September 1st
I took my steroids this morning and my brain is not able to function on any one thing at a time! My complimentary therapy does not work as well again today so it is definitely the steroids. Out with the girls tonight and had a great time and decide this is what I need before each chemo to cheer me up!

What a year huh?
Traditionally in the last few days of December we look back at the events of the year and ask ourselves how it got to be this bad.

Put simply, 2009 is a time when councils across the region said a sad goodbye to their money and admitted they will be cutting back on everything next year. Except cuts, which will go up.

A NEW year. A time of new beginnings. Of resolutions, changes, optimism and hope.

Let's be honest - 2009 was quite a struggle at times. A dreadful jobs scene, poor property market and gloom and doom in just about every sector of the economy. In fact, I think most people were glad to see the back of it!

So will 2010 be any better?

A bit of a cynical title you might think. In the grand scheme of things, we are six points clear going into 2010 and if anyone offered us that at the start of the season, every single one of us would have screamed "yes".

So now that the feast is over (sort of), how best to shift the extra pounds and shake off that fug of lethargy that comes post Xmas? Myself, I can smugly confess to not having done much lounging around this past week. The scheduling of my son's fourth birthday party two days after Charistmas saw to it that I was mixing, beating, baking and preparing cakes, cookies and the rest of it in the kitchen instead of lying comatose watching Shrek re-runs and the like. Of course, with making party food comes a lot of tasting and eating, too.

I am one of those people broadsheet columnists are so snippy about.
I send a round robin letter with some of my Christmas cards.
I thought I'd share it with you too ...

Snowy, snowy Christmas wishes from Westminster.

15th August
Cant get out of bed at all, am in pain up to my hips. My mouth is so bad I am sick when I get up with the saliva/secretions and suspect I have really bad oral thrush.

Another trip to SJP, another 3 points in the bag and we now sit pretty again at the top of the league, 10 points clear on Forest and WBA (having played a game less than us). I always said to myself, I wouldn't start getting carried away unless we were still in this position at Christmas time. Well here we are. And I'm getting carried away.

THE end of a year is always a good time to look back and 2009 has given me some of the best and worst times of my life.

This time 12 months ago was the best, with my then-promoter Dennis Hobson offering me an absolute fortune and promising me the world, and my girlfriend Sarah pregnant.