We were supposed to be going to our friends Matt & Charlotte's in Sheffield, but the weather forecast was quite poor - snow and ice, so we decided not to go - a little disappointing I know but better safe than sorry. That meant another one at home, so we popped out to get some bits and bobs, something for tea and a few nibbles.

Keith and Jayne didn't have much to do either so they stayed in with us. We spent the evening watching some music videos on the box and then Jools Holland a bit later on. Hard to believe that it's 10 years since the millenium!

So here we are the end of another year and the end second full year of our blog. That means it's time for a change, a new look and more meaningful content! For the past two years I have posted something for each day, whether there was something of note to write about or not.

From now on that's going to change. I shall only post when there is something worth writing about, that way it doesn't become too boring and I don't have to spend what feels like all my time writing it!

Most of the people we know seem to use Facebook, but it's not something either of us feels the urge to do! I did contemplate it briefly, but it was only very brief!

So that's goodbye from him and goodbye from her!

Nikki had to get up and go to work, as she was going on the bus it meant she had to get up a bit early. It's a good job I wasn't going - there's no way I could have got up - I felt dreadful! Obviously over did it on the booze last night. I had quite a lie-in - and thankfully so did Keith and Jayne.

When I did get up I didn't feel like any breakfast so I mooched about a bit. Keith and Jayne went out so I had a bit of a lie down again. Once I'd had some lunch I felt a bit better.

We were supposed to be going out with Nick from work and his wife Liz, in the evening and I was in two minds as to whether to go or not, but Nick sent me a text asking whether we were eating out or not. I said that sounded like a good idea.

We met them in Coopers in Guiseley where Liz had booked a table. It was actually a good night and no I didn't have too much to drink! In fact it wasn't a particularly late night.

Nikki and I both were back at work today however in my case it was only for today, Nikki is back tomorrow as well.

The traffic on the way was very light as we would have expected. Not a particularly exciting day it has to be said and there weren't even that many people in. Consequently the day dragged.

Amazingly the traffic coming home was quite heavy - not sure why.

In the evening I went out with my old Air Force mate Stevie Carolan. We went to The Marsh, The Golden Lion and then The Fox and Grapes. It's no wonder that pubs are struggling for trade - the prices they charge - I mean over £6 for two pints (which is what we were charged in The Golden Lion) is just astronomical!

It was around 11:30pm when I got home, Nikki was still up as her brother Keith and his wife Jayne had arrived. I had a drink with them and then as Nikki was going to bed Jayne managed to drop a full glass of wine all over the kitchen floor. Once we'd cleaned thatup Nikki and Jayne went to bed and I stayed up with Keith for another drink.

Today we did actually get up and go to the gym! Mind you it was good to tell we hadn't been for a while, it was bloomin' hard work!

After we got back, the weather was quite pleasant so we decided to wash the cars - boy did they need it! So we got wrapped up warm again and spent a couple of hours getting them back to looking something like decent!

We had another roast turkey dinner for tea and then spent th evening watching some ski racing and other bits on the box.

It's easy to lose track of the days over Christmas as they all seem to blend into one! Considering it was a Sunday (and there was no gym - it was closed), we still had to get up quite early as Nikki's brother Neil and his wife were coming round before they headed over to Hull. We haven't seen them for a while and they stayed for just about an hour.

In the afternoon we had a visit from Nikki's dad and his wife - they'd managed to get out after being snowed in for the past three days!

Again we seemed to spend the evening watched some bits on the television.

We generally don't have a great deal planned on Boxing Day - and we certainly weren't going to venture out to do any sales shopping!

In fact we didn't do a huge amount in the morning, but we did get wrapped up and go out for a walk in the afternoon, which was rather pleasant. We called in for a drink at The Bankhouse as part of the walk - we were both boiling when we got there! On the way hoe way called to get some milk as we were running out.

Then in the evening we watched some more bits on television.

We didn't get up quite as early as yesterday, but when we did get up Santa had been! Although there hadn't been any more snow, there was still a nice covering on the ground which made it feel more Christmassy.

First thing after breakfast we started preparing dinner - there was us plus Stuart (just like last year), so there wasn't a huge amount to prepare, that said there did seem to an awful lot of food when we came to serve it up!

