What did you do in the 'Noughties' daddy?

Well here we are at a milestone in the year - the last milestone of 2009, the last day; I've eaten the last breakfast of the year, enjoyed the last salad of the year for lunch, left work for the last day of the year and sitting down, unless something extraordinary happens, writing the last blog of the year of our Lord two thousand and nine.

Fellow blogger AuntieGwen has written a little bit of a review of her life over the last ten years which is a great idea and it's inspired me to do something similar. I don't keep a diary and life has been, shall we say, fairly routine without major trauma and upset, and I am certainly not complaining, but I can't offer spice, scandal, intrigue or anything remotely interesting for your delectation (pleasure and delight - I've just bought the PC version of the Oxford English Dictionary).

The Millennium is a good place for me to start this review because I was working for the public sector, planning for the time when the whole world would come to a grinding halt because no-one knew if the computers would turn over from 1999 to 2000. The planning I was leading or co-ordinating was in relation to informing the public what they would do to access public services should the phones go down, electricity would fail etc etc. We produced a magazine which the local rag distributed to around 800,00 people in the area. Of course nothing happened on the night and many say that all the preparedness was a waste of time. I know for a fact of course that the public and private sector worked so hard in the run up to the Millennium night in making sure that computer systems were upgraded and tested that the reason for the big fizzle was that it was prevented. So started the decade with success.

My busy life in media relations work in the public sector was plodding along nicely and several major events happened at work which turned the world upside down for our organisation, and things were never quite the same again. We came through that albeit battered and bruised but stronger, wiser people, and I retired after thirty happy, busy and fascinating years in 2006. I still work for the same organisation today but in a totally different capacity and heading in a totally different direction.

My other half drove ambulances throughout most of the decade having gone into that profession from caring and she has now started to work on job-share.

We have been in the same house for the 'noughties' and that has seen transformations with double glazing installed, new boiler, new kitchen, new bathroom, paved drive, conservatory and re-engineered garden. We've had some major water leaks and we still have a leaky garage roof and that is the next big job for the 'tens.'

We've had the dog throughout the 'noughties' and we lost our much loved grey cat Misty whom we had bought from our previous house, who died of liver failure aged about 16 years.

I think I can recall all the cars I've had since 2000... let's see, Ford Escort, Vauxhall Omega (that was a fabulous car), Honda CRV, and right up to date the Honda CRV (new style). As small or second cars, we've had a Volkswagon Sharon, Ford Fiesta, and a Fiat Punto.

Our children all left school in the 'noughties,' my eldest is earning money at a medical practise, my middle lad is a post graduate from Nottingham University and my youngest is now at Liverpool University. They are all fit and well.

We paid our first and I hope not last trip to the USA in 2006 for our summer break, and we have holidayed in the UK, France and the Canary Islands. My wife and eldest son went to South Africa one year as well - lucky them.

I started with my Spiritualism in earnest around 2002 and that is now a big part of my life. My other half does not share that with me. But then I don't share her religion either so the balance is restored to a small degree.

I started this blog in 2008 and I gave up Facebook in 2009. My family history research has taken me back to the early 1700s and has over 800 people are now on my ancestral tree. I gave up my love of youth football in 2009 which ended up me being an administrator of the sport, an interest which started before the noughties in around 1998 when my eldest lad signed for Cottingham Eagles football team. I became a director of the local County FA around 2008.

Health and contentedness is with us; wealth is still elusive but life is okay. Both sets of our parents are still very much with us and although old age is starting to take its toll, I am delighted to say they are all as well as can be expected.

As for the next ten years, who knows what that will bring but what I do know is that I'll work harder for me, my family, friends, workmates and my community and in doing that will hopefully support a safe, prosperous and happy life as best I can bearing in mind the untold number of influences that may try to interfere at any time.

Hobbies and beliefs are also very important to me and I will try to fulfill some unachieved ambitions like some substantial progress in writing my novel, progressing the family tree to find some elusive answers, enhancing my spiritual skills particularly for the benefit of others, and not wasting too much time on the computer.

Any New Year resolutions will wait until I write my first blog entry for 2010.

If you are celebrating tonight, reflecting quietly tonight or simply ignoring the significance of the night, I wish you all well for 2010, let's hope for a better world for us and our children.

Have a good one.

Chat next year,

Ta-ra.