A Listing Problem

I found it difficult to sleep last night as I constantly kept thinking it must be time to get up. I needed to be up early in order to pack my things for the overnight stay in Exeter tonight. I woke at 5.30 a.m. and hoisted the Canadian flag to commemorate the 150^th anniversary of Blondin’s crossing of Niagara Falls from the USA into Canada on a tightrope 150 feet above the water and in readiness for Wednesday which is Dominion Day. I made tea for myself and Sara, taking hers up to her and taking a shower. After a breakfast of a bacon sandwich and strawberries I drove into Salisbury to pick up Vicki who was travelling with me to Exeter. The traffic coming into the city was awful and I arrived at our offices 15 minutes late. By contrast the journey down to Exeter on the A303 was excellent and we stopped off for coffee at Ilminster arriving at our Exeter office at around 10.20 a.m. I spent the day until around 6.30 p.m. preparing for the Employment Tribunal tomorrow with Sara Bra, Vicki, Belinda, David and Sharon – the last two being my witnesses. During the course of the afternoon I received a phone call from the Tribunal Office informing me that our case tomorrow was a “floater” – that is a case which has not been definitely fixed for hearing tomorrow – and that it might not go ahead unless another case settled. Apparently it seemed unlikely that the other case would settle and that, in all probability, we would not get on tomorrow. The case was originally set down for two days – tomorrow and Thursday - and although the case was now listed for only one day there was no certainty that it would be heard on Thursday. We are now left with the situation that we can’t really check out of our hotel tomorrow until we know what the situation at the tribunal offices is likely to be. We checked into the hotel at around 7 p.m. and I had an hour before we were due to meet in the lobby of the hotel to go out for dinner. I rang home and also received a telephone call from Tricia, Sara’s old boss who left our company some months ago. She rang to say that she would be attending Sara’s farewell do in Salisbury on 17 July. We had dinner this evening in a good Itlaian restaurant on Queens Street called Bella Italia. I had butterfly king prawns in garlic, seafood risotto and coffee. During the meal, Mary phoned me to say goodnight. It was lovely and made me miss home. Tonight returning to my hotel room I discovered that I had left my tribunal bundle in the Exeter office. Fortunately I was able to get a spare bundle from Sara Bra. My room is incredibly hot despite putting on the fan. I hate hot hotels and this is one of the reasons I hate being away from home – missing Sara and the children. How I envy Sara – leaving the company with a redundancy package in two and a half weeks time. I will need to get up early tomorrow morning to read through the bundle in further preparation of the case.

A Scorcher - Hot! Hot! Hot!

The hottest day so far this year. I drove into Dorking this morning and was grateful for the air conditioning in my car as the temperature had risen to 26.5 degrees Celsius before I had even arrived at the office at 9.30 a.m. Today was taken up with preparation for my two-day trip to Exeter for the employment tribunal I am doing there for the company as advocate. I will spend tomorrow at our offices there and the following day in the tribunal itself. A meeting concerning the tribunal was held over lunch and so I was grateful to have brought in sandwiches today. It was certainly a day for staying in the air-conditioned offices. Tonight, on the way home, my car recorded a temperature of 33 degrees Celsius on the M25 -that's 5 degrees above the average annual temperature for the Bahamas! Sara had a Virgin Vie party tonight so I took the motorway back to Wiltshire. I am so glad I had done so as the radio traffic news announced that there had been a terrible accident near the Shepherd & Flock Roundabout at Farnham (the way I usually go home from Dorking). I arrived back home at 7.15 p.m. just as The Archers was finishing. Sara was in a rush to get out to her party as Tom had had one of his friends around and his mother, having called to pick him up, was chatting away in the kitchen. Sara had a very successful evening this evening. I wrote up this blog and did some online banking as well as looking at some papers which Stop the Traffik had sent through to me. They would like me to serve on one of their Standing Committees. Andy Murray eventually, tonight, won a flood-lit thriller to give himself a place in the Wimbledon Men's Singles Quarter Finals.

Now that's cricket!

