2011, a round up of the year

2011 is almost over with 2012 approaching, for us here in the UK in 62 minutes.  One way or another it has been an eventful year for Ishbel and I and we finish this year as we have for the last couple of years, babysitting the twins Charlie and Holly.

Our son Brian, with his partner Nick, as you know is in the pub trade and has the lease on two premises, The Sun Inn on Bethnal Green Road in London and The Dew Drop Inn in Buckinghamshire, so he is hard at work on the busiest night of his year.

Marie our eldest and her husband Peter are also in that trade but work for a national company, with Peter being a senior manager and Marie now part time, but again Christmas and New year are their busiest times, along with Valentines and Mother's days.

Jennifer our youngest and her partner Steve, presented us with grandchild No 5 this year, Lacey Mae and who is now 10 months old, a sister to Mollie 8 and Shannon 5, poor Steve, he would dearly love a son.  they of course were over for Christmas and we had a thoroughly enjoyable time with all of them, particularly the children.

Health wise this year, has had it's ups and downs, but altogether nothing to serious.  Asthma attacks seemed to be getting more frequent but nothing that worried me. Arthritis, gave up on the meds and just take Anadin Extra, other pain meds are available of course, and Ishbel continues to attend Great Ormond Street for her three monthly injection into her voice box.  Her epilepsy  is completely under control and we have had no episodes, so all in all a good year.  The only blight has of course been my weight and fitness.  I did, for the whole year manage to get out and walk hail rain or shine and did get my weight down to under 20 stone. I had planned to get to just under 19 stone for Christmas but fell at the last hurdle, so the challenge is there for the New Year.

We had a bit of a financial hiccup this year which left us worrying for a bit and while we are still not as secure as I would like us to be, we are just managing, but then, we are like millions of other across the planet in that respect, so we also hope that the New Year will be better for us as well as for anyone else who is going through a difficult time.

I re-discovered Twitter this year, after signing up for it a couple of years ago and not doing much with it.  That has been a great source of friendship to both Ishbel and I with many new and interesting friends made and interacted with. some of whom have been great sources of conversation and amusement, You are all to many to mention here and for that I beg your forgiveness but to you all, a special thanks for the conversations  and for keeping me grounded;  If you are an author and I have read your books you have given me, in the main, a great sense of pride in communicating with me and for producing the wonderful books that I have had the time to enjoy.  To the bloggers, the vast array of topics that you have presented me with has given me interest in things and subjects that I knew little of before and for that I thank you too.

So as we are 18 minutes away from 2012 I look forward to renewing old friendships, making new ones and continuing our conversations.

I hope that the New Year brings to everyone a renewed sense of hope in whatever it is you are doing.  That your health and that of your family and friends remains good and that we all prosper in the our lives both financially and through the love and friendship of our family and friends..................

Aye Yours

and a Happy New Year 

Tom and  Ishbel 

Book review - The Fall of Billy Hitchings

The Fall of Billy Hitchings, is the debut novel by American Author Kirkus MacGowan. A stay at home dad looking after a couple of kids, I connected with Kirkus through Twitter and clearly knew that he was on the verge of publishing but I did not investigate or ask what the book was about.  But when it was published in late November I thought I would give it a go.

It starts with an explosive episode with John, clearly not the character of the title, in a vehicle with a couple of civilian bodyguard colleagues transporting their client, Khalid, to the airport when they are suddenly attacked.  Good, the kind of book I like.  But then it got a bit confusing. 

John, although hurt, manages to retrieve the client from the overturned vehicle as it is sprayed by bullets and is shot, while Khalid suffers a broken leg in the crash.  The two of them manage to get into an old abandoned mill building and John phones the mysterious Rachel who is at home, we assume, watching a movie with Katy.  John tells her that he is in a, “bit of a pinch” which results in Rachel leaving Katy to watch the movie on her own while she disappears to another room and fires up her computer and on being giving the location of where John is immediately informs him that he is in an abandoned mill and she proceeds to pull up the floor plans to direct him on the safest route to safety!

I could live with all that, let’s face it, when reading a book or watching a movie the reader/viewer has to suspend some belief, so I was there and believing what was happening and thinking this was going to be a fast paced thriller..................

Chapter one ends and chapter two begins entitled ‘Billy’.

We have no idea who John was and how he got Khalid out of the situation, although we did briefly find out that Rachel was multi tasking and while giving directions she had also called the local law enforcement and then we got ‘Billy’.  ‘Billy’ we discover is 19, works in Borks Burger Palace, lives with his gran and has an asshole for a manager along with an assortment of deadbeats as colleagues, oh, and a friend who does not work in the Burger Palace, but who smells of fish!

