Merry Christmas to one and all, hope you all have a great day!

We have two sets of families to see and lots of eating to do (and maybe even the occasional drink), as well as opening our presents, can’t wait

One of the best ways to achieve as well written, polished and high standard essay is by learning how to make a good plan to structure your essay around, and then to follow that plan when writing. There are GCSE essays examples online which will help you to write the standard of essay you want to achieve.

The first thing to think about is an introduction that will immediately get your readers thinking and interested in what you are going to say next. You also want to introduce a thought at this point that is going to be the main theme of your piece and will help you to write a good, interesting and explorative essay. This first part of your essay is of vital importance because it is this part that helps a reader to ascertain whether they are interested in what they are reading, or otherwise. A good writer wants their readers to be interested and gripped from the first few sentences of writing.

Once you have managed to get your readers interested, you can start to move onto the deeper topics and discuss them more fully. A good writer won’t simply state facts as they are but will rather introduce thoughts to the reader and gradually but subtly lead them in the way the writer wishes them to think.

The final draft of any essay should have a good opening, an interesting and informative body of text and a well thought out conclusion, which leaves the reader feeling like they have been treated to something which is informative and knowledgeable, written by someone who has taken the time to ensure that the finished essay is well thought out and structured in such a way as to make sure that the final result is a positive, knowing and strong piece of writing.

I noticed the other day that the German Christmas market was back on in Leeds, so decided to take the kids and see what was there. Called the Chriskindlemarkt, this traditional German market has over 40 wooden stalls selling a wide range of seasonal gifts including decorations, jewellery and handcrafted toys, but the main reason I wanted to go there was the food.

We got there about 11:30 and it was already packed, but managed to get a spicy German hotdog and a beer. The kids were interested in the sweets, so I got them some candy floss, which they seemed to enjoy although it got everywhere.

Some of the stalls looked nice, but because it was busy we didn’t really have a good look around. I would probably go back during the week next time as it might be a bit quieter and hopefully I’ll be able to get into the beer tent.

My son came to me the other day and said that he wanted to learn airbrushing; he’s always drawing and is quite good at it, so with his birthday coming up in mid-October I thought I’d get him one. I had a look on eBay at beginner sets and there about £80 with two dual action airbrushes, a compressor and hose, and airbrush stand.

I know the airbrushes probably won’t be that good, but we can always upgrade them when he gets a bit better at it. I am struggling on what sort of paint to get as there are so many to choose from and every article I’ve come across recommends a different brand.

Createx looks like a decent brand and there water based so easier cleaning, but I would like to know if anyone has used them before and what there like. If you have any input to what paint I should get or any good tutorial sites please comment below, it would help me out loads.

My son came to me last week and said that he had a project at school to make a musical instrument and show it to the class next Friday. I though great, because I’ve always been interested in music and we set about thinking of what to make. I’ve had guitars since I was young and have many spare parts from upgrading them so we thought we could make a guitar.

Now a guitar is quite hard to make and would obviously take longer than a couple of days, so I had a look on the internet for an alternative. After finding lots of sites on making shoe box guitars I stumbled across the perfect instrument, the cigar box guitar.

A cigar box guitar is a simple instrument meant to be played with a slide; it comprises of a cigar box (obviously) a neck made from 2×1 timber, something to hold the strings and some tuners. Me and my son went into town this morning to fetch some supplies.

Since I already had some guitar tuners and strings all we would need was a cigar box, 2×1 timber for the neck and a hinge to hold the strings at the bottom. We went to our local tobacconist and he gave us a box for free as he had lots laying in the back room and then we went to the DIY store and bought a length of 2×1 timber and some hinges.

We got home and set about building, I drilled some holes in the top of the box and used the jigsaw to cut some f-holes while my son cut the neck to size and drew on the frets positions using one of my guitars as a guide. Within a couple of hours we had a finished cigar box guitar and it looks great! It doesn’t play to bad either.

Hopefully my son will get a good mark for his project especially as he did most of the work apart from using the drill and jigsaw of course.

Father’s Day is coming in just over a week and I’ve been struggling to find something for my dad, that was until we went round to my parents last night. My dad loves to smoke his pipe and has had it for many years; it’s getting a bit discoloured and old so I decided to buy him a new one.

After searching on the internet for a while I decided to check Shiva Head Shop (my one stop shop for my hookah pipe accessories), and low and behold they have a range of Sherlock Pipes which are perfect. There are 10 different styles to choose from and I decided to go for the Sherlock Pipe – 8.

The Sherlock Pipes cost £11.99 each and are made by renowned pipe manufacturer RayKnight. My dad should be quite happy with his present, just hope he doesn’t read my blog before next Sunday or it’ll ruin the surprise.

On Friday I decided that I was going to try to get away from all this Royal Wedding stuff and decided to take the kids to Old Trafford for a museum and stadium tour. Being a huge Manchester United fan I have been to Old Trafford lots of times to see the matches, but my children had never been. No that they are old enough to appreciate it I thought why not.

We were booked in at 2pm for the tour so we turned up early to get some food in the Red Cafe, and low and behold the thing I was trying to get away from was plastered all over the TV sets. So instead of hiding from the coverage I managed to see them getting married and the balcony kiss (which are probably the most important).

Congratulations to William and Kate, but I do think the hours of TV coverage were a bit over the top. By the way the museum and stadium tour was great and my kids really enjoyed it.

Note to self: there is no hiding from public events in this modern age.

I went to a friend’s house on Friday night and he had the new Microsoft Kinect for the Xbox 360. Me and my wife were so impressed that I ordered mine on Saturday and it got delivered yesterday. We got Kinect: Adventures with it and purchased Dance Central as well.

The Kinect is easy to set up, after the Xbox has installed all the relevant updates there are just a couple of setting to check before you become the controller. I’m really impressed on how the Kinect tracks your whole body and me and my family had a great time last night.

We still haven’t gone through all of the mini games on Kinect: Adventures or gotten through all the songs on Dance Central, but on first impressions it’s a winner in my book and will only get better as more games are released.

My brothers birthday is in a couple of weeks and I’ve been searching for something to get him; he likes smoking a pipe on occasion so when I found a range of Sherlock Pipes on Shiva Head Shop I couldn’t resist getting one for him.

There are 11 different Sherlock pipes to choose from, all designed and manufactured by RayKnight. I quite like the look of Sherlock Pipe – 8 as it still has that traditional look, but with a slightly squarer base for easier holding.

Going to get him some pipe tobacco and a decent lighter as well so he can use it straight away.

I’ve been looking for a used car for my wife as we only have my company car and when I’m away on business she doesn’t have a car to use. Not sure what make and model of car yet but I have around £4500 – £5000 to spend.

My wife quite likes the Ford Fiesta and I have read that used Fords are still reliable and the parts aren’t that expensive; she want that purple colour off the advert but I might have to persuade her to get a less feminine colour like blue just in case I have to drive it for any reason.

We are going to visit our local CarCraft showroom at the weekend and have a good look around, I will take my friend around as well as he is a mechanic as I don’t know the first thing about cars apart from where to put the fuel.