gloomy blog now I look back at it. Maybe its a result of my natural outlook - I guess it is, so I wonder if it can be changed.

Had an interesting chat with Lucy about things but knowing our past history I doubt if it will make any changes, so I suppose its up to me to follow through.

Fitted the draught strips to the front door - thats what 18 months to do? Yuck, where is life going? Hmmm, gloomy again, maybe tomorrow I should start looking at the bright side of life...

That late night certainly messed up doing anything today. Not up until ten, and then after walking the dogs and then lunch, did not start getting anything done until Two. Not much even then, just made some shelving in the garage - just the first of many, but it means that I can start to get organised.

Also bleached the shower area - a nasty job but someone has to do it. Not making much more progress with the Marriage Book, reading it but its not going in at the moment.

Lets see if I can get to bed a little earlier today - Mum is coming up in the morning so I need to be up early

A year has gone by, so I thought that its time I started trying to post again. New Years Day! Late up again - really must get to bed earlier - but its already gone 1230 so I don't think today is a good example. Reading the HTB Marriage Book that Sarah gave us for Christmas - mostly common sense and much of the normal good practice such as listening and open/ closed questions, but I must admit that I had not thought to apply it my own personal life.

Went over to the Vintage Sports Car Club meet at the Barley Mow - nice mix of cars and took some interesting detail photos of headlights and rear lights that may be useful for reworking the look of the Lomax if I ever get round to it. So! time to get off my backside and complete some projects!

Thinking back to the bugshop, he bargained household projects for tools. Maybe I could do the same, but to make it fair the value would be based on a target dates - early acheivement would get a bonus and over-running would be penalised. That way also, personal jobs such as detailing or updating the garage would cost me penalty points.