What a fantastic day today! The weather was very warm already on my back after I woke up and went into the garden to hoist the Somerset flag. Tom and I were going to Edgbaston today to watch the Twenty20 game between the Warwickshire Bears and the Somerset Sabres (the nicknames given to the respective County sides for the purposes of this competition). The Twenty20 competition was introduced a few years ago to provide some fast and furious cricket for families and newcomers to cricket who think of it as a slow, laborious, game with inexplicable rules and scoring, where the teams wear the same strip - usually a uniform white - and the game can go on for several days and still result in a draw or which gets stopped at the least sign of any cloud or drizzle so the players can step inside a pavilion for tea and cakes (that's Test Cricket actually). Twenty20 is very different - the players wear different colours, have their name and a number on their backs, use a white ball and each side has to get as many runs as possible in only 20 overs (that's 20 sessions of a bowler bowling a ball six times to a batsman before he hands over to another bowler who then bowls another six balls to a batsman at the other end of the wicket - the wicket being the hard grass bit between the stumps or wickets which are guarded by the batsman. During his time at the wicket the batsman is also known as a wicket. A run is scored by the batsmen running along the wicket between the stumps (or wickets) but they can also score runs by not running at all if they can hit it over a piece of rope which runs all along the outside of the playing area and which is known as a boundary. If they get it over the rope without it touching the ground then that's six runs, but if it touches the ground before it goes over the rope that's only four runs. Runs can only be scored by hitting the ball with the bat first except in circumstances where the batsman doesn't actually have to hit it at all - usually when the bowler bowls a wide or his (the bowler's) feet go over the line. That type of ball is called a "no ball". And just to make it clearer, there are eleven men on each side including the twelfth man, and eleven men field whilst only two bat. The two who are batting are said to be "in" until they are out when they then go in. They are out if the bowler hits the stumps, the ball is caught off the bat without it hitting the ground, the stumps are hit by the ball when the batsmen are running between the stumps and are not in the crease or the ball hits the batsman's leg which is in between the bowler and the stumps. It's all really simple so I wasn't sure what bit Tom didn't understand as he told me on the way up to Birmingham that the thing that had put him off cricket before was the complicated rules. I therefore explained them to him as carefully as I have on this blog and we came to the conclusion that he would have to experience it for himself. We arrived in good time and parked close to the entrance (a bad move as it later happened). We had a quick look in the Cricket Shop where I bought a programme and then wondered around the ground to get a decent spot. Now as cricket is a fair weather sport most of the seating is open. The weather was exceedingly hot and wherever we stopped we started to feel like beefburgers on a griddle in a very short period of time. We eventually settled for seats in the shaded covered area which, although further from the wicket - remember the bit of grass between the stumps! - it was at least shaded and close to the burger/fish and chips and bar areas. The start of play (kick-off in football) commenced promptly at 2.30 p.m. and Warwickshire batted first putting on 193 for 6 wickets (that is 193 runs for the loss of six men - wickets being men and not bits of grass this time, and they are not really lost just "out" which means they had to go in - "simples" isn't it as the meerkat would say). Somerset's reply was 191 for the loss of 7 wickets which meant that Warwickshire won the match by just two runs. An incredibly close and exciting game. We got chatting to two Warwickshire supporters sitting next to us - no segregation at cricket matches - who helped explain the game to Tom and also told me of some of the quirks of Twenty20's own rules- e.g. limited outfield for the first six overs (that is the first 36 balls) and a score of 2 runs for a no ball. Although we supported Somerset we felt that both sides played incredibly well. Somerset really had the upper hand for most of their innings (that's their turn to bat) but the loss of Trethscothick for 33 runs and the bowling of Warwickshire's Patel "did for" the west country team. We visited the shop between innings and it took us some time to get out of the ground car park at the end but the match lasted 3 hours and we were home by 8.30 p.m. Sara and Mary had been to church today and also celebrated Food for Thought on the rec. They had played Swedish long ball (a cross between rounders and human skittles from what I can tell) and had a barbecue - so we all had sport and BBQs today. Tom is really interested in cricket now and I intend to get him a new bat and stumps (or wickets) to play with him on the Rec. I ended the day by speaking to Mum and telling her all about today. She is an avid cricket fan and understands the rules easily. Her medical tests showed she had nothing serious which minor operative surgery couldn't deal with. After three wonderful days, it's now back to the office in Surrey again tomorrow!

Ordination Saturday

It was a special day for our church today and a special day for our very good friend Cynthia as she being ordained as a priest by the Bishop of Salisbury in Salisbury Cathedral. I hoisted the St. George's flag to mark the occasion. Sara and I woke relatively early for a Saturday and were able to enjoy each other's company for a while before the children awoke and we had to get up. Both Tom and Mary were very tired this morning after a late night last night and all the excitement of TBC for Mary. Sara took Mary and Tom into town to ballet and shopping and I set off early for the Cathedral, parking at our office car park. I arrived at the Cathedral at around 10.15 am., 45 minutes before the service was due to start, and was given a 36-page order of service - it was clearly going to be a marathon. I was shown to the North Transept and because I didn't have a ticket as a formal guest of I sat towards the back of the transept but only one row behind the invited guests. Whilst waiting a read some of Jeff Lucas's latest book, "Lucas Unleashed" and read about "the bins" again. The service was indeed a long one, starting promptly as the last bell struck 11 a.m. in the clock tower - having been up there only a week or so before I could imagine the machinery winding itself up to strike. The sermon, given by the Treasurer of the Cathedral, was on the topic of "vocation" and lent itself well to my thoughts for the theme for my intercessions at tonight's service. The service was very emotional but the most emotional part for me was when the Eucharist took place. Each of the 21 ordinands was sent to a different station within the vastness of the Cathedral. As I was towards the back of the North Transept I went to that station. It was not until I was about third in line to receive communion that I realised that the bread was to be administered by Cynthia! I could have sat elsewhere in the cathedral and at one point was thinking of moving to the central nave. I am so glad that I didn't as I therefore became the first person from Winterslow to be given communion by our newly-ordained priest. Following the service we all walked out into the scorching hot sunshine at the west front of the cathedral where photographs were taken. I managed to take several and one of those showing Cynthia with Nils, Judith and Elizabeth, the other three priests in the Clarendon Team, is shown above. After the photographs I went for a latte coffee and a Wiltshire pasty at Reeves. It was so hot outside as the sun beat down - as was the latte. I returned to my car with my coffee in my hand and drove home to write my intercessions for the special Evening Eucharist at 6 p.m. - Cynthia's first within the Team. I also emailed the photos I had taken to several of those who had attended the service and were shown in the photos. Mary sang in the choir tonight, I read the intercession and a canon from the cathedral, one of Cynthia's theological teachers, gave a splendid sermon. After the service there was wine and a cold buffet. It was a really great celebratory occasion - Sara likened it to a wedding atmosphere. We stayed in the church until 8 p.m. and on my return home it was grass cutting time again - both front and rear lawns. I struck the flag at sunset - a beautiful sunset too. It has been a wonderful day. I've taken Holy Communion twice too!! Now to bed. An early start tomorrow for Birmingham and the cricket.

