A Weekend in Grimsby

Awoke at around 7 a.m. and made Sara a cup of tea. We were off to Grimsby today and needed to leave sometime between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. We had a breakfast of bacon and eggs/eggy bread and didn’t actually get away until a little after 11 a.m. Mary has lost her mobile phone and despite looking in all the usual places including Sara’s car – which Sara actually cleaned out – it was nowhere to be found. I hoisted the Welsh Red Dragon flag in anticipation of St. David’s Day tomorrow and it wasn’t until I was on the road that I realised that Saints were playing Cardiff this afternoon so I felt a bit disloyal. We went up to Grimsby by way of the A34/M40 where we stopped for lunch at Warwick. We resumed my normal route but instead of taking the A46 carried on towards Birmingham using the M42 up to Nottingham and then the M1/M18/M180 to Grimsby. We arrived at our hotel at Pyewipe around 4.30 p.m. and I was absolutely delighted to see the usual thick white smoke billowing out of the Huntsman Tioxide Factory (still thought of by me as the BTP or “Titan’s” factory). Although there had been redundancies and some closure, clearly the main plant was still functioning as it had since 1942. When I had returned Mum to Grimsby after her stay at Christmas with us in Wiltshire, the smoke was not pouring out – the first time ever as far as I knew. I thought the iconic chimney (and factory) was now redundant – a sign of the changing times for Grimsby. It was like an old friend seeing it working again. We watched Final Score on the TV and were delighted to learn that Southampton beat Cardiff 1-0 – a fantastic result and the second home win in a row too – and I’ve missed both! Perhaps I’m a jinx on the team and should stay away more often. Grimsby Town, by contrast, lost 2-0 at Rochdale and are now perilously close to becoming a non-league football club for the first time since 1892! We called in at Asda’s store on Ellis Way/Holles Street where Tom had his passport photo taken for the Group Passport for his forthcoming school and bought lottery tickets which proved to be unsuccessful later that evening. We arrived at Mum’s a little before 6 p.m. We had tea and hot cross buns and later Tom and I went into Cleethorpes (St. Peter’s Avenue) to buy excellent fish and chips from the Ocean Fish Bar, parking in the car park created by the demolition of the former Wesleyan Church which, as a child, I remember well with its sharp pointed tall spire in red brick. After our fish and chips we had birthday cake and Moet champagne which Mum said her and Dad had got from their M.V. Victoria cruise. We watched some TV and left about 9.40 p.m. quite tired. We went immediately to bed where I wrote up this blog.

More Farewells

Off to my Dorking office today for the first time for nearly two weeks. The traffic was incredibly light this morning and my journey up to Dorking took just 1 hour and 15 minutes. The morning started with general administration including dealing with all the expenses claims from my trips over the last two weeks. This was followed by a teleconference on the Manx bank problem with our Communications Unit in London. Today also saw the last day of my temporary assistant, Nasir's, employment with us. He is moving on into private practice in London and at his presentation said a few nice words about me and the work and teaching I had given him over the last 14 months. I really wish him well. He's a great chap, a hard worker and deserves to do well in his future legal career. He will be sadly missed especially by out International Divison on the Isle of Man. A group of us joined him for his last fish and chips lunch in the office restaurant. The afternoon was taken up with the handover of files to my permanent assistant and meetings with our HR Department. It was also a sad farewell to Mary and Marketa in the HR Department who are both redundant and on the way home I learned of yet another HR redundancy. Every day seems to bring fresh news of people leaving us. My colleague from our Debt Recovery Department, Anthony, had a lift home with me and I dropped him off at Andover railway station to catch the train into Salisbury. We had interesting discussions on the state of the economy and the company. We also discussed the Margaret Thatcher documentary on TV the night before. Tonight was the fourth night of the Alpha course when the topic was The Bible and how we read and study it. We started with an excellent meal - I had the fish pie - sang a couple of songs and then watched a brilliant presentation by Nicky Gumbel. We then had a bible reading from Mark and discussion after coffee. Arriving home I sat down to write this blog whilst at the same time watching the wonderful film Calendar Girls which has that rare quality of humour and sadness which works really well. I wonder whether we can still persuade Sara, Maxime and some of the other church ladies to do a similar calendar for the church funds?

A Birthday and a trip to Bournemouth

Another day, another dollar and another trip. This time down to Bournemouth for a meeting with solicitors acting for one of our long-term sick employees. The meeting simply explored the possibility of settlement and we did not come away with any definite deals - just more action plans with work to be done. I was accompanied by our HR Consultant and the employee's line manager. Returning to Salisbury, I had more issues to deal with especially concerning the IOM problem. Another threatening letter of complaint had been received by our Chief Executive leading to concerns about whether matters were in hand. Frantic phone calls and e-mails were passing between the UK and the IOM. Rose and I were quite calm about matters and provided as much information as possible. We have a telephone conference arranged tomorrow with all parties. Today marked my mother's 80th birthday and so I hoisted the Norfolk flag in her honour. I arranged for a bouquet of flowers to be delivered and spoke to her on the phone at around 5 p.m. She had had a wonderful day - friends had taken her out to lunch at the Punch Bowl on Cleethorpes seafront where she had had gammon and pink champagne. Her friends had also organised a birthday cake too. She will be going out to bingo with them again this evening. When I got home this evening I was really feeling down after all the Manx problems and slipped upstairs to lie down for half an hour or so. We had our house group this evening and spent a couple of hours talking about the decline in church numbers and looking at why St. Paul's in Salisbury is so successful. Klynn stayed behind for his usual dram or two of Irish whiskey. It's off to Dorking tomorrow for another full packed day.

Ash Wednesday

Today is Ash Wednesday which marks the beginning of Lent and for me the abstinence of chocolate until Easter Day. The day didn't start too well with Sara asking me at 7.30 a.m. to print off a passport photograph of Tom for his forthcoming school trip to Normandy. As Tom needs to catch the 8.05 a.m. bus for school this gave me 35 minutes to boot up the computer, find the passport photo from amongst my extensive collection of pictures, size the photo and print it on photographic paper. I got so far with this task before the printer jammed and I had to extract the paper using pliers from the garage. After several attempts I simply gave up and Sara wrote a note to school. I suggested that she and Tom visit a photographic booth at the post office or a supermarket. Although late leaving for the office I did manage to secure a car parking space. After about an hour of checking emails and giving advice to our HR policy team I set off for the dentist. I had a filling in one of my upper molars, after an injection, and then visited the hygienist which was actually a less pleasurable experience. The hygienist, Lily, discovered a small hole in one of my other molars and I found myself having to book another appointment with the dentist to have that one filled in two week's time. The rest of the day was taken with meetings and email traffic. I returned home at 5.30 p.m. in time to take Tom to his football practice at Sarum Airfield. Sara would need to collect him as there was no one he could go back with tonight as I went off to West Grimstead church for the Ash Wednesday liturgy. The service was taken by Nils and Elizabeth with Elizabeth giving the gospel reading and sermon and I was called upon to give the Old Testament Reading - Isaiah 58 1-12 - quite a long reading too! Nils placed the sign of the cross on our foreheads with a mixture of ash (taken from last year's palm crosses) and anointing oil (see illustration above). Back home I completed my part of my monthly report for work and wrote this blog.

