A New Years toast to love and laughter
and happily ever after

A health to you, a wealth to you,
And the best that life can give to you.

Dance as if no one were watching, sing as if no one were listening
and live every day as if it were your last.

We’ve Holidays and happy days,
and memory days galore
And when we’ve toasted every one,
I offer just one more
So let us lift our glasses high,
and drink a silent toast
To the day, deep buried in each heart
that each one loves the most

Here’s wishing you more happiness
Than all my words can tell,
Not just alone for New Years Eve
But for all the year as well.

Here’s to the days of good will,
cold weather, and warm hearts.

And if you’re going out tonight, remember to tip your bar tender, and if you’re in The Gardeners, I accept tips or drinks

8 Books Recommended To Me:

1/ American Gods by Neil Gaimon
2/ Flatland by Edwin A Abbott
3/ The Piano Tuner by Daniel Mason
4/ Sam’s Letters to Jennifer by James Patterson
5/ Pollen by Jeff Noon
6/ Flowers in the Attic by Virginia Andrews
7/ The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini
8/ Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman completed 1st Jan 2008 – my thoughts

8 Biographies

1/ High Hopes by Billy Hopkins – completed 2nd April
2/ My Booky Wook by Russel Brand – completed 21st Jan my thoughts
3/ On The Edge by Richard Hammond
4/ Bigger Than Hitler: Better Than Christ by Rik Mayall
5/ Nicholas Cage by Ian Markham-Smith
6/ A Long Walk to freedom by Nelson Mandela completed 26th Feb my thoughts
7/ If I am Missing or Dead by Janine Latus
8/ Paula Yates by Paula Yates

8 John Grisham books:

1/ The Testament – completed 18th April
2/ Playing for Pizza
3/ The Appeal
4/ The Rainmaker
5/ The Client
6/ The Chamber – completed 24/04/08
7/ Pelican Brief
8/ The Street Lawyer

8 Books that have been made into film:

1/ Memoirs of a Geisha
2/ Bridget Jones – Edge of Reason
3/ Hannibal Rising
4/ The Body (made into Stand by Me) – completed 2nd jan 2008 – my thoughts
5/ Da Vinci Code
6/ War of the Worlds
7/ Christine
8/ Bone Collector

8 Penguin Classics:

1/ Moonfleet – John Meade Falkner
2/ Lolita – Vladimir Nabokov
3/ Wuthering Heights – Emily Bronte
4/ One flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest – Ken Kesey
5/ Sense and Sensibility – Jane Austen
6/ Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
7/ Little Women – Louisa May Alcott
8/ Lady Chatterley’s Lover – D.H. Lawrence

8 Travel Books:

1/ Fried Eggs With Chopsticks – Polly Evans – completed 13th Jan my thoughts
2/ Talk to the Snail – Stephen Clarke – completed 3rd March my thoughts
3/ Down Under – Bill Bryson – currently reading
4/ Long Way Down – Ewan McGregor
5/ Blood River – Tim Butcher
6/ Happy Slapped by a Jellyfish – Karl Pilkington
7/ Pies and Prejudice – Stuart Macone
8/ Round Ireland With a Fridge – Tony Hawks

8 Trashy Novels

1/ The Man of my Dreams – Curtis Sittenfield – completed 9th April
2/ Good at Games – Jill Mansell completed 6th April
3/ The Other Woman’s Shoes – Adele Parks – completed 15th March
4/ The Alchemist – Paulo Coelho – completed 9th March my thoughts
5/ Queen Mum – Kate Long
6/ Camberwell Beauty -Jenny Eclair – completed 1st May
7/ It’s Not You, It’s Me – Helen Dunne
8/ Onwards and Upwards – Arabella Weir

8 from Amazon’s ‘Society, Politics and Philosophy’ Section

1/ Tricks of the Mind – Derren Brown
2/ Reconcilation: Islam, Democracy and The West – Benazir Bhutto
3/ God is not Great – Christopher Hitchins
4/ Tribe: adventures in a Changing World- Bruce Parry
5/ Life in the UK: A Journey to Citizenship
6/ Six Thinking Hats: Edward De Bono
7/ Zero – The Biography of a Dangerous Idea – Charles Seife
8/ Playto and a Platypus Walk Into a Bar – Thomas Cathcart

For Rina’s hen Night a few years ago, we had an Ann summers Party One of the games we played involved having to get the sweet out of the jelly without using your hands, here’s a pic of Vicki afterwards looking a bit messy!

