We've just booked up for a week over Christmas in a small farmhouse (log fire etc) right on the shore of Loch Ness,Scotland.Just the three of us & nobody for miles.
As our son is 12 we are going to try & make it an old fashioned Christmas,not too much TV,board games,walks,we are even going to buy a couple of Airfix kits for him & me to do together.How I miss christmases like that.

Since I last blogged I've helped our son set up his own business!!!!(he's just turned 12yrs old now).As you are aware in my previous blog about his ICT results,he has started 'wheeling & dealing' in re-furbishing & upgrading computers & laptops.We gave him a £200 loan to buy equipment/tools/parts etc & he also bought a couple of 'faulty' laptops on ebay,mended them & upgraded them then sold them back on ebay & doubled his money.
I've also taught him about bookwork,expenses,gross profit,net profit etc.
I set him some targets 1)first £500 in sales 2)first £300 net profit in his business account(which I set up for him) 3)£300 cash,to be kept in secret place at home for buying machines etc at car boots & such like 4)first £1000 in sales & finally 5)first £1000 net profit in his business account.
And can you believe it,in less than 3 months he's just passed target No.5....£1000 (approx $1700) in his business account (& that's after paying us back our £200 !!!!!!
He's still got another 7 laptops (Acers with webcams built in) & 13 Desk Tops in stock.
His next target is a big one,£5000 ($8,300) net profit for his first year of business :-0
I'm so proud it hurts sometimes.

Well our son (remember he's only 11yrs old)got his GCSE results for his ICT Higher exams,it turned out he did far better than we ever imagined & he ended up with an 'A'.He is the youngest child ever to gain an 'A' in ICT,brilliant or what.He's looking at starting his A levels next,although the school may even put him on the Microsoft Academy course although it may be a bit intense as you would normally be 16/17 to do that.Exciting times,being a dad,& a proud one at that takes some beating.

See Nov 21st blog.
He did his mocks & did so well (he was 3rd top out of all the year,remember he is 11 they are 15/16),that they asked him if he would like to the Higher exam,it's a bit harder & consists of 2 exams,but he may end up with an A*.He was so excited,well the first of those exams is in less than 2 weeks now :-0
We had even better news this week,his coursework for the exam - design a website,design a multimedia presentation,design a brochure,which must all be related,he has come out top out of the whole school with 94%,absolutely amazing !

Have just watched 'Match of the Day'(Soccer matches for those in the USA).Now don't get me wrong I'm all for women Prime Ministers,women in High Powered jobs,equal rights etc,but female commentators.......NO.The last match Stoke v WBA was commentated on by a woman,I know it's no big deal,but some things are sacred,male commentators in mens football is one of them.

& this is one of them.Our son who is only 11 is taking his GCSE (not sure what the equivalent in USA is),in ICT -Information Technology but in the UK you would normally take it when you're 16,after 5yrs of upper school.He started his coursework 2 months ago (1 week before his 11th birthday),he was officially told this week that he'll be taking his mocks on Dec 11 & if he does well in that he'll take his 'proper' exam in May.
Charlie is out tonight so I've been doing revision with him,when I tucked him in bed he said to me 'thanks for all the help you're giving me,you're my very own Superdad'.
Couldn't you just hug your kids forever sometimes

I've been laid low for the last 3 days with a heavy cold,but as I'm a man it's probably been flu 'cos everyone knows that mens colds are always worse than womens

Sniffle sniffle

Somebody sent me a PM during the night which I read this morning.It was totally out of the blue & unexpected,but boy did that set me up for a dull wet Monday morning at work.It was a lovely PM from a lovely lady.
Comments & PMs can & do make a difference to someones life,even in a small way.

Charlie & our son have gone away for the weekend,so I was going to catch up on quite a few jobs,but what have I done,NOTHING!I've spent most of the day on NN & boy do I feel guilty now!
Do you ever think 'just 10 more minutes then I'll do so & so',then you realise 1 hour has passed by
So tomorrow I'll have to rush round trying to catch up before they get back at tea-time.
On the plus side I've left lots of comments & votes today so hopefully have made a lot of people happy