It wasn't until we'd got everything sorted for lunch that we opened our presents - we got some very nice ones too!

We'd told Stuart that we'd be having dinner around 2pm, it was nearer half past when he showed up - blaming the taxis.

As it was we managed to have dinner before the Queen's speech. Stuart stayed for a good part of the afternoon and early evening. We just watched some bits on the box after he'd gone.

When we woke up this morning the ground was covered in snow - quite deep snow as well. It's a good job neither of us had to go to work! We did get up early though as we had some stuff to do.

After breakfast we walked into Pudsey to pick up a parcel (some snow boots Nikki had ordered). On the way back we bumped into Brian, one of our old neighbours from when we lived on Ambleside Gardens, We hadn't seen him for ages and so we had a bit of a natter. As we were doing so another of our old neighbours appeared too. So we were stood talking for around half an hour!

As it was Christmas Eve we were expecting Nikki's visitors - namely Nikki's dad and his wife, plus her brother Stuart and his two children. Unsurprisingly Nikki's dad wasn't able to make it as they were snowed in! Stuart did turn up and they all stayed for a little while before heading off.

We watched a bit of television in the evening, before heading off to bed ready for Santa to come!

Again not a hugely productive day, but I did some more investigation into a bit of jQuery functionality.

At lunchtime it was our team Christmas lunch and we went to Sukhothai in Chapel Allerton. I drove as I hadn't done so for a while. The service wasn't quite as slow as yesterday's but we were still waiting a while for our food to arrive. As it was we were out for just over two hours.

In the evening we gave the gym another miss as we had things to sort out - plus it was the start of our Christmas holidays! Besides it did start snowing quite heavily in the evening.

For some rather odd reason the traffic on the way to work was very heavy going down Armley Road - the cause apparently a rouge set of traffic light on a pedestrian crossing.

I took one of the Christmas cakes that Nikki had baked into work - it went down very well.

At lunchtime we went out for lunch, to The Bracken Fox at Scarcroft. It was very nice, but service was a little slow, consequently we had a two and a half hour lunch!

On the way home we called in at Morrisons to get the rest of the Christmas provisions that we didn't get on Saturday.

We watched some ski racing after tea, before getting a fairly early night.

The weather was still cold and icy, but it wasn't snowing at least, however there had been a small amount overnight. We braved it in the car and it wasn't too bad - a bit iffy in Pudsey, but once we got out onto the bypass it was better.

At work, I did a bit of jQuery investigations into how to do a few bits on a screen in the Java application I'm meant to be working on - although information on what I'm actually supposed to be doing is thin on the ground.

As the weather dropped very cold in the evening and they're doing work in the centre of Pudsey which means parking is at premium we decided not to go to the gym - yet again but it's not as bad as all that because we did do some exercises at home.

After tea we nipped out to hand deliver some Christmas cards and then watched a couple of bits on the box.

Another busy day, so we had to give the gym a miss yet again...

We had cleaning up to do, which we cracked on with in the morning.

The afternoon was spent baking mince pies, then my sister Jacqueline called round a bit later on.

We watched a couple of bits on the box in the evening, including a quite entertaining comedy drama starring Timothy Spall, called 'The Fattest Man In Britain'.

I also wrote a program for my mate Kevin to enable him to email an attachment to a list of people (I had hoped to do a mail-merge document but couldn't find a way to do it what would allow an attachment).

Just for a change we had a few things to do today, so we got up earlyish to get on with them. The weather hadn't improved at all - still very cold, icy and snowy but we did get the car out.

First port of call was the Post Office in Pudsey to pick up a parcel for Nikki, from there it was into Bradford to get a few minor Christmas provisions such as Chocolates and nibbles from Aldi.

We came home for a spot of lunch and then afterwards took some rubbish and bottle for recycling to the tip. Then it was to Morrisons for the shopping - including the Christmas stuff (except for perishables like veg). It wasn't as busy there as we'd anticipated and we managed to get everything we wanted.

In the evening we caught up on the episode of Doctor Who that we'd recorded from a few weeks ago - ready for the Christmas specials...

It wasn't quite a snowy as we thought it as going to be this morning, however it was very icy. So we decided to get the bus into work, thankfully they were running as normal - the main roads weren't too bad.