English Twister

We awoke to heavy rain this morning as predicted last night. The morning news confirmed that Michael Jackson had indeed died last night of "cardiac failure" and the news was full of clips of his life. One commentator described him as "a modern day Mozart". I'm not sure I can agree with that. To me he'll always be "Wacko Jacko". Sara needed a further half dozen or so pages printing off for the parish magazine. For some inexplicable reason, the software for the printer appears to have been "uninstalled " from her laptop. We therefore had to use my laptop to get the documents download - by email - and then print off that way. Matters were not helped by the printer's incessant stalling. Eventually, however, we did get it all printed off so that it could be taken to the printers. Despite being somewhat late leaving, I still managed to get a car parking space at the Salisbury office. The day followed the usual pattern with meetings in the morning and afternoon and Sara and I lunched together in the office restaurant. We had the Friday fish and chips. I left the office a little early in order to get back to pick up Mary and Elona to take them to the TBC concert at St. Pauls. TBC are a Christian girl band who we had seen at Spring Harvest. There were at least a couple of hundred children there - mainly Mary's age and slightly above. TBC were great - with a great message of mission and the children readily lined up to give their names and schools so that they could be later contacted by a Christian youth Group. I bought Mary a copy of their first debut album - she only had their latest album from Spring Harvest, and a poster for Elona. The TBC girls signed both for them. The weather was hot and sultry as we drove back to Winterslow and as I drove along the A30 towards home we all noticed the beginnings of a tornado which grew in length out of the massive cloud formation until it was unmistakable (see picture). I stopped at the top of the hill on the Pitton road and took the photo shown above. By the time we reached Winterslow the tornado had dispersed into nothing but for a time it was most menacing-looking. I went round to Klynn's at around 9.30 p.m. where we drank some Trinidadian rum and discussed the House Group last night. Then back home to write this blog at around midnight. The temperature is still hot and humid.

Into the New

I worked in the Salisbury office again today - fortunate as I had a number of people to see. It rained on the way in and the temperature got steadily hotter and hotter as the day progressed. Sara and I had mid-morning coffee and lunch together today and I slipped out at lunchtime to get an appropriate card for Cynthia's "priesting" on Saturday. The card I chose depicted a dove with the words "Into the New". I also bought a holding cross made from olive wood grown in the Holy Land. This afternoon it was more meetings but I left promptly at 5 p.m. to attend Jane D's farewell function at the New Inn - these are becoming an increasingly common event. I hadn't realised that the New Inn had such an extensive garden at the rear with fine views of the Salisbury spire. It was good to see some of the old compliance and technical staff and it was staggering to recall just how many people had left the company in the last 12 months. Without exception they recalled that they were enjoying their new lives and gald to have made the change. I called in at Staples to buy some more cartridges for the home printer as Sara had telephoned to say that the printer had stopped working just as she was trying to print off the pages for the July Parish Magazine to take to the printers tomorrow morning. When I got home I found that it worked okay on my laptop and Sara was able to print off the remaining pages without needing a new cartridge. Tonight we had the House Group and discussed the concept of "Belonging" using the Steve Chalke DVD and also listening to Jeff Lucas in an extract from his and Ruth Dearnley's morning talks at Spring Harvest. I chose the piece about the old and the new bin in a church where change was definitely not on the agenda. Those who had not been to Spring Harvest, and indeed those of us who had heard the original, found the piece very amusing yet true. We had a really good discussion tonight and it made one member of our group, Maxime, think carefully about where God wants her to be - Winterslow or Salisbury. I think the need to feel and to know where you "belong" is most important. Sara and I have no doubt that we have been placed here in Winterslow for a reason. It may be simply to grow our faith or there may be other things. Sara is definitely committed to helping Morning Star, the homeless charity in Winterslow and I intend to continue to support Stop the Traffik. I have another meeting with them in London a week tomorrow. It's "Into the New" for many of us. Phew! It remains so hot here tonight though and I expect that we will have a thunderstorm before too long. Have just learned that Michael Jackson has died of a heart attack today.

Laundry v. Golf

Woke reasonably early and hoisted the Scottish flag to commemorate the 695th anniversary of the Battle of Bannockburn. The weather was light and sunny with hardly a breath of wind so the flag hung rather limply on the pole. I didn't leave the house especially early this morning but the traffic to Dorking was very kind and I arrived at the office at around 9.25 a.m. Belinda did not arrive until much later as she was feeling rather unwell (she left shortly after lunchtime). The reason for me being in Dorking evaporated when the meeting I was due to attend was cancelled at the last minute! My meeting in Dorking tomorrow has also been cancelled so I shall work in Salisbury instead. Lunch was poor quality "grey" fishcakes - I guess this is a way of ensuring that staff do not miss their restaurant meals if they finally disappear. The joy of work is distinctly lacking in Dorking as well as Salisbury. The weather was glorious as I drove back home this evening listening to the Spring Harvest CDs until it was time for The Archers. I decided that I would try and get nine holes in at Grateley Golf Course tonight but on reaching home found that there was so much laundry overflowing in the guest room that I really didn't feel comfortable going out to have to tidy all this up tonight. Sara had been out for most of the day with Morning Star or putting the Parish Magazine together. After a shower, I sat down to write up the blog and send several emails out in preparation for the House Group tomorrow night. I must start thinking and praying earnestly about the Intercessions I am to deliver at the Cynthia's first communion on Saturday.

Tesco's v. Golf (A Case of Priorities)

I spent today in Salisbury with our HR Case Management Team reviewing the current case load and preparing for the tribunal we have next week. I arrived at the office very early today yet, despite this, found only two free car parking spaces. Meetings took up most of my day but I seem to be reasonably up to date with my correspondence too. Lunch with Sara consisted of a roll and a strange orange and carrot soup which didn't really seem to work other than being a consistent orange colour; but it filled a hole. I didn't have much of an appetite anyway. Good job, as the company announced today its proposed cutting back of the restaurant facilities in the Autumn and the removal of subsidised food. This will be a real blow to our more rural offices but is likely to have little effect upon Salisbury. The increased re-structuring and outsourcing continues to have its toll on the staff. This announcement will not help morale. This evening I had planned to play golf at Grateley but due a mix-up with the Tesco delivery for reasons I won't go into on this blog, I had to pick up Mary and her two girl friends from Brownies at Norman Court whilst Sara was trying to get through to Tesco's Internet delivery office to sort it all out. It looked as though Sara would have to go into Salisbury to do her own shopping and so I didn't get to play my golf. As it happened, Tesco's then said they could deliver and they duly turned up at around 9 p.m. Once more I feel quite tired. The weather remains warm with a beautiful clear sky as I write this at 9.50 p.m. Off to Dorking tomorrow so will try and get to bed early tonight - after I've eaten my potted shrimps - get up early tomorrow morning for an early start in Dorking to allow myself some time tomorrow night to play my belated golf game.

