Yearly Trip

It was that time of year again where we take the journey to Germany.

Now there are two drivers two cars, the drivers don't have family in Germany, this is me and the exgf's step dad. Its not the best journey but I know i have done a lot worse (the M25 for a start). We take the exgf my son and her brothers and mum over so that they can see their mum/nan and great nan.

I was asked a few days before/told that we would be leaving about half 1, which I thought was a bit late in the day as it tends to be a 5/6hr trip, but I just agreed to keep the peace, but next year i won't be doing this, we got stuck in Antwerp with all the rush hour traffic and only missed other jams by minutes. We got to Germany at around 9pm their time.

Normally we stay at exgf's cousins but as my son is still being trained not to wet the bed she decided we would stay in a hotel, now the hotel we picked wasn't the cheapest but it was a great place and only 5 mins from her nans.

The hotel was very nice (even though a bit expensive for meals and things) and i would love to use it again but with my son using his own bed instead of me having the little single bed and those two having the kings size bed to themselves.

Unfortunately my son was ill for most of the weekend, he caught the bug that is going round so had runny nose then coughing fits and also a bout a sickness which he had once in the car on the way there, most of Friday night then during the day Sunday. Saturday he spent being very weak and not being able to do much so luckily we didn't spend long in the city of Cologne.

But all in all it was a good weekend.

I know i am rambling but not much else has really happened, me and the exgf are still getting on not as close as I want so I am just giving her space. I do hope we can sort through things though as i am worried that I might get distracted by other women, I just have to be strong willed.

To old friends

Its been a few weeks since i last posted and things at home aren't going to bad.

Me and the ex are gettingon and i have been going to the gym (took today off as i have a lot on this week.)

I'm not sure if I will be posting again to soon as I have a lot going on at home at the moment.

I have been checking through finances etc and have come to the conclusion that I can't afford to pay all my bills.

The problem arose when things went wrong for my dad who was paying for the loans (I got them out for him) and he can no longer pay for them. I thought I could manage but after going through sums etc I cannot afford to keep going like this.

I have got advice from a very good website (www.fool.co.uk). by the looks of it a DMP (Debt management program) IVA will not be any good for me as I will still be left short. The only option is Bankruptcy. It's not the way I won't to go but is really my only option.

I don't hold it against my dad as crap happens but I am dissapointed it went this way.

I told the ex Friday and she took it better than I thought and so did my mum when I told her last night, I just feel though I have left them both down.

Please visit www.fool.co.uk and go to the following pages if you need help or just want advice with stuff.

Managing Your Finances
http://boards.fool.co.uk/Boards.asp?fid=5008

Living Below your Means (loads of tips on stuff you could cut down on etc)
http://boards.fool.co.uk/Messages.asp?bid=50074

Fireworks

So as I mentioned in an earlier post we went to a couple of firework events, these are the pics from Saturday.

Small clip of the end

Halloween

Well I know its a little late but here ar ethe pics i took of my son and the houses etc on Halloween when we went trick or treating.

One house joing in the spirit of things (get it, do ya?)

And another

And another The Terrible Twosome

The carved Halloween by the gf

Day 2 at the Gym

Today went quite well.
I upped my weights a bit and I did struggle a bit but still managed to do the 8 reps on each machien so will up the weights again on Friday.

I have bene brave and have taken a before shot of me.

Be aware they are scary, so please avert your eyes. to the below

As you can see i cam carrying a bit of a barrel in front of me so i can't wait and hope that this work out will at least reduce the size or get rid of it for good.

I will put pics up every four weeks (I hope your stomachs can take it) of my progress.

Gym Day 1

Today was day one of the gym and it wasn't as bad as I thought it would be.

I did the list of week one exercises as best I could with the limited equipment that was on offer but have no been given a list of different equipment that I can use top do the same exercises, so swapping machines for dumbbells etc.

I did 8 reps on each machine with a 5 min warm up and down on the bike. As i did the 8 reps they advise you to change the weight, so on Wednesday I will be upping it by 1 and see how that goes, if I do the 8 reps again then I will up by one again.

Tonight I will get my stats, height and weight and if feeling brave enough will take a below the head shot of my body for the before pic.

Be gentle on me.

So we have had a couple of festive days, with Halloween and Guy Fawkes.

For Halloween I took my soon trick or treating and he got loads of goodies (a lot of them I like to), he was dressed as Count Dracula and his friend who we took along to, was dressed as a skeleton pirate. I have some pics which I will get up here shortly.

We went to a fireworks display Saturday which I managed to get a few shots, which I will get posted here to. My son still doesn't really like them but he did really well to last as long as he did watching them and for that he got a burger afterwards. He is so cute when watching fireworks though, as long as they aren't to loud, he will watch the colours and the explosions but with his hands over his ears so he can't hear the explosions. Sunday was spent at the ex's mums with me chosen as the coordinator and lighter of the fireworks (I was not part of the discussion when this went on). We had4 boxes of fireworks which took about 45mins to get rid of as well as the extra rockets. The neighbours also came round and brought 5 large display rockets, which I am sure are supposed to be for professional displays, but what the hell. When all of those were gone one of the neighbours popped back to there house to light their last one, this was a box and it was huge, just one firework and it lasted for about 5mins, it had a total of 175 shots in which would go in the sir with pretty colours then exploded in to more. The final shot was great and gave the silver rain effect.

Roll on tonight when i can look out my window and see tonight's, which in theory should be the end off it, hopefully my son will come and watch with me or I may take a drive in to the hills and watch from there.