The first week back at work after being off for two weeks seems to be always hard. I eased my pain with my new “man chair” which arrived early this week.

Whilst not the best quality (my wife was right) I am happy with it nevertheless. May it last until we rearrange the living room and get a new couch etc. in a few years time.

Child benefits got cut. We opted out, despite the fact that I believe it isn’t fair. I understand that if one has above a certain earning that benefits are cut, but the way the rule works there are couples having a similar income to myself or higher (!) between them, however they still qualify for the benefits. Not fair I’d say. On top of that travel tickets to London went up b 5% whilst inflation went up b 3%. Means in my profession I just have to sell more to make up for things I suppose. Sell, sell, sell is the motto for 2013. Life is really getting more expensive by the day.

With the cold weather quite a few colleagues have been off sick. I didn’t feel too great during the week and only went running on three mornings. Got a nice massage on Saturday which helped me getting into shape. I am getting fit. I am getting somewhere. Given the awful wet weather it doesn’t come as a surprise that so many people are sick and I started feeling under the weather over the weekend. Fingers crossed I can shake it off quickly and go back to my exercise routine mid week.

R himself finally got chickenpox. So C probably gets it soon. I am glad that we finally go through it. About time as often as they have been exposed to chickenpox before Luckily R doesn’t seem to be too bothered, so all good.

Another fish I bought last week disappeared in my fish tank. Probably dead but I am surprised we didn’t find any remains, it was just gone from one day to another. Shame, a nice bulldog pleco. I think we will keep the amount of fish as they are for a while before adding more. Our barbs are growing to a nice size, so that’s a bit worrying Every time we go to SeaLife in Brighton we get reminded that some ex home fish tank fish are in this special tank – and they are big. What I am saying is that some fish just grow above and beyond the size of your home tank. So you better watch it.

Despite the illnesses, changes and stress at work, I am generally very positive for 2013. My energy is increasing and with every training session I gain more energy, feeling better. I have a good feeling for 2013. The break helped me a lot to focus on family and helped me bonding with the boys. So if I see them at the weekend or sometimes at night I am getting a lot more cuddles. Nice. Particularly this weekend, I managed to cuddle with Colin in my chair and take a nap whilst he watched TV. So that is what I call both symbiosis and productivity LOL.

On Saturday my wife cooked me a really nice meal: lamb. I love when she is spoiling me, and just what I needed after the full on week back. So it is my turn next week and with the slow cooker ordered I think I might try pulled pork or burnt ends….latter might be a bit tricky but we shall see.

Maybe one last note in respect to 2012. I found some closure with people by sending them Emails/ letter to put things from years ago behind me. I hope it answered a few open questions they might have had. They are not apologies but acknowledgements. I read “Chasing Daylight” a few years ago which gave me the inspiration to always have all open ends closed as you never know when you leave this earth and how much time you have when you do. Often people come into your life for a reason. Some never stay, others hang around for a while and some stay forever. There are reasons for that, and for loosing touch. Not sure if Facebook helps in that matter really. But I stopped being friends with everyone and anyone just because I know them. But when you look back to the good old school times, who you were friends with and who you weren’t friends with, and for how long, you realise quickly that you met some people just to help you through a phase, a problem or a period of your life. And you would be the same for other people. Life is fascinating in that respect. I probably could write one post just about that.

Guess that is all for now. A nice weekend with the family. We visited Nymans Gardens which is less than 30 minutes in the car from us, making good use of our National Trust membership already. Now back to the grindstone. Give me until mid February to settle into the running routine and starting a few new projects I keep you posted!

Best wishes,
Volker