New year, New start, HOORAH!

Well hello, fancy seeing you here, how you all doing?

Oh we're fine, we're looking forward to the year ahead, lots going on with us, lots of new places to visit and things to do, very exciting indeed.

Isn't the news depressing people, always seems to be doom and gloom. To be honest we don't watch the news or read the newspapers, not enough pictures for my liking and to many words, now if they did a pop up book version of the newspapers i may read it but then again having a Kardashian, Katie Price or Madonna popping up from a page may traumatize me for life, i shudder just thinking about it, YUK!

So, there is allot going on about the cost of living crisis, WE HEAR YOU!, You need help to feed the family, WE HEAR YOU! Jamie Oliver thinks he can do a £1 meal per person even though he starts off with a half leg of lamb which is about £12, what an idiot, he couldn't even get children to give up turkey twizzlers and don't get me started on his failed restaurants.

So we've come to your rescue.

I don't know about where you live but whenever someone comes on the local news headlines about the cost of living crisis here it's always a single unemployed mother with 3 kids or a unemployed family of 4 with the adults stating they have to go without food just to feed the kids, LOOK CLOSER!

What's that on the table, oh it's a packet of cigarettes. What's that on the shelf in the background, oh it's a wifi router. can you see the TV is on, what channel is it on, oh it's a SKY channel and under the TV is a SKY Q box. As the reporter is narrating about these poor poor peoples plight it's a long camera shot of the mother looking at her bank account balance on her phone and looking sad, oh but look it's the latest Apple iphone she's using. Also have you noticed because their getting their face on the gogglebox they put on something fancy, oh but look it's a designer label piece of clothing that's brand new.

Are you getting the picture here folks, cigarettes, wifi, SKY subscription, a contract phone and designer clothing, all those are definitely priorities right, especially when your struggling to put food on the table. Maybe it's just a Welsh thing, luxuries come before necessities. So there you go, found some savings. See, we're helping you already.

Single mum: Cigarettes Ave per month at 10 cigs a day - £150, WIFI - £22, SKY basic package - £24, Iphone contract - £58.98, Total per month = £254.98

Me and Sian: Cigarettes - £0 don't smoke, WIFI - £22, Freeview - £0, Sim only unlimited data, text and minutes - £15, Total per month = £37

We wouldn't need the WIFI if it wasn't for an Xbox being used in the house as my phone i use as a hotspot sometimes and many phones have hotspot capability and my phones 8 years old.

A grand saving of £217.98, YOUR WELCOME!

Now on to the food.

I set ourselves a little challenge, we have £10 each and only allowed to edge over that £10 by £1. The goal is to shop for enough food for a family of 4 for a meal a day each for 4 days. We're taking in to account people have cereals already for the breakfast and basic ingredients in the cupboard such as salt' pepper, gravy granules, milk, butter etc just the basics. I reckon £10 can cover 4 days. We used a mid range supermarket for the test, Sainsburys.

This is Sian's shop for the £10.16

Sians meals for 4 for 4 days are:

Sausage pasta bake

Cheese and ham omelettes

Fish fingers, mushy peas and new potatoes

Sausages with veg and gravy

Also as you can see there are other items not used in these dishes.

Total cost £10.16

My shop for £10.18

My meals for 4 for 4 days are:

Chili con carne with rice

Spaghetti Bolognese with garlic bread

Chicken & saute potato curry and rice

Spaghetti hoops on toast with 4 pieces of toast each.

Also as you can see there are other items not used in these dishes

Total cost £10.18

And if you were to combine both those shops you can easily make 10 days worth of meals for a family of four, that's £20 for 10 days food and the only reduced cost items we bought were a packet of ham and a loaf of bread, everything else was at full value. A £60 shop for a month would get you so much if you shop wisely and are willing to cook proper meals from scratch BUT that is the sticking point, many of these people are so used to convenient fast food that they don't want to cook so of course your going to struggle to buy your Deliveroo Macdonalds breakfast and Just Eat Dominos pizza for tea. Well if you can't be bothered to help yourself that's your problem i'm afraid to say but it can be done and we've proved it.

At one point in my life i had no money at all (very rough patch) and no job so i bought a large brown sack of potatoes and lived off one potato a day, it's amazing how many different ways you can prepare a potato, luckily for me i was only out of work for 4 weeks, Phew, i was afraid i may have got the nickname "Spud" or "The potato man" and be paraded around fairs in a cage for all to stare at in amazement as this man rattles the bars of his cage for a New potato, Maris Piper, King Edwards, Jersey Royal or god forbid the exotic Sweet Potato.......MY PRECIOUS! 

Martin Lewis, eat your heart out 😛

So then, where you all going on your holidays this year? come on, come on, tell us, we like hearing your plans.