During the course of the introduction to our ‘hero’ we discover that his parents died a few years ago and that while he should have moved out of his gran’s, who had taken him in, a long time ago, he felt guilty every time he thought about it as she had broken a hip and he worried if he were not there, what would happen if she did so again? He is also an insomniac with bad dreams and is attending a shrink....

I was nearly booking myself into one by the end of chapter two, especially as when we move on we are introduced into what is seemingly more random characters, characters who are given a bit of a back story, but back stories that did not seem to fit anywhere, it all seemed rather disjointed and not going anywhere......

We suddenly turn up in  bar with ‘John’ from the beginning of the book, who clearly has survived his ordeal/mission and we therefore assume so too did the client Khalid, where ‘John’ is getting hammered and about to commit the ultimate sin of having a one night stand while his fiancé is away...  confused yes, well so was I.

The book continues like that for the next couple short chapters and it is quite confusing as you cannot really see where it is going....

BUT right out of left field MacGowan makes the book explode, literally and in your face, no spoilers here, but clearly he has been watching some horror movies and I suspect he is a big fan of Carrie and The Exorcist, and he has taken inspiration from that genre for his book.

From here on in things begin to become clearer and the characters that seemed to be haphazardly appearing:  suddenly their back stories began to make more sense, than they had in the previous chapters. 

What we ended up with was a book that began with a forgettable stroll around the park, jumped over the railing onto the running track and into a gentle jog and then burst into a sprint as the story progressed.

It was a tale of an ancient Cherokee Indian legend that had been protected and hidden for over 500 years, which had been discovered but not understood.  It was a tale of a 19 year old youth who was full of anger and despair at losing his parents and who drew power from the legend that he did not understand or control. And as the book built to a climax it ended in the most unexpected way ..........

It is difficult not to give spoilers, but buy the book, take the stroll and be patient.  Stick with it to the jog and you will become as intrigued as I became and then when you start the sprint in the last quarter of the book, you will be turning pages to find out what happens next and I guarantee you will be as surprised as I was by the ending. It will not be what you expect, but you will, I think, like me, say to yourself,   “Yes, that was a good ending”

This was Mr MacGowan’s first book and he clearly took a lot of time over it. He needs to be less disjointed in character and story development at the beginning to keep the reader interested but on this first outing I suppose it is to be expected and as the book progressed, so too did his writing style making it a good and worthwhile read.   Some people may not get past the first three chapters as it does seem a bit disjointed but as the book progresses, so too does his clarity and cohesion of bringing it all together, so from my early thoughts of maybe giving it 2 or 3 stars I have no hesitation in giving it a final 5 out of 5 stars. 

Good Reading 

Mr Fat December 2011 update

Well folks what can I tell you about in this episodic thriller of humongous proportions, of course the humongous proportions is attached to me and my body mass and not the content of the blog....

Shannon aged 5 on the left and her 'big' sister Mollie aged 8
 in Marks and Spencers 

Anyway, December has been a bad month for me, not I hasten to add in terms of happiness and bliss associated with this month of festivities and  celebration, whether you are of a Christian leaning or are more Secular in your outlook, it is a time to have good thoughts and feelings. No, I have had a fantastic month and Christmas with Ishbel and the Grand kids.  We saw the twins a couple of days before Christmas and then spoke with them via the video link on Christmas and Boxing days and then we had the three girls arrive on Christmas Eve when I with the two oldest immediately headed out with them to do their last minute shopping for Mum and Dad. It went well in that the girls bought presents for Mum and Dad's sole use whereas the 5 year old twins a few days earlier bought gifts that, well just let's say that the 'whole family' will use and not just Mum and Dad.  Granddad just facilitates the outing and tries not to interfere in the purchasing, unless of course as it was last year, when Mollie saw a necklace that she thought Mummy would like, but as I had only allowed her to withdraw £25.00 from her account and the necklace was £270.00, I did stop that purchase!  And as we move towards Hogmanay the girls have left to go home to Woking and we await the arrival of the twins tomorrow(Friday) and they stay until the New Year.......  So a great month in that respect.

What has not been so good has been the continuance of the exercise and the weight management regimes...  No, Mr Fat has been bad and let it all slip much to his detriment and it has, as I sit and type this, been a foolish mistake.

The weather here in the UK has been pretty good throughout the year. I have no idea if this is down to the climate change that every one goes on about, but it has been neither too hot nor too cold, nor too wet or too windy throughout the year, but whether it is down to my mild arthritis or not I found it a bit cold at the beginning of December and the first couple of weeks it seemed, or at least appeared to be, raining every time I was due for my walk and so I stopped going out, thinking that I would make up for it later.  But, I never did and as I sit here after having been for my annual asthma inspection this morning I am feeling the worse for not maintaining my regime.

