Just when things looked good.

Last night Ronnie cried out in pain as she sprang from the couch. Her right knee had "gone", locked solid.

We suffered a sleepless night but waited until today to go to the hospital. We had to wait until the shop had delivered our new fridge freezer before we could go.

Fortunately they were fairly early and we got to the hospital for 10:00 am. The Accident & Emergency Department (A&E to you Casualty @ Holby City fans) have a new system and we were done and dusted for 10:45.

While we were there we bumped into John and Sheila Bailey, he knacked his ankle on Christmas Eve whilst swerving to avoid an oncoming can of lager, or something like that. At first they thought he had some broken bones but now they've wiped the photo with an oily rag they can't find the break so now he's got torn ligaments.

The knee is not dislocated as we feared, but she has torn the ligaments, around the knee, painful. I think they must have a "Buy One Get On Free" offer on torn ligaments. So now it's rest and recuperation for a few weeks. Bang goes our regular walk and Ronnie's exercise regime.

We had a take-away curry for tea and settled down to watch Wigan - Arsenal on tv. What a load of old rubbish - the match, not the curry. It's almost like going back to the 60's, sparkling one minute, deadly the next. Still I suppose you can't ask to much of a bunch of teenagers with some grumpy old git up front, I can remember Ljungberg when he was great.

Talking of great, the photo is of Haddon United. The team include me and my brother Phil with his son Nicholas as mascot. We were awesome, we ruled the Enfield Sunday League with a rod of .. celery, but we had a good time doing it.

Onward into 2006

January 2006 is under way and Ronnie applies her first nicotine patch of the year.

Arsenal seem to be back on course, only one goal conceeded in the last few games (so I can't remember the number - who cares).

Portsmouth played as only they can, Aston Villa reduced us to schoolyard football, Manchester United for once didn't kick us off the pitch and Cardiff City fell to the power of Robert Pires.

I can't beleive that Thierry Henry is pledging his future to the club at the moment, probably his mother in law won't let the family move away from London or he really is happy at Highbury. Maybe things are looking up.

On the health front Ronnie and I are keeping up our visits to the gym and we are trying to get out for walks on a regular basis. Not far but it's a start.

Ronnie is on the Niquitin to attempt to get off of the weed. Fingers crossed.

2006 - We'll See How Good You Are

2005 went with a whimper, well it did in our house.

We lost two "Good 'ns" - my brother Phil and Ronnie's mum. Impossible to replace them and would we if we could?

Ronnie and I did our traditional minimal.

We went to Tesco in the afternoon but it didn't have the excitement of Christmas Eve. No "cheap and frees", full of people buying bread. We went away with bread (you couldn't get out without showing at least a small cut loaf) and a bottle of port.

Midnight came and went marked only by some fireworks and a minutes respite from the local twockers.

Today - the first in 2006 - we went to Jenny and Dougie's to watch Hearts - Celtic. There's a report here - BBC SPORT | Football | Scottish Premier | Hearts 2-3 Celtic for those that really need to know.

Dougie's a Hearts fan so the mood after the match was solemn to say the least. His mate Tom is a Celtic fan - so he says - and about as subtle as Derek Trotter. I hope there's no fireworks tonight.

We're back home now and looking forward to another couple of "silent nights" before Arsenal - ManU on Tuesday night.