I got to work about half an hour later than normal, but at least I made it in which was more than a good number of peole did.

Unfortunately the bus coming home wasn't as reliable ad this morning's - we were waiting or around 40 minutes for one to turn up - they;re supposed to be every 10 minutes...

When we did eventually get home, that was it no going out for the shopping or anything like that - it was a night FOR stOpping in.

There was meant to have been a night out from work, however even before today's weather we decided not to go - daft as it sounds, but we both seem to have reached that point in life where standing in a bar, being shoved about, deafened by loud music and charged stupid amounts of money for a drink just doesn't cut it any more. Strangely a night in is much more appealing - even if it is Christmas!

It was back to some Plone stuff today - we had a meeting to gather people's feedback. It went pretty well, nothing negative came out of it which was good. Also HR were having a meeting with their directors to show them Plone. That apparently went very well too - they were quite impressed, which is good to hear. Very slick one of them thought!.

I had some questions to look into after our meeting, plus I managed to find a way to make sure each subsite had its owm favourite icon.

The weather turned very cold - in fact it got very icy very quickly and we've had some snowfall, with some more forecast for overnight.

We both went to the gym and then had to clear some snow off the drive when we got home so that Nikki could get her car in the garage!

Again nothing much on the box, so we didn't have it on a great deal.

It was back to some Plone stuff today - we had a meeting to gather people's feedback. It went pretty well, nothing negative came out of it which was good. Also HR were having a meeting with their directors to show them Plone. That apparently went very well too - they were quite impressed, which is good to hear. Very slick one of them thought!.

I had some questions to look into after our meeting, plus I managed to find a way to make sure each subsite had its owm favourite icon.

The weather turned very cold - in fact it got very icy very quickly and we've had some snowfall, with some more forecast for overnight.

We both went to the gym and then had to clear some snow off the drive when we got home so that Nikki could get her car in the garage!

Again nothing much on the box, so we didn't have it on a great deal.

Bit of a frustrating day today, I didn't feel like I was getting very far... Still I had a bit of light relief when a couple of Plone questions came my way! One of which was involved an image block appearing on a screen where it shouldn't have - a CSS issue was my first thought and it was right - a slight z-index problem, soon sorted.

We both went to the gym in the evening, plus I spoke to my mum on the phone, who was naturally quite giddy about Monday's news!

We didn't have anything to catch up on television-wise and so left it switched off - which isn't something that happens very often!

I had a quick look at doing a bit more on the Python program I'd written yesterday. Confident now that I can get the requisite information the next phase is to get that into a web page, which will mean probably creating a class and then an instance from that, however I need to do some considerable reading up before tackling that!

As I needed to really start tackling the other work, I thought I'd better get on with it. I had a meeting with some people to ascertain the requirements, but they haven't been fully realised, so I wasn't able to do a great deal. It looks like there is still some considerable analysis needed!

Thankfully the traffic wasn't half as bad as it had been last night so we weren't home too late. After we'd had tea Nikki marzipanned the Christmas cakes and I did the ironing whilst watching more episodes of Mind Your Language!

I sent my mum a text to wish her happy birthday, she replied a bit later on to say she'd had a lovely evening with (her chap) George, they'd been shopping for an engagement ring!! I'm very pleased for them both, George is a really nice chap and he makes mum happy, which is a good thing!

There were still a few minor Plone issues to resolve, which I got out of the way in the morning, I also spoke to an external company (based n York) about the prospect of them possibly helping out with some support and assistance around LDAP groups.

Talking of LDAP I wrote my first Python program to enquire on the LDAP directory to extract as much pertinent information as I could. It wasn't too difficult to do and the information I did manage to extract could well form the base of a user directory. The next plan is to try to get a web page to show the information.

Although that will depend upon the work I've got to do on the other project I was meant to start a couple of weeks back. I had a preliminary look at what's required and I don't think it is as quite straight-forward as I'd been led to believe. I'll be having a chat with someone about it tomorrow.

Not sure what the problem with the traffic was this evening but it was a nightmare - taking an hour to get home. Nikki didn't go to keep fit, deciding instead a trip to the gym might be better for her injured foot. So we both went to the gym, not quite as early as planned, due tot the fore-mentioned traffic - but at least it was earlier than usual for a Monday.