I did say in November that my target was to get down to just under 19 stone (266lbs) for Christmas, well, as they say, 'fat chance' of that happening.  I got down to 19 stone 3 lbs but without the continued walking have gone back up to 19 stone 9 lbs and without the exercise my blood pressure, which apparently was fine in October is now too high as of this morning, again.

So, although it is still a few days to the New Year I have decided, although this is going to be difficult to accomplish, to stop being an idiot, how does one stop being an idiot (rhetorical) when one has been one for most of his life?  It's a bit like the fags, been smoking since I was 11 and now 55.  I know it is slowly killing me or at least hastening my demise and I have tried the gum, the lozenges, the patches, the inhalers and even hypnotherapy all to no avail.  Apparently there is a pill on prescription that helps and have asked my doctor twice, who keeps giving me a hard time on the very infrequent occasions I actually see her, but she will not give it to me unless I have a couple of sessions with the surgeries 'stop smoking councillors'  one of whom (don't know if the other one does or not) SMOKES LIKE A BLAST FURNACE CHIMNEY!  If you don't practice what you preach why would you expect others do do as you say, or is that me just being idiotic again?

So, I am going to start going for my walks again and am looking to join a gym and guess what my New Years resolution is going to be again for the nth time, yes, to STOP SMOKING, again!

So the moral of this tale, if like me you are overweight and unfit, there are no free holiday periods, you have to keep going.

Of course being a a member of that burgeoning club called Twitter, I should know this as I follow a number of people some of whom, while not really my equal in terms of not being fit and unhealthy, are far more intelligent than I when it comes to staying in shape for the sake of both body and mental well being, and clearly as well as following them on Twitter I should be following their lead in terms of maintaining my fitness as they clearly have not taken time of for the festivities. so well done to:

Julia R Barrett aka @JuliaRBarrett
Penny Watson aka @PennyRomance
Michael R Hicks aka @MR_Hicks_Fans
Jan Hicks aka @JanHicks
Stephen Ames Berry aka  @writerredux
Toby Field aka @FatCycleRider
Marie Kennedy aka @_MarieKennedy

and to all the others who unlike me have not stopped their fitness regimes.  I shall try and match your standards in my future endeavours

Happy New Year to Everyone  

early update, I so knew this was going to get me into trouble:

• Michael R. Hicks Okay, Mr. Fat, sounds like it's time for a New Year's challenge. Not resolution - challenge. How about 30 minutes of exercise every day, publicly proclaimed; missed days are open to scorn and humiliation! Let's set an achievable milestone of 30 days, starting 2 January. And you have to report if you smoke so I can humiliate you into giving it up (your pride will be a good motivator)! What say you? ;-)
  

  55 minutes ago · 
• 
  

  Tom Stronach Well, I've started I've brought the local gym link up on the web and who new it was only a five minute walk from the front door, well She who knows everything did, been there since we moved in 20 yrs ago she says. AND OK challenge accepted
  

  50 minutes ago · 
• 
  

  Michael R. Hicks I think Ishbel Stronach and Jan Hildenbrand Hicksshould set the stakes! :^D
  

  2 minutes ago · 
• 
  

  Tom Stronach Oh, so the underhandedness sneaks in early - Not fair, I'll never win

Sliced Chicken with Courgette Mushroom and Leaks

This is a favourite of Ishbel and me and the kids and grand kids and takes about 30 mins.  So anyone who says it takes to long to cook a proper meal or who say they cannot cook, needs to give this a try, simplicity with taste.  It contains 4 of your '5 a day' vegetables and with no effort.


This recipe is for two but as you will see can easily be added to for a larger group feeding.


What you need:
Mashed potatoes:


Take about 4 or 5 large potatoes peel and cut into quarters.  Rinse through a couple of times to get rid of excess starch.


Place on hob, cook, drain and mash, takes about 30 mins.  






Vegetables:
As soon as the potatoes are on the hob prepare your Veg:


1 Leak thinly sliced 
6 decent sized mushrooms thinly sliced 
1 large Courgette (Zucchini) sliced into circles and then quartered
cup full of chopped parsley 


Add all of the above to a pan with a large knob of unsalted butter 






and sweat down, you can if you want add a glass of white wine (while sweating off the veg add a large glass of white wine to a pan and reduce to burn off the alcohol on a high heat.  Once the alcohol has been burnt off, add remaining wine to vegetables - this is entirely optional).


Add Salt and ground black pepper to taste


Once sweated down add 1/2 pint of good chicken stock 


Chicken:
Take two decent size boneless chick breasts and slice thinly across.


Add chicken to vegetables stir and put  lid on pan on a low heat cook until the potatoes are cooked and mashed.

Serve up the mash add the chicken and vegetables garnish with a couple of sprigs of parsley and enjoy!

Cooks Tip:  If you have a resting plate for your spoon use it, it avoids burning said item on the hob!!