Monday in Dorking

A relatively unremarkable day today. Woke at 6 a.m. and after a shower and breakfast set off for Dorking via Grateley Station to pick up Anthony. The weather was warm and sunny although became overcast as the day progressed. Anthony informed me, as he got into my car, that last night his father had fallen and broken his leg in two places after "blacking out". There was a suspicion of a heart problem. He will need to go over this afternoon to Redhill Hospital to see him and I offered to take him over if that helped as he doesn't drive and will have to get a train and taxi. Neither my secretary nor second-in-command were in today - one in Spain and the other at Wimbledon. I dealt with around 5o emails which had come in for me on Friday whilst I was in London and which I had been unable to respond to. The day, accordingly, went very quickly and i managed get all the important matters out of the way but still have a lot to do tomorrow when I am in Salisbury. This evening I ordered some more business cards and a holder to replace the leather credit card wallet I lost on Friday. It's now 10.30 p.m. as I write this and I am feeling extremely tired so will take myself off to bed to feel refreshed in the morning.

Father's Day Treat

I was in a deep sleep dreaming about being in some Eastern European city (although in my dream it resembled Edinburgh) with my Best Man who I haven't seen for ages but, ironically, whose birthday is only four days away. Perhaps a subconscious reminder to send him a card! I was woken by Sara bringing in tea and two presents - an electronic photo frame in which you can insert a memory stick containing digital images and a wonderful little seafood cookbook of recipes from around the British coast. I shall really enjoy trying out some of the recipes - seafood is my favourite food! Sara also cooked breakfast - poached eggs, "eggy bread" and mushrooms. We went to church as usual at 9.30 a.m. It was a Parish Eucharist and Nils preached on stewardship campaign and the importance of giving money to the church. We are now digging into our reserves and need to increase pledged giving to pay the parish share to the Salisbury Diocese. We stayed behind for a short time for coffee before setting off for my treat - a visit to Portsmouth's Historical Dockyard where our tickets would allow us access to HMS Mary Rose, HMS Victory and HMS Warrior as well as the Museum and a Harbour Boat Trip. The weather was warm but slightly overcast when we got there and parked in the designated multi-storey car park. The first thing we did was to have a sausage/cod roe and chips lunch seated on The Hard overlooking HMS Warrior. Fully replenished we entered the Dockyard and decided to visit the Mary Rose Museum first to see some of the 19,000 items brought up with the wreck. These were fascinating and gave a good insight into the life at sea in Tudor times. Whilst in there we were notified of a bomb alert and made to go to the back of the Museum. After about five minutes we were given the all clear - no doubt some student's back pack! From the Museum we walked through the Dockyard to HMS Victory and the Mary Rose itself housed in special building where the timbers are still being kept wet with a waxy liquid. It was not that easy to see the ship because the tropical conditions used to preserve it steam up the glass as we view it from the air-conditioned gallery. Leaving the Mary Rose we then visited HMS Victory and toured the ship from the hold to the quarter deck where Nelson received his fatal wound at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805. Leaving Victory we enjoyed a pot of tea (the children ice creams) before investigating the shops where I bought each of the children a book on Nelson/Battle of Trafalgar and treated myself to a facsimile copy of an early Nelson biography and a book of facts about HMS Victory. We ran out of time for the main Museum, HMS Warrior and the Harbour Boat Trip but our tickets entitle us to come back and do those another day - can't wait to get back. Tonight wrote up this blog after scanning some more old family photographs and dealing with some emails. Must be up early in the morning as it is a day in Dorking and I've agreed to pick up Anthony at Grateley Station at 7.30 a.m. How I wish every day were like today - a fantastic day spent with the family! Precious time made better by the fact that both Tom and Mary were fascinated by the history surrounding the place and the exhibits.

Village School Fete

An unusual day in that I didn't leave the village all day - quite a rare event. After a very long day yesterday I slept through until 8.00 a.m. and didn't actually get up until nearly 9 a.m. I cooked breakfast for me and the children - bacon, mushrooms, beans and black pudding and Sara took Mary into Salisbury for her ballet/dance lesson. Tom and I stayed at home. Tom cleaned the children's bathroom whilst I washed and cleared away the debris in the kitchen and then spent some time on copying David and Andrea's photos on to a disc to send out to Adam in Thailand as he is anxious to see all the photos of Sara's party and have a copy of all the slide conversions I've done. I also took the opportunity this morning to chat to Mum on the phone as I didn't speak to her last Sunday because of the hectic weekend with Sara's Dad and wife - party, horse racing and pub quiz. Towards the end of the morning I started on the mowing by cutting the grass on the bank. Because of the dry weather we've had it wasn't too long. I had a hasty lunch with the family - a small steak and kidney pudding from a tin which Sara cooked for herself but declared that it reminded her of a plate of dog food - and promptly gave it to me!!! It tasted great to me but I will be looking carefully to see if I grow a tail and a wet nose!! She then cooked herself toasted cheese sandwiches. After lunch she and the kids went off to the School Fete on the Rec leaving me to finish off the lawns - I find fetes rather predictable affairs after a few years -plant stalls, bouncy castles, cake stalls, guess the number of sweets in a jar stalls and the stocks! Well, I did at least manage to get Sara in them this year (see picture) - she being rather more trusting than me! There is, however, usually a beer tent! Sara helped out of the teas/refreshments/cakes stall for an hour and to show solidarity I went up to the rec for the last hour and allowed her to serve me a cup of tea! The beer tent had run out of lager and I was able to supply a fresh case from the leftovers at Sara's party last week. I had a very nice long chat with David M whom I hadn't seen since Christmas when we took Mum up to the Gospel Lifeboat Mission. We talked about Sara's job and the situation at work and about the work that I and others are doing in the church. I really enjoyed the chat. This evening I wrote and submitted my two articles for the parish magazine and made a decision to get to bed before midnight. We'll see if that comes off. Tomorrow, after church and because it is Father's Day, we are going to visit the Naval Dockyard at Portsmouth and hopefully tour HMS Victory, HMS Warrior, HMS Mary Rose and the museum. We have ticket vouchers from Tesco to use by the end of the month but if we can't get to see everything I believe the tour tickets are valid for a year. I am really looking forward to visiting the old Victory again