A Trip to Brum

An incredibly early start this morning - up at 4.30 a.m. to catch the 5.15 a.m. train for Birmingham with changes at Basingstoke and Reading. Arriving at Birmingham New Street Station at 8.15 a.m. I set off for a little cafe I know near Snow Hill Station close to Pinsent Mason's where I was attending a TUPE Conference. I was quite shocked to see how many shops had closed due to the recession including my little cafe called Le Rendezvous. There still seem to be plenty of expensive coffee shops giving the impression that if you have plenty of money yiou're okay but if you have a modest income there are no places for a modest breakfast. In the end, after walking around the Bull Ring area for some time I ended up in a McDonald's for a breakfast bagel. It was, however, surprisingly good. On my way to Pinsent's I located the Aston Villa shop in New Street. The Conference was extremely good and included a hot lunch - mushroom strogonoff and cheesecake. The course ended at 4.30 p.m. and I was back on the train to Salisbury at 5.12 p.m. after stopping off at the Aston Villa shop to get a lunch pack , gloves and scarf for Tom and a souvenir bear for Mary. The return journey was via Bristol Temple Meads where I had to change on to the Portsmouth Harbour train for Salisbury. I arrived back in Salisbury at 8.32 p.m. and dropped in at the Lord Nelson pub in our village where the Church had organised a Shrove Tuesday pancake evening. I stayed for about 40 minutes, had my pancakes and a beer and chatted with Nils, Elizabeth, Tanya, Steve, Dawn and Cynthia amongst others. Feeling extremely tired I returned home for a coffee and to write up this blog.

A Salisbury Day

No heavy travelling today - for a change. Today I worked in our Salisbury office at a desk no more than three yards from Sara. They say you should never work with your spouse - well in our case we both had so many meetings and kept our heads down with work that we hardly saw anything of each other. Not even lunch together. Indeed, I grabbed a quick cheese roll from our restaurant which I took back to my desk. I did, however, slip out briefly to get my ticket for the rail journey up to Birmingham tomorrow where I am attending an all day conference on TUPE - the dreaded Transfer of Undertakings legislation which regulates outsourcing of services to protect employees' employment. It's a clear sign of the times when such conferences are over-subscribed - hence my need to go all the way to Birmingham. I was shocked at the train fare too! It is quite something when you think that the cost of a return train fare from Salisbury to Birmingham is half the cost of a single flight from London to the Caribbean! I also managed to get my hair cut too (or head polished as I like to quip - it doesn't take very long). At around 2 p.m. I received a phone call from Tom's school to say that he was in the sick bay with a headache and upset stomach. The school could not get in touch with Sara whose phone was on voicemail and whose mobile was "usefully" ringing away in the car whilst she was in the office. Eventually by way of phoning my secretary a message was got to Sara in the Salisbury office! I left the office at around 5.45 p.m. and on the way home spoke to Mum on my mobile as I had not spoken to her last night because we had Klynn around. Mum told me that she was going out with friends - she didn't tell me who - for a birthday lunch at the Punch Bowl on Cleethorpes seafront on Thursday and was going to spend the evening at the Cleethorpes Conservative Club where they play bingo. After an early supper of some left over Chinese chow mein, sat in the study to pay some bills on line and to book our hotel in Grimsby for the weekend. An early night as my train for Birmingham leaves Salisbury at 5.15 a.m. - ouch!

Food for Thought - The Wrong Side?

A lie in this morning - 8 a.m. Sara was up early for once and brought me up a cup of tea before dashing off to Chilmark to pick up Mary who had had a sleep-over with a friend out there. I managed to muster the rest of the "troops" - Tom, Malcolm and Sam - for breakfast and to be ready to go off to church. I also hoisted the red rose flag of Lancashire in honour of our Liverpool/Lancastrian guests. I learned afterwards that many people thought that I had flown the Japanese flag until closer inspection. We arrived at the church car park at almost exactly the same time as Sara and Mary. The Morning Worship service was taken by Cynthia and I read the first (Old Testament) reading taken from 2 Kings - the ascension of Elijah. It was a very long reading and at one point I mixed up the names of Elijah and Elisha - the names appearing at least ten times during the reading. After the service and coffee we returned home and Malcolm and I drove off in his car to Andover to do some essential shopping at Asda and to get petrol for his long drive back to Liverpool. We drove back home for lunch via Stockbridge where we looked at the trout in the Test and visited a shooting/fishing shop. The prices were truly phenomenal. Back home we had a lunch of Sara's excellent beef stew and dumplings and apple and mince crumble. Malcolm and Sam left for Liverpool shortly afterwards and I spent half an hour or so finalising the Food for Thought reading and talk. I also lowered the red rose flag and replaced it with the Australian flag flown at half mast on this National Day of Mourning in Australia for those who have died in the terrible forest/bush fires in Victoria. The Food for Thought service went really well - and I was both pleased and relieved when it was concluded. The theme - "Fishing on the Right Side of the Boat" - seemed to strike a chord with the people who came. Klynn came around later for a glass (or two) of wine and a nice chat.

Saints go marching on...!

I woke up in Liverpool at 7 a.m. - a little later than I wanted to as I had a long day ahead of me with a long drive. After a shower and breakfast of tea and crumpets After a breakfast of tea and crumpets we all set off in two cars for Southampton to meet up with Tom so that he, Sam and Malcolm could go to the Saints v. Preston North End game - Malcolm and Sam being PNE season ticket supporters. PNE are currently 4th in the table and Saints second from bottom. I fully expected Saints to be hammered again and thought I was getting a blessed relief in not being able to go myself - Sara and I were to attend a masonic function at the Trowbridge Civic Hall. Imagine my disbelief, then, when on listening on BBC Radio Solent, I heard that at half-time Saints were winning 3-0! In fact Saints, who were clearly the stronger side, went on to win the game 3-1. This didn't improve their position in the table but it did, at least, give the youngsters in the team a great boost to their confidence. Sara was extremely mischievous and as well as having hoisted the Saint's flag on our flagpole went throughout the house putting "3-1" stickers on door sand in particular on the the door of Malcolm and Sam's room. I taped a Saints' bag on the front door and Sara put one of my Saint's shirts in their bed. Naughty naughty!! Sara and I had a very enjoyable evening at Trowbridge and chatted with a couple of my fellow Provincial Officers and their wives. The food was very good - salmon mousse, chicken in peach sauce and profiteroles. All very yummy. Sara drove back which was quite "hairy" - a combination of poor eyesight, unfamiliar road and an unfamiliar car (she hates driving the Mercedes!). We did get back, eventually at around 11.30 p.m. Sam and Tom were still up but Malcolm was fast asleep on our couch! We helped him dispose of some of the rent (Bushmill's original) before going to bed at around 1.30 a.m.!!