Nikki wrapped some biscuits up to send off as Christmas gifts when we got home and we watched a couple of bits on the box.

As we needed to go into Leeds this morning and then over to see my mum in the afternoon we gave the gym a miss. Nevertheless we got up fairly early - no point hanging about!

Despite getting into Leeds relatively early it was tricky finding a parking space - we ended up right down near the old swimming pool! My mum wanted some photos of Indie printing and we hadn't got around to doing them, so we called in to Boots and printed some off using their self-service printing. That proved to be a bit more of a faff than it ought to have been, but we got there eventually! Then we went off to pick up my jacket, I also bought a hat and a pair of Gore-Tex salopettes that were in the sale (I deliberated about them for a while, but decided to try them on and they did look pretty smart).

We then came home, picked up Christmas presents and the like to take over to mum's (it's also her birthday tomorrow). We were there for a couple of hours, during which time both my sisters called in.

In the evening we watched some of the weekend's ski racing. I'd also sold the last few bits of skiwear on eBay (which will just about pay for the new stuff!) so I got those packaged up ready to take to the Post Office tomorrow.

We had just a tiny amount more Christmas shopping to finish off so we went into Leeds. Nikki also wanted to have a look at a jacket in the North Face shop.

The Christmas shopping didn't take too long again Boots came up trumps. As for Nikki and her jacket, we found that Cotswold Outdoors had the one she wanted to try, but she also tried on several others and found one that was actually nicer than the original one she wanted to try on. The only thing was it wasn't the right colour. The North Face store did have the colour she wanted but not the size. I tried on a jacket which was actually pretty smart, though I didn't buy it (then!)

Once we'd finished in Leeds we drove over to Hobbycraft at Crown Point to get some bits for wrapping some biscuits Nikki had made. We needed a few provisions and so paid a visit to Morrisons at Hunslet (somewhere we haven't been for years and it hasn't changed one bit!).

We came home and I did a bit of investigation on the jacket I'd seen. In the end I decided to get it and rang up to see if they could reserve it for me and I'd pick it up tomorrow. As it was I had to purchase it over the phone. but that wasn't a problem and I still got my 15% Ski Club of Great Britain discount. I also asked if they could get hold of the jacket Nikki had seen in the correct size, they said they'd find out on Monday and let me know. So we'll have to make another trip into Leeds in the morning.

The next task was to get the Christmas trees decorated - only four of them this year! That took us a little while, then we had tea and spent the rest of the evening wrapping presents.

It was a bit frosty when we got up this morning - the first of the winter amazingly!

At work I carried on with a few minor Plone tweaks and some made-up content. I also made a list of outstanding bits I needed to sort out and hoped by the end of the day I'd have got through it. As it was I had three things left to do come the end of the day, so it looks like I'll be continuing on Monday.

Last night I had a dream... it was about the postman delivering a parcel, in fact it was my Christmas present from Nikki. He'd stuck a card through the door saying he'd left it in a safe place. After searching around I found he'd left it in the shed.

Then today when we got home from work... we'd had a card through the door saying that a parcel had been delivered and it had been left in a safe place... I searched round (bearing my dream in mind!) but couldn't find it anywhere. So I nipped across to see Mike and Pat over the road - it had been delivered there. It was indeed my Christmas present from Nikki - and bizarrely it was in exactly the same looking box as had been in my dream!!

I set about doing some restyling today, but that took longer than I imagined it should have done due to you guessed it Internet Explorer - again. I've still got some minor tweaks to do tomorrow and then maybe I'll be able to finally move onto the project I was supposed to start 2 weeks ago!

It was the company Christmas do this evening and it's the first one that I have decided not to attend, due primarily to the choice of venue - the Irish Centre, hardly the most luxurious of venues! In fact I think quite a number of people voted with their feet.

Nikki didn't go to the gym or keep fit, deciding instead to rest her foot as it was still rather painful. I, on the other hand did go - like a good little boy!

When I returned and we'd had tea we caught up on the remainder of last weekend's ski racing.

After the success of the video stuff yesterday, today's mission was to see if RSS feeds would work in Plone. I managed to find another plug-in and it worked a treat - I had several portlets all subscribed to different RSS feeds and they all had information come through.