Stop the Traffik Meeting

A day in London today. I caught the 8.27 a.m. train from Grateley to Waterloo arriving in London at around 9.50 a.m. Sara phoned me to say that our neighbour "E", the one-man neighbourhood watch - had banged loudly on our door this morning complaining that our House Group visitors had parked "illegally" last night on the pavement and generally making a fuss. He has virtually alienated himself from every family in the Close - and beyond! I took the Bakerloo Line to Elephant and Castle and then the Northern Line and Hammersmith & City Line to Farringdon. I had a meeting with Pinsents, solicitors, at 11 a.m. about 200 yards walk from the tube station. The meeting started early and went well and we continued through a sandwich lunch. I was, therefore, able to get to Stop the Traffik's offices in good time - indeed, I went into The Hub coffee shop for a pot of tea which was very refreshing after the heat and sweat of the London Underground. I arrived at Stop the Traffik's offices in good time for my meeting with Ruth who greeted me in reception and whisked me upstairs to their centre of operations to introduce me to two members of staff I haven't seen or met before. After that she led me through the labyrinth of offices back down to The Hub where she bought me a second cup of tea and a flapjack. We spent an hour discussing Stop the Traffik initiatives and Spring Harvest and we seemed to get along well with sound exchanges of ideas. I found her a lovely, sensitive and energetic person and it will be good to work with her and her team on helping with the various STT projects and plans. We parted agreeing that she would send me some papers by email to look at next week and we would meet again in July. I arrived home in good time to attend the Church's Stewardship Campaign meeting at Roche Court. We had an excellent supper of fresh cooked ham, quiche, beautiful brie cheese, bread, salad, potatoes and plum crumble and gooseberry fool. The presentation was given by Richard who emphasised the budget shortfall of some £17,000 which equated to 3o-odd people upping their weekly giving by £10. I stopped by Klynn's on the way home and after about an hour's chat with him and Susan, Klynn and I went over to the Lion's Head for a couple of pints to discuss my day. Anton gave me a British Lion's flag to fly on our pole tomorrow for the Lions v. South Africa Rugby Union match. We received a lovely bottle of wine from Geoff and Liz next door for having had a scaffolding pole on our land and having flown the New Zealand flag on our pole for their daughter Holly's birthday - she being born in New Zealand.

An uncertain time ahead

Another day in Salisbury where HR were to learn their fate in a series of meetings/briefings today. HR will suffer some redundancy casualties as a result of the restructuring as well as some material changes to their working practices. My day was taken up with meetings and reading a voluminous file for tomorrow morning's meeting in London. This evening I called in at the railway station in Salisbury to buy my ticket for tomorrow's London trip. I also picked up Tom from the Athletics Club at South Wilts. He was a little disappointed to have been beaten in the 150 metres by a Year 5 boy; but he did take it with good grace and accepted that he needs to get into better condition. Tonight's House Group was well attended - Klynn, Steve, Ivan, Duncan, Sylvia and Maxime - but I did think we were getting into Anglican church parochial matters a little too heavily which seems to be unfair to those from the Methodist Church who are very much part of our Christian Group. However, the discussion was lively and constructive in parts. Sara was unable to attend as she was giving a Virgin Vie party over in Downton. When she returned Klynn was still here chatting to me and drinking Sara's Dad's Kentucky bourbon. What a lethal brew that is - 50% proof. Have had to write this blog on Friday morning as we lost our Internet connection last night. In view of the Knob Creek bourbon - probably not a bad thing! All now seems to be working again.

A Good Hand - Farewell to David and Andrea

Today was the last day we would see David and Andrea before they return to the States tomorrow. I hoisted the Confederate battle flag which they had kindly given to me as a present. I had breakfast of black pudding and toast before driving into Salisbury where I was working today. I had meetings with Serena and Jadine on difficult topics which made me quite sad. At lunchtime I met up with Sara, David and Andrea and we went to Reeves for a lunch of Wiltshire pasties. It was really good to get out of the office as I've had a nagging headache all morning. This afternoon I had more meetings with Serena and discovered that some work I had already started was no longer required. I left the office a little early still feeling a bit jaded. Before arriving home I stopped off at Natalie's to deliver some Virgin Vie product from Sara and had a lovely chat with her mother, Mavis, who used to be the receptionist at the Salisbury office, who asked after Sara and seemed very saddened that Sara was being made redundant. I then called in on Klynn and Susan to retrieve the DVD and course guide for the Home Group tomorrow. Klynn made a cup of tea and we sat in his study discussing the outcome of the discussions at the Home Group at Maxime's last week. Maxime is anxious for the group to go out and help the homeless or a charity and whilst that is a good idea we must ensure that the study and teaching continues in the informal groups. No doubt we will discuss this further at the meeting tomorrow. Back home, David and Andrea were already there and David was cooking us an Italian meal in the form of garlic chicken and mushrooms in a cream sauce with tagliatelle. Mary was very excited but Tom was quite glum as he had come 11th out of 13 in a 1000 metre race at Charlton near Andover. He had been in the lead for most of the way until the last lap when he was boxed in and overtaken. Hopefully he will learn from this experience. Everybody was in good spirits around the dinner table - the food David prepared was excellent and we drank a couple of bottles of wine between us. We ended the evening by playing blackjack (with Tom changing the rules each hand!) and watching a highlighted version of our wedding video which we have managed to get on DVD and copied for David and Andrea to take back to the States. David off-loaded some Kentucky bourbon, eggs and cheese and it was with quite some sadness that Mary and I waved them goodbye as Sara drove them back to their cottage in Wilton. Tomorrow night they'll be back in North Carolina. In all probability we will visit them out there next year either on the way to or on the way back from our place in Nassau.