The Flying Kipper - with apologies to the Rev. Audrey

I woke early but still felt too tired to drag myself down to the basement for a swim. Instead I had a nice cup of tea and and a bath. I then went for a brisk walk along Strand Street to get my next freebie DVD from W.H. Smith's. Returning to the hotel I breakfasted on kippers again before checking out and collecting my car for the hotel car park. The sun by this time was glorious and the day bright and warm. I drove to Castletown via Quarter Bridge arriving at our offices at around 9.30 a.m. Another full day of work until 3.30 p.m. when I was picked up by the booked taxi and taken to Ronaldsway Airport. Here I learned that my flight back to Liverpool was delayed by about 25 minutes due to "technical problems"at Manchester. Fortunately the plane did arrive as expected at 5 p.m. and after a short flight I was back in Liverpool at around 5.30 p.m. I seemed to have to wait nearly as long as the flight time to retrieve my hold baggage. Eventually, having been re-united with my bag, I arrived that the Airport Information Desk to retrieve my security pass left with security when I went out three days before. I was duly given it after being told that I had to pay £4 for it to be handed over. I asked why? The answer was "admin. costs"! Quite honestly, it should be part of the service and I said I would take it up with their management at a later date. I then discovered that because my flight had been delayed, the baggage slow on coming off and the time taken for my visit to the Information Desk, I was being charged an extra day's parking as I was leaving the car park 20 minutes into the third day! I was pleased to get in my car and leave the airport. Malcolm was already home when I arrived at his flat and after a glass of wine, he, I and Sam went to the Gulshan - our favourite Indian restaurant on Merseyside. We returned for our usual whisky nightcap and as soon as I have finished writing this blog I will be snuggling up in my sleeping bag. We all have a long day and a long journey tomorrow to Southampton.

Kippers and Courts

Yes, definitely “deja-vu” today. My hotel room was stifling hot when I woke up this morning despite having had a window open. I don’t have a view of the sea and my window overlooks a dingy courtyard. However, the room is spacious enough - as I recorded yesterday it is actually two rooms. I went down to breakfast forgetting about my plans for an early morning swim and ordered their excellent Manx kippers – although today they did seem rather salty. The weather looked mild and after collecting all my paperwork I met Rose just on the corner by Market Street and we walked up Prospect Hill together to Jura’s coffee bar for a meeting with our Manx lawyer to review all the new affidavits which had been filed. We walked up to the Deemster’s Court where we were to spend the next three hours until the luncheon adjournment. Rose and I had a sandwich lunch in Marks & Spencer. I was not particularly hungry but had a raging thirst brought about by a combination of a stuffy court room and salty kippers. We split up after lunch – me in successful search of my freebie movie DVD from W.H. Smith’s and a proper 5’ x 3’ Manx flag which I acquired from a party shop with the intriguing name of Balloons to Let Go (IOM). Returning to court (complete with purchases) we sat through another one and a half hours to learn that the Deemster was adjourning the winding up petition for a further 39 days – until Thursday 9 April, Maundy Thursday. Pity, I will not be able to return for that hearing as I shall be in Minehead at the start of Spring Harvest on that day. I really would like to return when the trams and trains are running again. Rose and I went .down to our offices in Castletown where I had a whole host of emails awaiting my attention. I finally left around 6 p.m. in the 5-series BMW loaned to me. I returned to Douglas and drove around a little getting my bearings and looking out for potentially decent restaurant’s to dine in tonight. After parking the car at the hotel I walked into Douglas proper and eventually found an excellent Thai restaurant just up from Tynwald (the Manx Houses of Parliament). The restaurant went with the predictable name of King and I run by an Adam (my brother-in-law) lookalike and is Thai wife. They also had a young boy about eight clad in a Liverpool FC shirt. I had chicken satay followed by ginger and spring onion stir fry scallops with coconut rice. It was an excellent meal and I chatted at some length to the owner, Neil. I finished off with a truly palate-cleansing pineapple sorbet – beautiful. I then trotted down the hill and down a road I recognised as being where I had stayed in a flat in 1993 for the Manx Electric Railway Centenary celebrations. Back to the hotel for a nightcap and an early night. My intentions tomorrow include an early morning swim and down to W.H. Smith before breakfast. We’ll see!!

Trains and Planes

Woke up slightly disorientated this morning in Malcolm’s flat at 5.30 a.m. Then I remembered that I was in Liverpool and going into Manchester with him on the train. Malcolm woke about an hour later and after a cup of tea and a couple of rounds of toast we set off in my car to Liverpool South Parkway Station – a free park and ride car park with easy access to Liverpool John Lennon Airport and the rail lines to Manchester, Wigan and the North and Crewe and London. It is situated at the site of the old Allerton Station and is a fabulous new interchange. For all future visits to Manchester I will use this as for a return fare (in the peak) of only £14 it saves fuel and expensive parking in Manchester. We caught the 7.52 a.m. Norwich train which arrived at Manchester Piccadilly at 8.40 a.m. I arrived at our offices at 9.00 a.m. I discovered that my assistant was signed off work for another week and my secretary was off sick with a stomach bug. It seems more and more work is falling on me to do with absolutely no prospect of additional resources. No wonder I am feeling so tired. I spent the whole morning with our Case Management Consultant, another Sara B, and the work never let up. I had three meetings in addition to telephone conferences with Sara B present. The issues to be considered were tough ones but we managed to put together some good solutions. It is a real pleasure working with her. I returned to Liverpool in the late afternoon and spent an hour reading through some Manx affidavits in a coffee shop on the Mersey Retail Park at Speke before setting off for Liverpool Airport. Parking was a little trickier than last time but I still managed to park and get checked in by 6.15 p.m. My flight to Ronaldsway was away early and I arrived in the Isle of Man some 15 minutes ahead of schedule. Unfortunately I discovered that I had left my security pass at, ironically, Liverpool Airport Security when they took it off me to put it through the scanners. I will need to ring Liverpool Airport tomorrow. Once in Douglas I dined at the Millenium Sagaar Indian Restaurant and although the food was excellent I couldn’t eat it because it was getting late and I was so “dog-tired”. I returned to my hotel room (actually its two rooms!) for an early night. I have a really busy day tomorrow.in the Manx Deemster’s Court.