They have finally decided on which theme they'd like to use going forward so I set about bringing the CSS in line to be able to do that, plus there are a couple of tweaks to the menu required.

Nikki mamaged to hurt her foot somehow at keep fit the other night and it still isn't right, but she came to the gym with me and just took it a little easier that shoe normally would have done. I saw my old boss from when I worked at Morrisons, Margaret in there. She's now retired and seems to be enjoying it.

I spoke to my mum when we got home and then packaged up a ski jacket that I'd sold on eBay.

After not having much success last night with getting the video plug-ins working in Plone on my laptop, I wasn't hopeful of getting much joy at work. However I only installed one plug-in and that worked - and very well too! I was able to insert several videos and even had a portler containing a video too. So the answer to yesterday's question (from my point of view anyway) is a resounding yes - whether our technical people will allow it remains to be seen.

That's pretty much what I spent the day doing, along with a couple of other minor tweaks.

In the evening I relisted some items on eBay and we watched yet more ski racing.

Still no news on me starting my new project, so I carried on with some more Plone stuff and it looks as though I could have quite a bit more to do this week. One thing I've got to investigate the possibility of embedding video into pages.

I had a look at home in the evening but couldn't get any of the players to work.

I also went to the gym and Nikki to keep fit, plus we caught up on a couple of programs we'd recorded over the weekend that wasn't ski racing!

We did get up this morning and go to the gym.

Nikki then spent the afternoon doing some baking and I did the ironing whilst watching some episodes of the old classic '70s comedy 'Mind Your Language' on DVD - which was quite amusing!

We watched some more ski racing and Nikki wrote some Christmas cards.

Nikki had an appointment at the hairdressers first thing this morning.

When she got back we went into Leeds to do some Christmas shopping. The first shop we wemt into, Boots came up trumps with a good deal of things. We also called in at TK Maxx again and I managed to get a Dainese body armour shirt with built in back protector and elbow pads for a bargain price.

We cane home and then went to the White Rose Centre to get a few more bits and from there we drove over to Xscape as I wanted to go to look at at a jacket (Arc'teryx Stinger) in Ellis Brgiham. After due consideration I decided I couldn't justify the price tag (£425) I decided not to bother!

In the evening we caught up on watching some ski racing.

I finally managed to finish the mock-up Plone sites this morning. I then spent the afternoon looking at a few bits of feedback we'd had and disecting a very tidy looking Plone site I'd found to se how they'd managed to achieve what they'd done - plenty of divs, spans and tables was the answer! Nothing that we wouldn't be able to do.

We caught up on the rest of last week's ski racing from Canada in the evening. This week it was the turn of poor old Jon Cucera (Canada) to have a crash. He brke his legs in two places, so he'll miss the rest of the season.

Pretty much the same as yesterday, cracking on with more Plone mock-up site designs. I'd been sent through the brand logo graphics and spent a good part of the morning getting those coloured and scaled correctly - never mind computer programmer you can add graphic designer to my job title!

It was gym and keep fit in the evening, then when we got home I spoke to my two sisters about Christmas presents - they couldn't believe I wanted ski socks - boring is what they said!

You guessed it, yet more Plone today, still I'm not complaining as there's plenty to do! I spoke to a chap who's going to get me some more graphics for the brand logos, that way I can use them for different coloured backgrounds.

Nikki and I both went to the gym early evening, then as last night caught up on some more ski racing - this time the Men's Downhill from Lake Louise. This time it was the turn of American TJ Lanning to have a serious crash (in fact I think he also took a tumble at Kitzbühel last year), poor chap it looks like his season is over.

Still no sign of the new project so again I carried on with the Plone mock-ups as well as a few other minor user issues. I also did some experimentation with some jQuery plug-ins to get rounded corners, but they either didn't appear to work correctly - or at all. In the process I managed to screw up the JavaScript Registry for the development site. Thankfully I did get it back, but my heart did sink for a while!

We both went to give blood on the way home from work. It;s a good job we'd made an appointment because it was really busy, in fact I've never known it so busy! The only thing was that meant we didn't get home until 7pm, so that ate quite a way into the evening.

Once we'd had tea we caught up on some ski racing - the Women's Giant Slalom from Aspen, however we've still got a bit to get through - and that was only from last weekend! We're going to end up like last season, having loads to catch up on!