Aspirations Reached

What another great day today. A day free from work and time spent with the family at home and in Salisbury. We started the day off with me cooking us all a hearty English breakfast of bacon, eggs, tomatoes, kidneys, black pudding and fried bread. David thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to eat "an English" with the children having bacon and fried bread. Andrea and Sara went for the healthier option of fruit and yoghurt although Sara did try the kidneys and black pudding. We then raced into Salisbury to the cathedral where we were to join a tour of the tower at 11.00 a.m. We needn't have rushed as the tour did not start until 11.15 a.m. Our tour guide was Anne Harries who proved to be an excellent guide. We climbed the spiral staircase to the triforum and then along to the roof space above the nave ending at the tower clock level at 12 noon in time to hear the chimes from the bells in the floor above. We then ascended a wooden encaged spiral staircase up to the bell chamber where we saw the bells strike the half-hour; we then ascended to the base of the spire by another similar staircase. At the base we were able to look up inside the spire - a fantastic sight as we could see clearly how the spire was held in place by a series of wooden beams configured like an out-turned umbrella. We could just see the light from the weather door. We then went out onto the parapets by three separate doors to view the vista of the city beneath us and to take several photographs. The one looking down Castle Street is displayed in this blog. We came back down much quicker than we went up as the guide had stopped frequently on our ascent to show us or tell us something. We looked around the cathedral's interior once back down on terra firma and went into the bookshop from which there is a great view of the spire. It was very hot by now and so we decided to quench our thirst in the Hsaunch of Venison before having pasties at Reeves and looking around the market. Tom and I went to Eades to get him a new pair of spikes as he is runnig for the school at Charlton Atheltic's ground in London tomorrow. After a coffee at Starbucks we returned to the cars at the cathedral and went back to Winterlsow. Tonight, Susan looked after the children whilst Sara, David, Andrea and I went to Anooka's, the fantastic Indian restaurant in Fisherton Street. We had an excellent meal which Andrea paid for. It rounded off a perfect day. Now to bed.

Year of the Pig!!

Back to Dorking for a rest - or so I thought after such a hectic and fun packed weekend. One of the best weekends I've had in a long time. Last night's pub quiz was the icing on the cake! Now today it was the long haul to Surrey although the traffic was surprisingly kind this morning. The meetings were quite a bit tougher. The need to make savings becomes ever more a challenge and people and culture seem to be going through a "sea-change". By lunchtime I had little appetite so just had cream of chicken soup and a roll (I only had a couple of slices of toast for breakfast too). Sara spent the day - until 2.30 p.m. with her Dad and Andrea in Salisbury. They lunched in the George & Dragon in Castle Street. I left the office reasonably promptly (about 5.20 p.m.) and listened to the brand new series of "I'm Sorry I Haven't a Clue" hosted by Stephen Fry who has replaced the late great Humphrey Lyttleton. The format is still the same and the jokes similar. He is a very good replacement indeed but his timing is nowhere nearly as good as Humph's and he will need to work a bit on it before he will truly replace the great man. I also managed to catch up on The Archers where one of the main plots was the fact that one of Neil's pig suppliers is "going under". Why are pigs featuring in my life so much? In China it's the Year of the Pig - that can be the only explanation. 1959 when Sara was born was also The Year of the Pig and I bought her a silver pig for her charm bracelet too. I am rapidly going off pork! Perhaps I should become a Muslim too! I definitely need an early night tonight - a hot bath and bed. Tomorrow is another busy day with David and Andrea when we plan to climb up the tower of Salisbury Cathedral.

The Winning Post - Church, Racing and Pub Quiz

What another fantastic day today. It was difficult to get up this morning after such an energetic and late party last night. Sara and I had had a great time and were relaxing in bed when we discovered that it was already 8.15 a.m. Malcolm and Sam were already up and Malcolm had made tea. We had a hasty shower and breakfast before David and Andrea arrived at around 9.00 a.m. and we all went off to church. It was an informal praise service with Linda leading - the subject being the Parable of the Mustard Seed - Matthew 13:31. It was a lovely service with coffee outside in the bright and warm sun. My only disappointment was that whilst the songs were very appropriate they were not that well known and I didn't feel I could sing with gusto. The main thing, though, was to have family and friends there - David and Andrea, Malcolm and Sam (although I think Sam would have preferred to have been somewhere else - as Tom!). We returned home for a short while and then we all went to Waitrose in Salisbury for some essential shopping (and me for some necessary cash) before going up to Salisbury Racecourse for the afternoon's racing. We had a wonderful time up there and Mary managed another win - taking home £5.35 to add to her growing holiday savings. We went back to David and Andrea's rented cottage for cold drinks before returning back to Winterslow. I had a short siesta - 1 hour, before David and Andrea returned to us. Tonight I took David down to the Lion's Head pub with Geoff next door, and Paul B for the monthly Pub Quiz. We were later joined by Chris, Jeremy, Klynn, Richard and Tim who formed a second team. We called our team "The Tar Heals" - a deliberate misspelling of the nickname for people from North Carolina. We had some banter between us and we were determined to beat them. We had a really great night; drank a few pints of London Pride bitter between us and won!!! Yeah!!! A bottle of wine each was the prize!! Not only had we beaten our rivals (Chris, Jeremy, Klynn, Richard and Tim) but we beat all the teams there to come first!! To my shame, I didn't recognise "Titanic" (the film) as the answer to one question. I will not be allowed to live that one down! David seemed to have a really good evening and was able to talk about guns to Paul who is a serving major in the army. When we got home, a bit later than we had predicted, Andrea said she could see David had enjoyed himself. He fitted in well with the group who took to him as a long lost friend. Tonight I noted quite a few positive comments on Facebook about Sara's party which seems to have been such an immense success with our friends. It will be so hard to go to work tomorrow after such an exciting and fun packed weekend - pig roasts apart!

