End of 2007, welcome 2008. The past week has seen our shower get fixed and blow again, I got a puncture so that means a new tyre for the car, our central heating finally got fixed on Christmas Eve, and my parents were here to spend Christmas with us. Christmas was pretty quiet, and we've just taken it easy this week. Yesterday we had a couple of friends over for a few drinks and ended up playing cards until 3am.

We're not doing much for the New Year. The way I feel right now I'll probably be asleep by midnight! At least I've got another 2 days to recover before work starts again, and this week we're hoping to take a day off to Liverpool, grab some photos and also pop to a couple of shops there. So a nice short week, write a couple of plugins for someone and that's about it hopefully!

So after the ups and downs of this year, the only holiday being a brief couple of days in Scotland where we spent most of the time in the car driving around (pretty scenery but tiring none the less!), and a major house move that cost a fortune… let's hope next year sees less stress, a holiday very soon, more fresh air and exercise, and plenty of photo taking I'm planning to work out strict hours for my contract job so that I can control my free time easier, and also have the option to take a day off each week if I want to. Try and get a bit more organised and my time may be managed a bit better.

We also need to get back to saving for a decent holiday. Hopefully I may find a cheapie one for this or next month, just a short break to get away from everything.

So it's the end of the year (well there's another day but who's counting ). Hope you have a happy new year whatever you do.

What another week it has been. Last week I mentioned our boiler had died on us and we had no central heating or hot water, besides boiling a kettle and an electric shower. Well, we still have no working boiler!! It's only been the coldest week of the year, nothing serious…! The landlord called the gas man in who determined that the old boiler was pretty much on its last legs so on Friday it was arranged he would fit a new boiler. By Friday evening, everything had been done except there was a part missing. A pin of some sort. Of course, being this close to Christmas, no one is answering the phone and the smaller shops are starting to close for Christmas. We've survived the week with a halogen heater and oil filled radiator, plus a lot of additional expense on the electric meter. The one happy thought was that we could still have a hot shower… until yesterday when something blew in the shower and blew the casing apart! So our landlord has spent yesterday afternoon and most of today here trying to fix a new one on. After returning to the DIY shop twice, we now have an almost working shower (it works except the on/off button doesn't so we have to use a screwdriver – hey it's better than nothing!). Gotta say, it's been a nightmare week to be honest!

Besides all that, we've just been busy with work, finishing off anything outstanding before Christmas as I have no plans to work next week, plus getting our Christmas shopping done, get the car MOT'd (it passed! it's roadworthy for another year) and generally visit as many people with heating as possible to get warm! Still, my parents are coming up tomorrow. They'd have come today except it's been thick fog and ice down south whilst we've had blue sky and sunshine today. Due to waiting on the shower we've missed the slot for Sunday shopping, however our main superstore is open from midnight so we'll be there shopping, picking up the last few bits. Nothing essential for Christmas, just basic stuff to let us continue trying to move into our new home. Essentials needed for everyday living.

Today, after we're cleaned and cleared up, I started playing with my new lens that came the other day (nicknamed the 'plastic fantastic' or the 'nifty fifty'). Thanks to Lee, who bought me a gift voucher for Firebox, I've now got a Mood Beam. A cute little thing that lights up, and flash its light to music and can change colour. I've uploaded a few colours to my Flickr gallery. I also added one of our Christmas tree, plus a couple of the only flower on our Christmas cactus (below). The lens isn't a macro lens but I think it did pretty well.

Anyway, that pretty much is it for the week. I won't be posting much until towards the end of the week as my parents are here for a few days. Now that things are finally sorting themselves out, posting should be resumed to normal schedule on both blogs towards the end of the week. So have a good Christmas and eat plenty

Yes I've been splurging a little for my new camera. Finally the lens I bought arrived the other day, with the hood following soon after. I decided not to bother with a kit lens and so bought an Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 II lens which is so tiny and cute! (Yes I know, shouldn't be calling lenses cute but nevermind). I've also bought the Lens Hood for it too. I'm still waiting for the Circular Polariser to come though. I've not had a chance to use either of these yet as we've been getting ready for Christmas whilst fitting in a million and one updates people want to their website! Cleary quiet in the office to everyone takes a look at their site instead!!