An Unexpected Welsh Rarebit

A very hectic and unpredictable day today - in fact the sort I really like. I began the day working in our Salisbury office where I seemed to have back to back appointments and everybody seemed to want to pick my brains - indeed, they seemed so picked over that I'm not sure much was left of them by the end of the morning. As expected there was a rush of documentation to read before the court hearing in Douglas on Thursday. I managed to have lunch with the family at home - excellent home made chicken noodle soup - before setting off for Liverpool at around 2.30 p.m. The trip up to Merseyside normally takes me around 4 hours but today it was 6! The journey started well and I made Swindon within the hour but upon joining the M5 at Gloucester I found myself in an horrific jam all the way up to Worcester (there had been a nasty accident near Worcester and the fire brigade were trying to cut somebody out from the wreckage). I learned afterwards that some cars were delayed by 3 hours! Knowing that Liverpool lay to the west I took a chance and left the motorway at Tewkesbury and struck out westwards skirting the Malvern Hills to the south and driving through Herefordshire via Ledbury to join the A49 at Leominster. It was then a steady journey up north through Ludlow, Shrewsbury, Oswestry, and into Wales and Wrexham (oh happy memories of my first night spent with Sara there!) and finally skirting Chester and up the Wirral to Birkenhead and through the Mersey Tunnel to Liverpool. After a cup of tea with Malcolm we went into Lark Lane to our favorite Greek restaurant where the waitress knows us well. She has just returned from maternity leave and is expecting another child in August! It was lovely to see her again as she is such a laugh. We had some good Scouse "crac" with her before returning back to Malcolm's for the "statutory" whisky nightcap. Tomorrow I will need to get up early to get the train into Manchester for meetings there. I don't know what the atmosphere will be like as the staff were only told last week that their office is to close before the year is out. I will then be flying off to Douglas on the Isle of Man for the next two days.

Skating on thick ice

It was off to work in Dorking for me today whilst Sara remained at home on holiday to look after the kids during the half-term week off school. My day was fairly uneventful with the usual round of meetings, emails and telephone calls the only highlights being visits to two Tescos, one in Andover and one in Leatherhead, to get my Daily Mail and freebie movie. Why two? Well, the "open 24-hours" store at Andover was shut!! Apparently 24 hours means 8 a.m. until 10 p.m. No wonder the country is in the mess it is if industry can't even tell the time! It also explains why we all seem to be getting older quicker! Sara's day was far more exciting. The children had wanted, for a long time, to go ice-skating and so Sara decided to take them to the closest rink at Basingstoke. Sara hadn't ice-skated since she was 15 and it is a good few years since I was last on the ice too - probably around 1984. I used to ice skate in Grimsby and Brighton. The cost of the Basingstoke rink is apparently £6.40 for unlimited use during opening hours (24 hours?). Sara seems to have spent a total of 5 minutes on the ice - one minute in the upright position and four minutes horizontal. She slipped over backwards and hurt herself badly on the back of her head and wrists. It seems she didn't tighten her boots either. She required first aid and was concussed and spent the rest of the session nursing her injuries. The children took to the ice like polar bears apparently and thoroughly enjoyed themselves declaring that next time they go they will take Dad with them - not Mum. I guess any thoughts of a skiing holiday are now firmly gone. Tonight Sara went to Southampton to a Virgin Vie meeting and came back with a bottle of pink champagne to celebrate her five years as a consultant. I'll look forward to helping her drink that at a later date. My evening was spent ironing shirts and packing for my trip to Liverpool, Manchester and the Isle of Man. I also watched "First of the Few" one of the freebie movies whilst doing the ironing. It tells the story of R. J. Mitchell and the birth of the Spitfire.

A Typical Sunday

If you ever ask what a typical Sunday means for the Barratts of Winterslow - today was one such day. It usually starts with a discussion as to whether Tom has a football match or not, who is going to the 8 a.m. Early Morning Eucharist at St. John's and who is going to the Parish Eucharist at All Saints - assuming that there is, in fact, a service at either; a rushed (or no) breakfast for those dashing off to church and the washing-up for those who are not! Tom was playing football and so he and I stayed behind while Sara and Mary went off to All Saints - Mary to sing in the choir. Armed withhis Clarendon Juniors footie kit, energy drink (for Tom) and a flask of coffee for me it was a short trip to our home ground (Barry's Field) to face Sarum Under 12s. I stayed in the car for a while to take advantage of the peace and quiet (and warmth) to read half an inch of affidavits filed on Friday in the Isle of Man case. I was slightly concerned over some of the points made in them and will need to spend some time tomorrow with clients on the phone to discuss their take on the issues. Tom played for the whole of the first half but only the latter part of the second. Clarendon were not playing on top form and lost the match 4-8! Back home to warm up and to take part in that other English Sunday ritual - the washing of the car - which was necessary due to the immense coating of salt it had received from the gritted roads during the Big Freeze. This ritual, like the football, had two halves with an excellent traditional Sunday roast chicken lunch at "half-time" provided by Sara. I really look forward to her leisure time following her possible redundancy as it is likely to be filled with cooking such goodies! In the afternoon I started work on my monthly Night Sky article for the parish magazine which I finished in the evening. We also watched a programme of American police car chases which was quite amusing. I also chatted-through the wonders of instant messaging - with my old friend Alan in Canada. As I had attended no church service this morning I went to the Evening Prayer service at Farley where Elizabeth preached on the topic of fear - revealing that she fears wasps and blood! Having completed the Night Sky article and had a shower I then went to bed where I wrote today's blog. All in all, a typical Sunday in a not so sleepy Wiltshire village.

