Happy Christmas From Southport!

It's December 24th and we are about to celebrate our second Christmas since we moved to Southport. The last twelve months have flown by for me and i'm sure before we know it we will be well into 2017. It's funny how things evolve and this year we have added Shadow and Frankie to our pack, moved Sabre on to a new home and together with the originals of Sky and Ben it adds up to four in total.

I'm not going to tempt fate but lets just say 2016 was a much happier year than the previous twelve months on the animal front.

Well iv'e been down to Leicester to spend a couple of days with the family and I have to say I will never get used to driving up the horrible M6 and all it's problems. At the moment we are having a 'Smart' motorway from junctions 16-19 and it's a nightmare to negotiate at present. No idea when it will be done but I don't intend using much to be honest.

It was nice to see everyone and not that surprised to see that nothing changes much. Dad struggles on and manages on his own somehow, not bad for a 92 year-old. My sister Paula is here for 6 months from her home in Bulgaria and doing her best to try and please everyone at once as usual while my Brother John turned up with a Laptop that needed fixing, he was pleased to see me though! Like I say not much has changed in the last 10 years it seems.

I grabbed a couple of hours with my daughter Alice and the lovely Evie who is a fast growing up 3yo now! She's a darling and has changed so much. Be nice if they could find the time to visit us this year.

We have the London mob up here with us, Suzy's sister Debbie and Auntie Dolly, they had to endure the M6 and the M1 all in one go on Friday so hats off to them. The house seems busy for a change which is nice - now and again.

Work goes on as usual, just two days of non-racing action but i've been busy today posting the tips for the one million races on Boxing Day. Well 77 races in Britain and Ireland actually but it seems more!

I love Boxing Day and Kempton races, it's my birthday so its always nice to have loads of sporting action going on especially after two really boring days with nothing much to watch.

Hopefully the website will gather some pace in the New Year and by this time next year it will be all done and all up to date. Well thats my prediction anyway!

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year all!