Yesterday, after being told it had been lost at the delivery depot (long story), my new tripod arrived too. I've not gone for an all singing all dancing one that costs more than a new TV, but for the money I think this is pretty good. It's a CAMlink TP-2800 that extends to about 6ft (1.85m) in total, has a quick release plate that can stay attached to the camera, a couple of spirit levels and is pretty light to carry (however it does have a hook for adding a bag for weight to hold it down if necessary). For £17 you can't complain really! Hopefully we'll get a chance this weekend before the rain hits to give my new gear a tryout.

I've also opted to buy myself a book on the subject as there's so much more to understand, and whilst practice is good I'd like to have a basic understanding too. Whilst Dave is a walking bible on the subject these days (well okay, not quite a bible but he's getting there) I find it easier to read about these things, so I've just had Digital SLR Cameras & Photography for Dummies delivered. It should give me the basics and the Dummies books are usually pretty easy to read.

So, weather permitting, I'm sure we'll be out and about next week getting a few photos and letting me get used to everything new

Finally took a couple of hours to ourselves yesterday and took a walk up the hill behind where we live to where there is an Observatory, Windmill and views of Liverpool. Liverpool was a bit too far away for my basic lens plus the weather was very overcast, however I'm happy with a few of my shots which you can find on my Flickr album.

You'd expect a 2-3 week catchup to be long but most of the past month we've either been working, clearing up the old house, or asleep!! It's been a long month since moving in to our new house, however I'm glad we've finally done it (despite us being a week from Christmas now).

I thought that come Friday night things would be stress-free and relaxed however that wasn't to be the case after arranging to meet the landlady, who was working late and hadn't told us, then being told by her boyfriend (who is suddenly the landlord too) that he wouldn't be giving back the deposit, then seeing the landlady who started off arguing over god knows what, but finally ended with 'you'll get your deposit back'. Whether that happens remains to be seen but she has a week otherwise come the new year and court proceedings will be started to recover the money. So that started the weekend off with a bang!

However the new house is great, despite its teething problems. It's nice and quiet here. We're not on a main road but a little cul-de-sac type place where the only people driving past either live along this road or know someone who does. It's great! Space wise, well we've still got a lot of boxes to unpack and find a place for everywhere. We've just got my old Washer/Dryer from my parents however it's got a bit of a leak (probably through no use for several years) so that's one for my Dad to fix next week when he's here for Christmas!

We have however had a few teething problems, well right now it's a bit of a major problem. The boiler isn't working so we have no central heating or hot water (besides an electric shower). So typically, on some of the coldest days of the year we have no heating. It's a bit cold…! But, to be fair to the landlord he came out last night and spent about an hour here trying to fix it (used to deal with boilers in his job apparently). He managed to improve the problem we had as we couldn't keep the pilot light alight, however it goes out the minute you put the heating or hot water on. So we have to wait until Tuesday for the gas man to come and look at it. Luckily we have an oil radiator which heats the room it's in pretty well. Of course this is eating up electricity but I'd rather be warm than shivering!

This morning we finally took some time off from everything, work, unpacking, cleaning etc. and took a walk up the hill behind us to the Observatory and Windmill that's up there. From the top of this hill you can see right over to Liverpool. We both had our cameras and were taking shots. My first outing with my new camera, however it was so overcast and a bit of a breeze up the hill, most of my shots didn't turn out too great, however it's given me a chance to get used to the new camera which is good.

So there's a week before Christmas in which time we need to finish the current work we've got on, get the house cleared up, unpack as much as we can, do a bit of Christmas shopping for presents and food, oh and my car needs MOTing! The boiler working too would be nice…! So it's still a bit chaotic, but at least it only involves one house now and not two.

All we need to do now is work out what to buy everyone for Christmas!