Lovin' Lobsters

After a very hectic week, and another one coming up, it was lovely to get up late this morning especially as it was Valentine's Day and the children enjoyed getting their mugs filled with seashell chocolates. Sara and I exchanged cards and Sara and Mary went off to ballet whilst Tom and I stayed at home - Tom spent his time with his new I-pod Touch whilst I tidied up and made breakfast. Tom and I later went into Southampton to get a ticket for "Liverpool Sam" for the Saints v. Preston match next week which Tom will be going to with Sam and his father, my good friend Malcolm from Liverpool. Unfortunately or perhaps it should be fortunately, I will not be able to attend next week's match as Sara and I are going to a Wiltshire Provincial Officer's Dinner in Trowbridge and we need to be in DJs and posh frocks in good time which will mean I would not be back from Southampton in time to get ready and go to Trowbridge. Whilst in Southampton I popped into the Hall of Aviation or, as it is now known Solent Skyway. On the desk was the curator who had given an excellent - though rather long - talk on the Schneider Trophy to the Salisbury Astronomical Society at Orcheston just before Christmas. We had a brief chat - I was in a park and display bay not having displayed! - but had a chance to see a number of Spitfires and the large flying boat exhibit. I promised I would return and have a good look around when I had more time. It certainly looked to be a very interesting collection and I was told that I could sit in the cockpit of a Spitfire and should allow 2 hours for a proper visit. Tom and I had lunch at McDonald's in Millbrook where he was delighted to be able to use their free Wi-Fi to gain access to the internet with his new I-pod Touch. Unfortunately we discovered through the connection that Saints were losing, yet again, against Bristol City, and whilst Grimsby Town were one-nil up at home against Bury at half time, the final score was a lost game at 1-2. I picked up today's freebie war movie - Hell in the Pacific from Tesco's in Salisbury on the way home. Back home I cooked one of my old favourites for a Valentine Day's supper - Lobster in Brandy. It has been such a long time since I have cooked this and thoroughly enjoyed remembering my own recipe - it does tend to be a bit different each time though! It has nearly everything in it that is bad for you - butter, brandy, cream and white wine amongst other things! Yummy!!

Having Faith

It was dress-down day today so I slipped on my jeans with a white shirt and pullover and it was off up the M3 to Dorking after a brief stop at Andover to fill up with fuel and pick up my Daily Mail and "freebie" war movie. Today it was Angels one five. The traffic on the M3 was appalling again and very unusual for a Friday morning. Apparently there had been an accident on the M25 close to the M3 junction which caused queues back to Farnborough. I therefore chose to drive cross country to Farnham and Guildford. Every cloud has a silver lining and the slower journey meant I was able to listen to Desert Island Discs in full with David Suchet (Hercule Poirot) as the guest. His story was fascinating with some excellent choices of music including the very emotional slow movement from Mozart's Clarinet Concerto which was played as Sara and I signed the marriage register at our wedding. I was also interested to learn that his Christian faith was most important to him and that he became a Christian at the age of 26 after reading a letter - Paul's letter to the Romans - which he described as setting out for him what he considered a proper blueprint for life. Apparently he regularly goes away on a week's retreat and cannot imagine that there could be nothing after life. As he put it, the gift of life is so wonderful but this world so awful. Life couldn't exist just in this world and there has to be something afterwards. He couldn't imagine his own life either, without his faith. He came across as a kind, modest yet confident individual. Work was very hectic on arrival at Dorking. Having been in London for most of yesterday I had a stack of work emails to deal with and the Manx problem seems to be consuming most of my time. It is absolutely essential that I go over there again next week which is a pity as it is half-term. We had our third Alpha Course meeting tonight in Livery Road (my second as I missed the second one due to being in Liverpool) where we had an excellent supper of lasagne, cauliflower cheese and leek, potato and bacon "hotpot". The theme this evening was "Having Faith" with an excellent DVD talk by Nicky Gumbel who does grow on you and who is an excellent and inspiring speaker with excellent anecdotes and uses good clear examples to make his points. It was well attended with a good cross-section of individuals. Back home, Sara informed me that she had chosen the DJ for her 50th Party and she went through some of the 80's songs she wants especially any with the name Sara(h) as titles. I finished the day by writing this blog and watching Groundhog Day. I finished the day by writing this blog and watching Groundhog Day. I finished the day by writing ...

Death in London

An early start today to catch the 7.45 a.m. train at Salisbury for London to attend the Health Claims Forum. The car was covered in a thick frost with a temperature of -2 degrees Celsius. I arrived at Salisbury railway station with about 10 minutes to spare and met Nige from our Technical Claims Department on Platform 2. We were joined by Susan H and two of our claims assessors. The journey was uneventful and we arrive in London on time at 9.17 a.m. The venue for the Forum was a superb new conference centre behind the Old Royal Mint close to Tower Bridge. It was interesting to meet up with old colleagues particularly the former FP ones. The theme for the day's forum was death claims rather than income protection or health claims. We had excellent talks from the Essex Coroner and a leading overseas investigator in the morning. both were stimulating and entertaining. Following an excellent hot lunch, the afternoon session kicked off with my own presentation which seemed to go down well - it will be interesting to see what the feedback forms say! - and I received a good few questions afterwards. My PowerPoint presentation will be published on the HCF website in due course. Our train back to London was on time and I arrive back just before 6 p.m. I dropped in at Tesco's to get my daily free war film DVD - today it was Dunkirk starring Richard Attenborough and John Mills. Tom was proud to show off his new I-Touch and I was able to link it to the router to allow him to gain access with it to the internet. We had six people at our House Group tonight where we discussed "getting back to basics" on the lines of Steve Chalke's "The Apprentice" and questioned whether the church's hierarchy and bureaucracy were destroying the true message of Jesus. We had an interesting debate, also, on whether Christ's message was simply to reform Jews until it was pointed out that Paul had been sent out to "enlighten the Gentiles". Klynn stayed behind, as usual, for a glass of whiskey (yes it was Irish in case you are challenging my spelling!) and to discuss babble-speak in the workplace. Talking of the workplace, yet another one of our directors announced his departure from the company today and I have to be off early to Dorking in the morning.

The wrong side of the boat?

A day in the Salisbury office today. My plan was to finalise my presentation for tomorrow and deal with a few claims queries in pre-arranged meetings during the afternoon. As with most things recently, my planned day went "pear-shaped" quite early on with an urgent request from Dorking to prepare a note for the Chief Executive as to the position with the issues in the Isle of Man. As this was requested as urgent all my meetings had to be shifted. I did manage to lunch with Sara for about 15 minutes with soup and a bread roll. I somehow managed to squeeze in all my scheduled meetings before leaving the office for home via the railway station where I purchased tickets for my trip to London tomorrow - it will save some time and queuing in the morning and allow me an extra 15 minutes in bed! As I left work I felt thorough exhausted and slightly light-headed - something of how you feel when you've just had a day of important examinations. Sara cooked a Chinese style stir fry which we ate together as a family although not without some arguments between the children. They will argue about anything. As it is half-term next week Sara thinks I've got away lightly with my trips away to Liverpool, Manchester and the Isle of Man. I spent this evening with Klynn planning the Food for Thought service in two week's time which I am to lead. We sat down and chose the songs, theme for the talk, ideas for a testimony, prayers and so on. The bible reading and main theme we chose as "Don't cast your net on the wrong side of the boat" from John 21.6 This followed on from Klynn's general trawl through possible readings and my revelation that I had only read that passage a day or so ago in my daily bible reading. I also felt that I had been doing this metaphorically to some extent today too! So the theme and reading were cast, like the net - hopefully on the right side of the boat this time.