This year for us is another year of adventure, adventure, adventure:

Feb - UK Foo Fighters gig

March - Rome with tickets for six nations game of Italy V Wales (keep an eye out for us as we are on the half way line directly opposite the cameras, Sian will have her sheep hat on)

April - Monmouth (We like Monmouth)

May - Birmingham to see Duran Duran

June - Munich (4 days) then direct train to Paris (4 days) and a Depeche Mode concert in Paris at the Stade de France (May see them in Munich also if i can get tickets)

July - London for our pub crawl and hopefully Iron Maiden concert if i can find tickets

August - Nothing booked as yet

Sept - Athens and Hydra, this is a chill out beach holiday

Oct - Nothing booked as yet

Nov - London our usual Christmas trip (Pretty lights, OOOOOoooooooooo!)

Dec - New years in St. Malo, France (Can't wait to get back)

So as you can see we're pretty much fully booked up all year, well if you don't book early you miss out on the deals and now we know we can eat like kings for £60 a month we can spend even more money on going to zoo's while away, YAY! Rome, Munich and Paris all have zoo's.

When we go away i always do the booking and shop around, for instance, the Rome trip, the cheapest return flights with seats pre-booked and cabin bag added was £614, i bought single trip flights with priority boarding, seats and cabin bag for £250, saving of £364 on our flights.

We were looking to go back to Zakynthos at some point for a week but it was cheaper for 9 days in Athens and Hydra than 7 days on Zakynthos by £300. So not only do we get 2 extra days holiday we also get to see another island that even my Greek friends wanted to go to.

Not much really been happening this month as it's always a quiet month after Christmas and New year it's just been weekends visiting our local pubs but now it's 6 nations time and we have our table booked and reserved for every game (apart from Italy game of course) so we know we can get a seat with a good view of the TV.

So i think that's about it for this update, sorry i haven't got more to tell you but our life isn't always 100mph, just 90% of it is.

So until the next update after our UK Foo Fighters gig........

Serve All, Love All, Peace All, Kevlar Out!

New Years staycation and 2022 review of the year. Hello 2023!

Well hello one and all and a Happy New Year. OK so enough of all that as got so much to show and write and very little time, busy, busy, busy.

So we'll start at Christmas Day with a quick summary, Great Christmas and Sian, my mum and I went out to a local establishment for Christmas Day lunch and what a great idea, it was so much easier and stress free apart from what to pre-choose from the menu.

I had slight chilli salmon on beetroot mmmmmmmm.

Sian and mum had Cheese Souffle with caramelised onion centre.

For main meal we all had a Turkey dinner but it was so good and the turkey was very moist.

My dessert was a cherry bomb with raspberry coulis. 

Sian and mum had a chocolate Christmas pudding with vanilla custard.

That then was finished off with coffee and mince pies. Would we do it again.....Hell Yeah! Why stress with cooking.

Our Christmas tree with a little Christmas bunny underneath.

And that's Christmas done. YAY! Roll on New Year.

WE always go away for New Year be it abroad or in the UK but we never stay at home.

This year I had booked us in to a train stations porter lodge on the steam train Llangollen line.

It was quite a nice drive up, around 3 hours but no problems whatsoever there and back also I saw a Transformer, Robot in disguise.

Arrived just in time for check in at 4pm and this is our lodge on the opposite side of the public platform, unfortunately for us the steam train doesn't run between 26th Dec and 5th Jan, BOOOOOOOOOO!

The View from our living room which was nice to look out on.

The views from our bedroom.

Our Garden.

And here is our home for the weekend over New Years. We love a log fire/burner. As soon as we walked it it felt like home, very comfortable, very cosy and had everything you would need from a holiday home, what a great find.

And little Squidly came with us on her first holiday, she was so good on both road trips and during our stay, in fact she was more at home here than at her actual home. She didn't become a hot cross bunny your ok.

The Berwyn Arms is only 5 mins walk away full of locals with a lovely restaurant but we just used the bar which was such a small area and held about 20 people but it did have other rooms you could go and drink in but we stayed in the small bar area.

While we were there on our second visit we chatted with a local who had lived in the village for 70 years since child, his name was Keith who's nickname was Spike, we didn't ask where he got his nickname from just in case it was something violent....well....we're in lands where "We don't like strangers round these parts no we don't" but I think Spike was fine, he said he had worked with pigs, cows and sheep, he never said he had worked with humans though, hmmmm! Spikes brother came in about 30 mins after us and boy was he weird, 6ft plus, eyes like Marty Feldman (google him) with a voice like he had a helium canister stuck up his behind, very strange.

Sian was a very lucky girl, Spike put his hand in his coat pocket and pulled out a handful of wrapped mint humbugs and handed them to her, I'm sure they were magic beans but Sian accepted them and then proceeded to throw them away when we got home just like Jack's mother did, I bet there's a giant beanstalk there now for someone else to get the golden goose.

The Berwyn Arms a great little pub.

