New Years Eve 2010

I don't know why but I find New Year depressing - it may be post Christmas Blues, it may be the fact that a new year means I'm getting older. This year has been tough, my other half lost his job twice and is now unemployed as well as having had to undergo major surgery, the NHS is being dismantled bit by bit which causes problems as my wages are now frozen for two years so there are no rises to cope with inflation and my old school friend died leaving a gap in many people's lives.

I'm hoping that 2011 will bring some better times although I can't see it yet.

Regardless of how I feel I wish everyone a happy 2011 and I've posted some random cat pictures just to cheer things up.

Nearly 50

It's my last day of being 49 - I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. I had a 'birthday' night out with the girls from work last week and decided my new drink would be Morgan's spiced rum and lemonade. I felt a bit rough on Friday but seeing as I developed flu by the Saturday I'll put it down to the virus. Having flu has somewhat thrown my birthday and Christmas plans - still need to write cards and do some Christmas shopping plus the usual washing, ironing etc.

Anyway, I got a bit nostalgic and ended up downloading lots of old songs from Amazon - plus the new X factor winners single - I'll talk about some of them a little bit more on my music blog.

1	"Have I The Right" The Honeycombs;
1	"No Regrets" Walker Brothers
1	"Tell Me When" The Applejacks
1	"I'm So Straight I'm a Weirdo" Rick Wakeman;
1	"Here Comes The Night" Them;
1	"Twighlight Time" The Platters
1	"Just A Dream" Jimmy Clanton
1	"Take These Chains From My Heart" Ray Charles
1	"My Boy Lollipop" Millie;
1	"I Remember You" Frank Ifield
1	"Let Me Go Lover" Teresa Brewer
1	"Lula Rock-A-Hula" Teresa Brewer;
1	"Lady With The Big Umbrella" Dean Martin;
1	"Go Now" The Moody Blues;
1	"Maria Elena" Los Indios Tabajaras
1	"Make It Easy On Yourself" Walker Brothers;
1	"Jackie" Scott Walker;
1	"The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore" Walker Brothers;
1	"When We Collide" Matt Cardle; Fabulous By: Charlie Gracie Butterfly by: Charlie Gracie

29 Years

I started work in the NHS 29 years ago today - my department was called 'Community Health' and we dealt with childhood immunisations - no computers - everything was sent away for batch processing and ended up on microfiche.

29 years and various NHS departments later I'm back in child health working with same person I was working with on my very first day. Talk about things going full circle!

50 Years of Coronation Street

Coronation Street was first broadcast 50 years this week - 6 days before I was born. I remember my Mum watching it when I was a toddler and I suppose I just got sucked into it. It's not the most glamorous of soaps but it's like a nice warm cosy blanket, and that's why I'll be glued to this weeks episodes. Just watched the explosion and tram crash, so we're trying to work out who's not going to survive. So far in the running to die are Ashley, Max, Molly, Rita, Sunita, Peter, Ciaran, Graeme, Fiz's baby and of course bunny boiler Charlotte has already been dispatched by John.

There's a live episode on Thursday and I'm so upset because I'm on a very rare night out - an early birthday night out in fact - never mind will have to catch in on ITV net.

More snow

1st of December and there is more snow chaos - it takes hours to get to work and back and I just feel knackered by the time I get home.

On a lighter note it's only 15 days till my 50th birthday - I always imagined I would have a great big party with loads of old music and lots of dancing - it hasn't panned out that way for various reasons, so there's a good chance it will pass by like a wet Sunday!