Money! Money! Money!

I awoke at 7 a.m. in Peter's study in Hove having slept on a mattress. My usual room was not available. Peter's house appears to be completely populated with Columbians - relations of his son Neil's Columbian wife. I hadn't realised until Peter told me last night that Neil had actually got married. After a breakfast of tea and toast I drove up to Dorking. The traffic around that town was appalling due to a 16-week's repair to the railway bridge which carries the Guildford line over the A24. Back in the office I had a meeting relating to a problem we have in Northern Ireland and which had an amazing outcome. Having tried to solve the problem over there for the last two years and made countless trips to Belfast to prevent a couple losing their home, they suddenly decided they wanted to move anyway and didn't tell us! I also had telephone conferences with lawyers in the Isle of Man and booked my flight and hotel in Douglas in preparation for my trip over there again next week for the hearing of the KSFIOM winding-up petition. The weather was dry today and the only time I saw any snow was on my return to Winterslow tonight. I was amazed that despite all the rain and the lack of snow in Hampshire, Surrey and Sussex, there was still a substantial amount left on our lawns. After a supper of cheese on toast, Sara and I watched another two episodes of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads? It is still as funny as ever. Today the bankers responsible for the failure of the Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS apologised for the failure of those banks before a Parliamentary Committee. The apologies did not go as far as offering to pay back their substantial bonuses though! The banking failures are very much in my mind at the moment with decisions having to be made in respect of the failure of KSFIOM on the Isle of Man. It is difficult to know where to invest any money - assuming you have any money to invest! Property seems to be vulnerable although it is interesting to note that people who bought property in France are now selling it for the same price they bought it for and still making a handsome profit by virtue of the fall in the pound/euro exchange rate. Today we received the maintenance bill for the timeshare apartment in Nassau which is more costly than last year thanks to the poor pound/dollar exchange rate. I will see how that exchange rate fares over the next few days before paying it.

Beside the Seaside

More miserable weather today - non-stop torrential rain; but at least no more snow. It took me over two hours to complete the journey from home to Dorking largely due to a vegetable lorry turning over on the A34 resulting in extra traffic using the M3. It also produced quite a few puns on BBC Radio Solent such as "Is the A34 now a dual cabbageway?" I drove in through the centre of Guildford - something I haven't done in a long time. The office was almost deserted when I did arrive - most people being in a commercial team meeting. I spent most of the morning engaged in paperwork and administrative work which I had been unable to do online from home. After lunch with David and Anthony, I drove down to Brighton in torrential rain having taken the afternoon off. I was attending a Brighton & Hove Civic Lodge meeting at 5.30 p.m where I had a role to play in the ceremony. I met up with Peter, our DC, at his home in Hove where I am staying tonight. He drove us into Brighton where we parked in Gloucester Road close to the station and walked to the Masonic Centre in driving wind and rain. The meeting went very well indeed and Bruno initiated his son-in-law Mark brilliantly - one of the best ceremonies I've witnessed in a long time. The dinner consisted of fried camembert, steak and kidney pie and apple pie. Back home at Peter's we sat down and drank coffee whilst analysing the current financial climate and trying to find out where everything has gone wrong. It is interesting to observe that each time there has been a Labour government the pound has been significantly devalued. Co-incidence?

Church Rat or Siberian Hamster?

For a second day the snow was not falling but the compacted snow was rock hard and the roads treacherous. Sara decided to sleep on and so I set off for All Saints Church on my own, on foot, once I'd hoisted the New Zealand flag for New Zealand Day. The snow was well compacted as I gingerly walked across the field towards the school. As I reached Winterslow Primary School, Jill came by in her 4x4 and gave me a lift up to the church. We arrived early and were offered coffee - an unusual event as coffee is usually only served after the service. It had been discovered that the Codlington Door at the back of the church had been badly damaged - gnawed by a rat (or was it a Siberian Hamster which is more used to this kind of weather) and that it had managed to get to the food crate for the Trussell Trust. In fact it had gnawed its way across the top of the crate until it discovered some Scotts porage oats which it burrowed into and consumed. The service today, which was led by Linda, was a praise service and being Education Sunday was attended by quite a number of school children and their parents. I returned home across the field between the church and the rec. accompanied by the sound of machine gun fire away on Salisbury Plain. It was all rather surreal and must have been something similar to what the citizens of Leningrad experienced during their siege - snow, cold and firearms. Once home I made several attempts to release my car from the icy grip of the frozen snow - all to no avail. Following an excellent lunch of roast chicken cooked by Sara I made further attempts before Eddie came and assisted me. Eventually I got the car out of the drive and onto the road at the top. I then helped him shovel away the icy snow from our neighbour's drive. Job done, a hot bath beckoned. We then all went to Klynn and Susan's for an informal worship service at their house. We sang a few songs around the piano, which Nicola played, and had some reading and prayers. It was a lovely warm informal setting for worship. Once home I cooked us all a vegetable curry and phoned my mother in Grimsby. She seemed to be better and much relieved that she thought that the doctor may have found something wrong with her blood and is sending her to see a consultant. All other recent tests have proved negative. She believes that all her pain is blood-borne and with father having died from leukaemia is often likening her illnesses to his. She will be seeing the consultant next week and will hopefully know more then. At this stage it is difficulty to know what, if anything, is wrong. Off to Dorking tomorrow morning if the weather behaves, with the afternoon off in Brighton.