Appetizer
Name 2 things you would like to accomplish in 2008.

Pay off some debt, spend more time with family and friends

Soup
With which cartoon character do you share personality traits?

Someone once told me I was Betty Boop?!

Salad
What time of day (or night) were you born?

2.20AM

Main Course
Tell us something special about your hometown.

It has a great football team lol

Dessert
If you could receive a letter from anyone in the world, who would you want to get one from?

i would love to get a letter from my bank saying all my debt has been cancelled, but somehow i doubt that’s gonna happen!

Am not feeling particularly festive at the moment, I haven’t written my xmas cards yet, but I promise they will be posted in time to be received by xmas and don’t even have my tree up yet (will be done this weekend, which will still be earlier than last year). So to make me feel slightly more xmassy, I’ve nabbed this meme:

1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? Wrapping paper.

2. Real tree or artificial? Artificial, although I will get a real one one year, just to see if they are as messy as everyone says. we used to have real ones in the pyramid, until one year, we were given a very smelly one that lasted about 2 weeks to be replaced with a brown twig.

3. When do you put up the tree? When I was at home it was always 2 weeks before, since moving out it’s usually been first few days of December, but last year it was xmas eve as we were busy moving and this year I’m late because i’ve been working and the days I get off are spent sleeping!

4. When do you take the tree down? Before 12th night

5. Do you like eggnog? Never tried it!

6. Favorite gift received as a child? baby snooker table, i was about 3?

7. Do you have a nativity scene? No.

8. Hardest person to buy for? This year it’s been mr batty, mainly because I bought for his wife and son then realised I hadn’t got him anything!

9. Easiest person to buy for? Rupert

10. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? No idea, i have a few packs of smellies in the cellar that I’ve never used

11. Mail or email Christmas cards? Mail

12. Favorite Christmas Movie? Santa Claus The Movie

13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? This year it was October as changing jobs meant i knew I’d be skint by now and I’ve been really good and not put anything on the credit card

14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? No.

15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? Mum’s xmas pud, which she hasn’t made for years

16. Clear lights or colored on the tree? Coloured

17. Favorite Christmas song? Merry Xmas Everyone, apart from when it’s played as hold music

18. Stay home or travel for Christmas? Stay home

19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? possibly

20. Angel on the tree top or a star? Goofy

21. Open the presents Christmas Eve or morning? Xmas day after dinner

22. Most annoying thing about this time of year? The fact i can’t get on the bus to work without being battered by people carrying lots of shopping bags and everyone being stressed!

So it’s still freezing cold at the moss Rose in December. However, the main difference from a couple of years ago was at the half way point, we still had all of our players on the pitch and hadn’t conceeded a goal. fair play to Macc though our Goalie had to work hard to keep the clean sheet, our defence definitely needs to tighten up if we’re to challenge for play offs again this season.

The second half was much better and we might not have won by six, but I’ll gladly take the 2 goals and 3 points!

The poster for the It’s A Small World ride at Tokyo Disney, so cheesy, you gotta love it!

Appetizer
Make up a word and give us its definition.

Not feeling creative enough for this one right now, but if i think of anything as the weekend goes on, i’ll let you know!

Soup
What is currently your favorite song?

There hasn’t been just one song thats stuck in my head lately, but then again I’ve not had the radio on for a while….

Salad
What’s at the top of your Christmas wish list this year?

Books, although I’ve signed up to the 888 challenge and chosen my categories, i’ve not chosen the books in them yet!

Main Course
Name a scent that reminds you of someone special in your life.

Different aftershave reminds me of different people, I miss going home from the pub at night with Bobs aftershave on one side of my hair and Annie’s perfume on the other side!

Dessert
Who is someone on television that you feel probably shouldn’t be, and why?

Anyone who has had their 15 minutes of fame and is dragging it out so everyone’s sick of the sight of them!