A pig of a morning...but a brilliant afternoon

What a turmoil of a morning we had today. Sara received a telephone call at around 9.10 a.m. from the hog roast company she had booked to say that the man operating it was involved in a serious car crash and couldn't come today. It was slightly suspicious as the woman making the call didn't seem terribly distressed and didn't mention what she would be doing with the pig which must have been ordered. Sara and I rang round a number of other companies to find none could do it but, eventually, through Robinson's the excellent butchers in Stockbridge, we were able to obtain details of a butcher in Hursley who could supply some pork legs which could be cooked in time and served hot on a grill. Phew! Further investigations on the Internet indicated that our first supplier might not be all that he had said and may, in fact, be operating a scam in the north-west of England. We may have lost a considerable amount of money and so we will wait to see if we get a refund. If not, then we will track him down and sue him if necessary. That setback aside, we were able to get into the village hall quite early and get everything prepared. Promptly at 4 p.m. people started arriving and we soon had over a hundred people. The chocolate fountain was a huge success with the kids (and grown ups); the roast pork absolutely excellent and the company fantastic. Such kind people. Klynn had organised half a dozen tee-shirts with a picture of Sara as a teenager with Alan Rickman on the front - an adaptation of a scene from the film "Mesmer". The legend read "Thanks for the memory. Love Alan x". Klynn, David, Paul, Richard, Malcolm and I wore one each. Cynthia kindly said a lovely Grace and it was good to see Nils and Family here although he will be attending his father's funeral in Sweden on Monday. We will put the Swedish flag at half-mast for him. Sara got an amazing amount of presents and so many flowers that our house looks like a florists. Everybody was so kind and helpful. It once more reinforced our view that we live in such a wonderful community. David and Andrea remarked on this and I think were quite overwhelmed with the love and affection displayed towards Sara. There is no doubt that everybody had an absolutely fantastic time. Malcolm and Sam are staying with us tonight. They have come down from Liverpool especially to share Sara's day. Sara is, without doubt, held in really high esteem - such a loving, generous and trusting person - the person I fell so much in love with.

A Happy Reunion with Paella

An historic day today. We were to meet Sara's father and wife for the first time for nearly eleven years and in Mary's case for the first time ever. I worked in the Salisbury office today until 4 p.m. apart form a brief break at 1 p.m. for lunch. I left the office promptly at 4 p.m. to drive to Quidhampton to pick up David and Andrea and bring them back to Winterslow. The meeting went very well and they were delighted to see us all. They brought presents of a tee shirt for Tom, some personalised writing pads for both of the children, some Reeses' peanut butter chocolate, a selection of flags for me - North Carolina, Confederate States and Confederate Battle flag, yellow roses for Sara and a New England coat hanger. The re-union was very relaxed and went very well. I cooked my signature dish of paella which contained chicken, chorizo sausage, prawns, squid, scallops and mussels. I was very pleased with the result and it tasted one of my best ever. We washed it down with some of the excellent Spanish red wine I bought yesterday (I gave the second bottle to David to take back to their cottage). Before sitting down to the table we had some celebratory champagne and toasted "Happy Families". After the paella we had a selection of cheeses, coffee and Courvoisier cognac. The atmosphere was light and enjoyable with many anecdotes and jokes surrounding Sara's life and the quiz questions. Sara drove them back to Quidhampton afterwards whilst I attended to the dishes. All in all a very successful day and evening. Tomorrow is the big one with Sara's party at the Village Hall.

My first Deanery Synod meeting

Back in Salisbury today. The weather was drizzling this morning but soon brightened up and we had warm sunshine for the rest of the day. Tom needed to take a letter into school to confirm that he would be taking Tuesday off to be with his Grandpa and also one week after his half-term holiday for the trip to the Bahamas. Typical Tom, he rushed off for the school bus without the letter. Fortunately I was a able to drive up to the bus stop with his letter - and also his dinner money - before the bus left. My day at work was fairly uneventful with meetings and paperwork. On my way home I stopped off at Waitrose and bought a couple of bottles of recommended Spanish red wine and some seafood for our Spanish paella evening meal with David and Andrea tomorrow. Tonight I attended my first Deanery Synod meeting at Downton and took Mike M-J, the treasurer, with me. Before leaving, I showed Sara how to operate the power mower so that she could tidy up the back lawn which had grown since I cut it at the weekend. In fact, in showing her I cut most of the lawn myself! We are both anxious that the house and garden look good for her Dad's visit tomorrow. The Synod meeting was surprisingly enjoyable. We started with a full Eucharist, then coffee followed by the meeting proper. This included a report from General Synod and the issue of women bishops and then a discussion on the allocation of the parish share in the context of the teams having only one and half stipendiary priests each. There was then a short presentation by Sara B (not my Sara!) on her work as a Lay Pastoral Assistant and finally a short talk by the Rural Dean on the "Back to Church" initiative which the Church of England is promoting to get people to come to church within a more welcoming environment. The talk was quite inspirational. On returning home, Sara printed out her Questions for her party. Tomorrow is going to be quite a landmark day with our first meeting with her Dad and Andrea since our awful visit to them in the USA in 1998. I have just realised - we haven't seen them this century!

We're going to Spring Harvest 2010!!

It was the Duke of Edinburgh's 88th Birthday today so the Union flag was hoisted. The weather turned cool and wet this morning and I had to drive through some quite heavy showers on my way to Dorking. Sara left early also to go up to the Moodys' at Robin Hill Farm to dial in to the Butlins' Spring Harvest Booking Line. She phoned me just after 8.30 a.m. to say we had all been successfully booked in. Hurrah! A year without going to Spring Harvest seems unthinkable now. We couldn't get the bungalows we wanted for 4 people so we will be back in our usual apartment accommodation. The Blue Sky Apartments were not available for Max either. Sara also told me that her father's flight Once in Dorking I had a meeting which lasted nearly all the morning and dealt with some complaint cases in the afternoon. Tonight Sara and I spoke to David who is at a hotel in Suffolk drinking real ale. He and Andrea are tired after their long transatlantic flight. Tonight we ate a curry which I brought in from Sainsbury's in Farnham and then I prepared the paperwork for my Deanery Synod meeting tomorrow. England won their World Cup Qualifier tonight at Wembley against Andorra 6-0 and they have as good as qualified already with three games still to go. I also learned this evening that Millvina's funeral will be next week and only family are requested to attend. Such a pity as I would dearly have liked to have gone. Sara found some old video recordings of us all having tea at Millvina's bungalow many years ago.