Tom's Birthday

The snow had turned to hard ice this morning with the roads and pathways like sheet glass. It was Tom's 12th birthday and our original plans had been to take him and six friends (three girls and three boys) to Cadbury's World at Bourneville, Birmingham. My car remained firmly encased in the ice and we had phoned all his friends' parents to let them know that the Birmingham trip was postponed to be replaced by a birthday brunch of bacon butties at 11 a.m. at ours and sledging up in the Cow Field. I hoisted the Wiltshire flag in honour of his birthday (him being born in Salisbury, Wilts.) and we opened the many cards he had received. Tom is saving for an i-touch and received enough money to buy one with some cash to spare. I walked up to the village shop after morning tea to get the morning paper and cocoa for his chocolate birthday cake which Sara was baking. Taking the tarmacked road behind the village hall, the pathway was treacherous going up the hill and trampled slush from yesterday had frozen solid into a dangerous uneven surface. The shop was out of cocoa and so, ironically, we had to use Bourneville chocolate! I returned over the fields where the snow was less trampled and so hard that you could walk safely. Back home, the kids entertained themselves and Sara and I had a leisurely day. Sara's father phoned Tom to wish him personally a Happy Birthday. He had sent Tom a $50 dollar bill which we replaced with Sterling for him and which I have added to our dollar collection for our trip to Nassau later this year. During the afternoon, after clearing the melting snow from the rear patio, I watched 633 Squadron and two documentaries about the Earth's formation about its vulcanism and glacial formations. It is an interesting fact that the Tibetan Plateau is sinking and despite all the concerns about global warming, the climate is generally cooling - it was 15 degrees Celsius warmer 70 million years ago - and we are, in fact, in one of the colder periods of its history. This evening I cooked Sara a Chinese-style chicken curry like the ones I used to eat regularly when I lived in Liverpool. We watched two films this evening - Close Encounters of the Third Kind and the brilliant Forrest Gump. Saints' match against Watford was postponed due to poor weather and Grimsby drew 2-2 against Exeter at home. They were winning until the last ten minutes too! They moved one place up to 4th from bottom but Bournemouth are closing the gap with only seven points behind. My prediction is that Grimsby and Bournemouth will both stay up but only just with Barnet and Luton going down. Tomorrow we have a Praise Service at All Saints in the morning and as it is New Zealand Day we'll hoist the New Zealand flag. As I need to be in Dorking and Brighton on Monday I am hoping that the thaw will continue.

Let it Snow! Let it Snow! Let it Snow!

Surprise, surprise, it started snowing again upon waking. This same start to every blog is beginning to get monotonous! I was due in Dorking today but it was quite clear that it was again going to be impossible to get the car out of the drive despite having cleared a pathway yesterday afternoon. Both children complained of heavy colds so didn't go to school. Both schools did in fact open but closed again at lunchtime. Today marked the 57th anniversary of the death of King George VI and the Queen's assumption of the British throne. We hoisted the Union Flag of course which hung limply at first in the snowy/sleety weather. Sara then drove me and the cat into Salisbury (the cat to have her post-op check-up and me for a meeting in the office). I worked in the office until about 12.30 p.m. when Sara arrived with Mary warning me that the weather had deteriorated further in Winterlsow and we should return before we got "snowed-out"! After some essential shopping at the local Tesco's store in Castle Street, we returned home in blizzard conditions. Linda from church phoned to confirm that the Alpha Course meeting was cancelled tonight and so I cooked the family one of my special paellas which went down well with some Argentinian red wine. The temperature dropped dramatically as the sun (and the flag) went down and the snow became rock hard. The skies are clear as I write this blog with a bright gibbous moon - its light illuminating the crisp white landscape. After the paella and wine I dozed off in front of the log fire whilst we watched "Shirley Valentine".

Death Wish

The temperature this morning was appreciably warmer than yesterday and we saw the first signs of a thaw up here in Winterslow. Tom's bus was again not running to Test Valley School and Winterslow Primary was closed yet again. No attempts appear to have been made to sweep the snow from the playground. Sara needed to get into the Salisbury office to learn what fate now awaits her department and, in particular, her own role within it. Armed with a spade I helped dig her car out from its parking spot at the Village Hall and she managed to get out and on to the road at the first attempt. I returned home and, after ensuring we all had breakfast, started work on a number of projects on the company laptop - the principal one being to complete a Powepoint Presentation for the Insurance Health Claims Forum's meeting next week in London. The title? "Dealing with tricky death claims - a legal perspective". Topics within the presentation including such cheerful ones as suicide, coroners, murder and manslaughter. It's difficult to find amusing anecdotes without the fear of upsetting some member of my audience. I did, however, find the cartoon which appears on today's blog for my title slide. Mary went off to a friend's for most of the day and Tom was in and out of the house with one of his school friends. Tom and I had lunch of home made beefburgers. Sara phoned to let me know that the message which came through from the HR strategic review meeting. It confirmed what she expected - that she was to soon to be in the consultation pool for redundancy - after 22 years with the company. My day was punctuated with the usual spate of urgent emails, telephone calls and teleconferences including one with the Isle of Man. Whilst in the study I saw Karen, one of our neighbours, struggling to clear the snow up on the close. I couldn't sit at my desk and see her struggle so I went out and helped her for a while clearing the top of our driveway at the same time. This evening we had our house group which was a "freestyle" discussion on many matters but principally on the subject of modern consumerism and selfishness. As the group left, it started to rain but the forecast is for yet more snow (when will it ever end?) tomorrow. I am hopeful of getting to Dorking and back in time for the next Alpha Course at 7.00 p.m. having missed last week's.

Whatever Happened...?

At least it had stopped snowing when I awoke this morning. Sara and I went down to the village hall to retrieve Sara's car so I could take Emily the Cat into the vets in Salisbury and work in the office there. Unfortunately her car appeared to be stuck in the snow which, due to the low temperatures last night, had turned the half-melted snow to compacted ice in the car park. With the help of several other villagers we attempted to push it up the incline on to the road. After three attempts involving driving around the car park to get up speed I eventually managed to get the car up onto the road but in the wrong direction. Driving up to the bottom of Weston Lane I attempted to turn it aound again but once more became stuck. Klynn and Phil were waiting at the bus stop and helped me turn round into the right direction. Returning to the village hall, Maggie told me that she had just heard that a lorry had jack-knifed on the A30 at the Firsdown Junction and I was forced to take the more dangerous route through Pitton. It was a very slow and icy journey but I did manage to deliver Emily to the vets at 9.20 a.m. some one hour late. Leaving her in the capable hands of the vet, I drove on in to Salisbury and worked in the HR Dept. at Sara's desk for the rest of the day until it was time to pick up Emily and take us back home. Emily had made a complete recovery from her operation and was surprisingly bright and alert despite having had a general anaesthetic. It was a relief to get her home as the temperature was already dropping swiftly and more snow is predicted overnight. During a very short lunch break I had gone into the city centre and bought a DVD Box Collection of the complete "Likely Lads" and "Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads" at a ridiculously cheap price of £15 (six discs!). After a supper of fish and chips, Sara and I watched the whole of Series 1-3 (those that survive from the BBC archives) of the "Likely Lads" and the first episode of "Whatever Happened" to appreciate the link between the two series. Sara had never seen the "Likely Lads" before, only the "Whatever Happened". It was belly laughing comedy - something we really needed with all this depressing weather and job uncertainty; and being much older than when I first saw the series, found the humour even better than remembered. Brilliant comedy writing with excellent one-liners.
I don't know where I will be tomorrow as it very much depends upon the weather. I am due to be in Dorking but my car still seems to be well and truly stuck with the sludgy snow having frozen. Looking out of the window just before writing this blog, I see the snow is already falling again! Will it ever stop?