                                       

Sian can never pass up the opportunity for a lit Christmas tree pic.

                                       

On return to our lovely porters lodge the public platform was all lit up.

                                       

First day over with as it was a late check in and straight to pub and tomorrow is New Years Eve so we better get some sleep in just in case of a late night. Nigh Nigh now SSSsssssshhhhhhhhhh!

New Years Eve, the plan was we'll go out for walk through the hills and along the valley floor then go back for a chill out before heading to Berwyn Arms. Change of plans, it's chucking it down. No matter we'll watch a movie and just chill out until later. 9pm comes around and we were so settled and cosy with the log fire on we decided to stay in with a bottle of wine and see the new year in with Squidly, also the rain was still coming down and there was no way we were getting soaked when it was so cold.

HAPPY NEW YEAR! Staying in was just as good as going out so no loss there.

New Years day no real plans apart from a huge buffet we had prepared for when we got in from our day out, there was way to much.

Went in to Llangollen for the day as we needed more wood for the log fire. The River Dee was so fierce and full it was amazing to see and Llangollen train station is right on the bank of the river. Lets hope it never gets flooded.

Llangollen Station.

We really liked Llangollen, it was only a small town but lots of family run businesses, lots of dog walkers, ducks and more than enough pubs and eateries to stay for a week with beautiful surroundings for long walks.

As i said earlier Squidly was so relaxed in the porters lodge she slept on her side for so long the one time, longer than at home. When rabbits sleep on their side they are vulnerable so they only do this when they feel happy, safe and content.

At one point she was so relaxed she looked like she had been run over by a car 😆 and no, Squidly is not a fat bunny, we are very careful with her diet but I think given the chance Squidly would be quite happy being a plumper pet.

After a short 3 night stay it was now time to go home. As you know every single break or vacation we've been on we've always had great weather, better than we should have had but this time.......No, rained every day apart from when we were leaving BUT that did not spoil our break one single bit, we still loved it as we did actually relax for once just chilling in front of the log fire as our vacations are always full on no matter where we go.

And lastly on the way home we stopped off in Llangollen to pick up a homemade Giant Welsh Oggie. Dear god why do we always find great food while away that we can't get in Cardiff?

So folks that's another year over and a new one to look forward to with again so much going on for us.

REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2022 

And here we go my review of the year gone by.

To start with i think it's safe to say this was the best year of my life so far, who knows there may be better ahead. Are there other years that may have been the best? No, not even close. I've had great years like 2001 when i went to Zakynthtos for one year and stayed 19. 2006 when i took on Oceanic. 2011 when I got to go on my favourite game show Total Wipeout in Argentina, 2016 when I was free to re-open Oceanic with the bar being busier than ever and bumped in to Sian that Winter, 2020 when I decided  to give up Oceanic to stay home with Sian along with a trip to Calgary, Canada BUT 2022 was through the roof.

January 1st 2022 started off in the Hard Rock Cafe, London with cocktails and finishing up quite merry (That seems like a lifetime away now)

February we were in Paris for the start of the 6 nations with France the eventual champions against Italy and that was such a fun vacation with great sunny weather all the time we were there, apart from game day.

March, absolute tragedy, Taylor Hawkins dies. Still hard to believe even 10 months on.

April, Cardiff Devils become Play Off Champions

May, another trip to Monmouth, one of our fav places.

June, planned for Foo Fighters in Milan but got to see Imagine Dragons instead still in Milan, Italy. Another place we've decided to return to.

July, the month that made my life complete when Sian said yes to marrying me in Calgary, Canada. Calgary in Canada we believe is our home from home (Montreux in Switzerland is our spiritual home) as we feel more at home there than anywhere else in the world and it helps going there return in Business Class 😁 Roll on 2024.

August, time to recharge and do bugger all.

September. High emotions and lots of love in London at the Taylor Hawkins Tribute Concert, we can say "WE WERE THERE" and showed our appreciation of Taylor and what joy he gave to us. Also we both got to see some of our rock heroes that I doubt we'll ever see again live.

October, a month of food, food, food. Restaurants, Pillars Cafe, Cake baking and the Operatic Society.

November, Birmingham Christmas Market and UK Foo Fighters. Always a good time is had in Birmingham and many more to come starting this year.

And here we come back to the very start of this blog update, December and Christmas.

I think you can see why this is without doubt the best year of my life and I feel so blessed to have spent it with Sian, I can't think of anyone who would appreciate where we go, what we do and things we see more than Sian. Sian doesn't just go along with things begrudgingly, if  Sian does things it's because she wants to, she enjoys them and wants to experience them with an open mind, she's not judgemental, Sian is my balance that keeps me stable and I'm happy for every minute we spend together.

2022, your gonna be hard to beat!

I will leave you with that for now and tell you of our year ahead in the next update.

So until the next update you lovely people.......

Serve All, Love All, Peace All......Kevlar Out!