Review of 2009

So readers, was it the END of a decade (NOT a century as I originally typed!) or the START of a new one?  Is it Twenty Ten or Two Thousand and Ten?  What will we call the period between 2000 and 2009, oh we have that don’t we, “the noughties”,  so what about the period from 2010 to 2019 and how will we know the difference between the 20’s (1920’s) and the “new 20’s”.  Heck I don’t care it’s a New Year and one that will see a General Election, the continuing war in Afghanistan and some warmer weather I hope.  However, there is little I can do about any of those events and so I am going to reflect on the 12 months past.
January 2008 saw us back in the UK for only three months and settling in surprisingly well in Copnor given that it was not a place we really wanted to be on returning home in the previous September.  I note that I didn’t write a Blog for that month, presumably I was too busy getting home, moving into my Aunts for a couple of weeks, wondering what the heck we were going to do about buying a house and generally getting back into the swing of things here in the UK.  I think I spent the rest of the year ranting about house hunting, estate agents, the recession, a shop lifter in Southsea, queue jumping and various other trivial matters. Finally, in December 2008 I was fully reintegrated back into the UK way of life and all its wonderful shortcomings!
So, 2009 is fully documented in my sometimes demented Blog which started with a short trip back to Ibiza to see the new family member Neo Bond Serrano, Alix’s new baby boy.  Neo is a year old now and quite the little poser in all his photos as well as remarkably blonde for a little boy growing up in Spain!
The Cheeky little Chappy at a year old ………
February 2009 I was still having a moan about IKEA and BT as we were by now in need of a phone and the internet if we were to house hunt successfully.  We were also worrying about what to do about our savings, not getting a better rate of interest but how quickly we could spend it before interest rates vanished all together!  Buy a house I heard us screaming at each other!  March 2009 was starting to prove to be much better apart from my rising blood pressure which did not start to fall despite my best efforts to relax.  We actually moved into our new house on the 6th and what a relief that was, I seem to remember that it was tiring but not stressful… or am I deluding myself here?  I see from our diary from the month that it comprised, furniture deliveries, visits to the tip and Homebase and IKEA as well as various meetings with friends – we are home!
April 2009 was not particularly eventful apart from getting the garden sorted out, numerous visits to the doctors that I hadn’t planned on and generally settling into the new house.
Christmas Day was the highlight of the year with us deciding to go out and eat at a local hotel and we really looked forward to the occasion.  We duly arrived at just after 1pm and had our starters at about 1:30, a slight delay but it was busy.  However our main course did not arrive until 2:40 by which time I was overly hungry to the point of feeling ill and too in need of food to complain about the under cooked vegetables, warm food in general and the lack of interest in my comments to this effect.  So Christmas Day evening turned out to be letter writing day!  It all ends happily I’m pleased to say as we now have a FREE meal for 4 at the hotel next week!!!!!
New Year, very quiet!!!
I suppose now all I can say that between May and December we are now able to say that we are completely established.  We have new neighbours who are charming and we would hardly know they were there.  I am not sure what the summer will bring with the three, yes three student houses just along from us but I can only keep my fingers crossed.
All I can say is that this is now where we call Home!!!!
Happy New Year for 2010