Snow Cat

Yet another correct prediction - we awoke to a further heavy snow fall. Although I cleared as much snow as possible from the drive I was only able to reverse my car for about 6 feet before it became well and truly stuck. My appointment with the dentist was certainly not going to happen today! I couldn't leave my drive let alone travel in to Salisbury (there were no buses running either). Sara's car was no better. Both Tom's and Mary's schools were closed again and so Sara took the day off and helped them make a snowman. I dealt with some more work emails on the laptop and started work for my presentation to the Health Claims Forum in London next week. Louise and her two boys came round for lunch with us and I returned to the study where I seemed to have a whole series of phone calls. We had noticed that our cat, Emily, had not eaten much food for a couple of days and we put this down to feline fussiness (we had changed brands at the weekend). However, Sara noticed that her mouth didn't look quite right and on closer inspection it was clear that one of her canine teeth was loose and the gums looked inflamed. Sara phoned the vet in Salisbury and they could give us an appointment in 1 hour - we just needed to get her to Salisbury. Knowing my car was well and truly stuck I made a few attempts to get Sara's out - but to no avail. Fortunately with some help from one of our neighbours, who is also a church member, we spread salt on the driveway and broke up the ice and after a couple of attempts managed to get the car on to the road. It was then a "hairy" drive into Salisbury with the cat crying all the way - I felt like crying too! Once at the vets a thorough examination revealed that Emily was a strong healthy cat but needed to have her tooth extracted. I couldn't believe the cost! - at least three times the cost of my own proposed dental work. If you think hamsters are expensive then just ask me about cats! Fortunately she is insured. The vet gave her antibiotic and pain-killing jabs and asked me to bring her back tomorrow for the operation - she will be in all day. Looking at the further snow fall tonight that could be rather optimistic but the plan is to drop her off on my way in to the Salisbury office where I have appointments. Saints were playing at home tonight against Sheffield United which was only one of four matches being played in the Championship. After my experience driving into Salisbury with a crying cat and the -2 degrees C temperature freezing the slush on the main roads, I decided that I would forgo the use of the season tickets and a freezing cold stadium and listen to the game on BBC Radio Solent in front of a warm log fire. I'm so glad I did. The attendance at St. Mary's was only just above 13,000 - the lowest gate ever for a league game at St. Mary's - and Saints lost 1-2 even after Sheffield United were down to ten men midway through the first half. Sheffield United scored first whilst still with eleven men and Saints equalised on the 90th minute. Another one-pointer seemed inevitable although Saints tried to get the winner in the 4 minutes of stoppage time remaining. Another goal was indeed scored on 90+3 but into the back of Saints' net. An absolute disaster and one which I think will confirm their relegation place this season - and will mean a descent into third tier football for only the second time in their history and not since 1953! It would have been a really miserable drive back from Southampton. Now to bed and to see what unpredictable excitement tomorrow can bring!

Stranded!

My prediction last night was correct - any thoughts of going to Dorking were destroyed by a heavy fall of snow here in Winterslow and atrocious conditions across the South-East of England. Indeed, the Dorking office had to be closed and only two members of my whole department made it in - and that was because they actually lived in Dorking. Fortunately (or unfortunately depending upon how you look at it!) I had my laptop and many files which I had taken to the Isle of Man so I was able to keep in touch with what was going on and deal with a few urgent matters. Sara didn't have her laptop and after quite a few attempts at getting her car out of our drive she managed to struggle into the Salisbury office. My heavier Mercedes stood no hope whatsoever of moving out. Both of the children's schools were closed and so it was as well that I was able to work from home. I started them off with a snowball fight and the beginnings of a snowman but both lost interest when Tom decided he would prefer to make movies on his laptop and Mary got a better offer of some tobogganing with a group of girls next door. This left me free to get on with some work. As we live in an area totally devoid of a mobile phone signal I had to walk halfway up the hill towards the village shop to be able to divert my mobile phone to our landline. Mary had lunch next door and Tom and I feasted on fish fingers, oven chips and mushy peas - eat your heart out Jamie Oliver! In the evening I spoke to my sister Heather about Mum's health and plans for her forthcoming birthday. We'll probably go up to Grimsby if we can to see her around that time. Tom showed my how to use the Moviemaker software and I had a go at making a very short video about the Newport Transporter Bridge - not exactly James Cameron stuff but a start! This software will, however, be very useful to embarass Sara at her 50th Birthday Party in June. I already have some great ideas up my sleeve. Tomorrow looks like being unpredictable again. I have a dentist's appointment at 8.30 a.m. to remove and replace a filling and then an appointment with the dental sadist......sorry hygienist!

A pleasant re-union

As Tom was due to play football at 10.15 this morning, I got up early to attend the 8.00 a.m. Early Morning Eucharist at St. John's. This was taken by Nils and Elizabeth jointly and was Elizabeth's first service at St. John's. She gave a brief sermon on Christ's presentation at the Temple in front of Simeon. It was absolutely freezing cold as I left the church. After a breakfast of pancakes, Tm and I went up to Barry's Sports Fields to find the match postponed because the ground was like iron. We met up with my old friend Christina and her husband Nigel for lunchtime drinks at the home of a friend of theirs who lives in East Winterslow. We had a most enjoyable time catching up and remembering old times when we both worked in the legal department at the Corporation of London; in particular, we recalled those two and a half hour lunches when we would go to the Barbican for a glass of wine and take in a lunchtime concert. Those were also the days when staff had to send instructions and advices to each other by memoranda which had to be dictated, typed and sent through a convoluted internal postage system. It took an average of about 10 days to get a response. Very different to today's instant messaging and e-mails! On returning home I watched the Hound of the Baskervilles on the TV before we all went off to see the Watoto Choir again performing at All Saints, Farley. It was a wonderful experience again. On getting back home I was enthralled watching the excellent documentary on the History of Christianity. This week it dealt with the Crusades and explained why George W. Bush's use of the word "crusade" would have provoked such a reaction from the Middle Eastern Muslims. I also phone Mum to see how she is. She remains in a lot of pain and is going to see the doctor again tomorrow. Snow has been threatened all day and as I write this blog the first covering has arrived. The forecast is for heavy snow in Hampshire and Surrey tomorrow so a scheduled trip to Dorking may very well not happen.