Using a page template to show ‘a page of posts’

I would like to use a static front page using wp ‘pages’ and still be able to use the original layout for a page showing my blog posts (i think this would have been index.php).

This is how my page template code looks:

<?php
/*
Template Name: blog
*/
?>
<?php
global $options;
foreach ($options as $value) {
if (get_option( $value['id'] ) === FALSE) { $$value['id'] = $value['std']; }
else { $$value['id'] = get_option( $value['id'] ); }
}
?>
<?php get_header() ?>

<div id="container">
<div id="content">

<?php thematic_navigation_above();?>

<?php get_sidebar('index-top') ?>

<?php thematic_above_indexloop() ?>

<?php thematic_indexloop() ?>

<?php thematic_below_indexloop() ?>

<?php get_sidebar('index-bottom') ?>

<?php thematic_navigation_below();?>

</div><!-- #content -->
</div><!-- #container -->

<?php thematic_sidebar() ?>
<?php get_footer() ?>

As lifted from the index.php, so it should show all posts like the default layout did before assigning a static page as my front page. It shows nothing but the title and a comment box.
http://www.marrymeweddingfair.co.uk/pc_newsite/?page_id=22

I have tried making a template using the loop from wordpress codex: http://codex.wordpress.org/Pages#A_Page_of_Posts
But this does not have any markup for the css to work. When I try to edit it, I have limited success from hours of trial and error. There must a better solution, maybe using funtions.php, which I have dabbled with, but I found it hard to understand.

Thanks in advance for anyone who has read this far, hope I explained this well.
Rob 🙂