Running

Today would have been Sara's mother's seventy-second birthday and we flew the St. Geoerge's flag in memory. In Salisbury again today to interview two crucial witnesses for the employment tribunal in Exeter at the beginning of July. My colleague from Dorking, Belinda, spent the day with me assisting in the taking of the statements. Once again it was a very full day with just a short break for lunch. On the way into work I made a slight detour through Laverstock to drop off the housegroup material to Maxime as she will be leading the group at her house on Thursday - I shall be attending my first Deanery Synod meeting in Downton and Sara will be preparing the house for the visit of her father and step mother on Friday. I was shocked today to find that a good colleague of mine with whom I have worked closely on claims and been on many business trips with has decided to resign and take early retirement. With Sara leaving in July it is going to get lonelier and lonelier as more and more colleagues and friends depart. Tonight Sara cooked us a family roast chicken dinner after which Tom and I went up to the Rec so he could practice his sprinting. He had a very successful day at school today when the sports master recognized his great running ability - especially long distance - and Tom is keen to progress in his athletics. This is a real talent of his and with perseverance at training and rejoining the Athletics Club he could easily compete at a high level - perhaps even competing in the 2016 Olympics if he gets noticed in the right places. Sara's Dad flies out tonight from Raleigh-Durham Airport to London Heathrow arriving at 6.00 a.m. before he sets off for a few days in Suffolk before visiting us. Tomorrow it's up to Dorking for the first time in ten days.

A Monday not to hate (nothing went too wrong!)

It was lovely to be working in Salisbury on a Monday. It was a great day and I got through quite a lot of niggling work as well as having a meeting with Claims in the morning and a telephone 1:1 with my boss in the afternoon. Both meetings were very positive and resulted in clear plans. I also discovered that I had won two tickets for Friends Provident Trophy 20/20 cricket match between Warwickshire v Somerset at Edgbaston on the 28th June. I shall probably take Tom as Sara doesn't enjoy or understand cricket. We will support Somerset, no doubt, and fly the Somerset flag that day! At lunchtime I visited the bank and post office and posted off a printed copy of last week's blog to Mum. She certainly reads it and it is a good way of her keeping up to date with what is going on down here. This evening I scanned another couple of photos and managed to crop one of Sara's Mum to fit into a postcard frame. She now wants me find and adjust one of her father to put into a frame too. It is fantastic what you can so with photographically with all the modern technology available. With all my old photos and slide which I can now scan, crop and enhance, I have hours of enjoyable work ahead of me. I also burned a couple of copies of Indescribable for Maxime and Steve L. I took a copy around to Steve together with the vegetarian menu for Sara's party. I also delivered cheques for the hire of the Village Hall to Sharon. Sara had a number of phone calls including one from her mother's old friend Myrna confirming she was coming on Saturday. The weather was kind to us today - no rain and rather cool. Tomorrow is Sara's Mum's birthday and we will hoist the English St. George's flag. Sara's big toe is hurting again tonight and we think the diagnosis might be gout. I also emailed our house group members as I will not be able to lead the group on Thursday night because I shall be attending my first Deanery Synod at Downton and Sara wants to use the time to make sure all is prepared for her father's visit on Friday. I was amused this evening to learn through Facebook that one of Klynn's daughters had, for a dare, run into the road in her pyjamas and "mooned". Very amusing but I am sure she will get "The Stare" on his return - as will Susan!

Trinity Sunday

I slept fitfully last night - principally because of Sara's snoring! I found myself waking periodically during the night. Eventually, I got up at 8 a.m. but few others stirred. Only Tom and I went to church this morning - an All Age Eucharist service taken by Elizabeth. It was another good service by Elizabeth with her explaining the concept of the Trinity using the three forms of water - ice, representing the cold, awesome, remote concept of the Father; water - representing the cleansing, life giving flowing power of the Son; and steam, the nimble, all pervading yet difficult-to-put-in-a-box concept of the Holy Spirit. The children loved it, especially the ice which some of them ate! Norman T reminded me that he wanted me to speak at Probus in November so I must note it down in my diary - the history of the great transatlantic liners. Klynn came up with a great idea for Sara's party which, because Sara reads this blog, I am unable to disclose. It is likely to cause some mirth at the party. Sara now has a total of 75 adults and 45 children coming - a grand total of 120! I do hope the pig and the chocolate will go round. This afternoon, Tom and I made two trips to the Amesbury Recycling Centre with more garden debris and all the old laminate flooring which we've replaced by floor tiles in the en-suite. As a reward, I took him to the same KFC which Klynn and I had visited yesterday. This afternoon I went round to Richard's to make sure that my laptop and his projector would work together in displaying, on a screen, all the photos of Sara I had scanned from David's slides and old prints. It worked!! We are now set up for the slide show on Saturday. I attended the West Dean BCP Evensong this evening. There were only about a dozen of us with only me and Tania from Winterslow. It was a nice, quite meditative type of service with a sermon from Gill again on the topic of the Trinity. Back home I cleaned my car, both inside and out before Malcolm phoned from Liverpool to ask about arrangements for the next weekend. We had a long chat about many topics but in particular about the lack of frankness of many company's towards their employees at this time of recession. His own company is suspending all employer pension contributions for six-months. I wonder how much longer our final salary scheme will go on for. It is going to be really difficult for Tom's generation. We are probably the last of the lucky ones. I rang Mum tonight. She seemed in fine fettle but has to go to the hospital again on the 22nd for the results of further tests to be explained to her. I finished the day by scanning another couple of photos including our favourite one taken of us all in the Bahamas by a professional photographer. I have now made that my desktop picture. We are so looking forward to being back there - total relaxation.

In an English country garden

A day spent almost entirely in the garden or on gardening related activities. However, I started the morning by cycling to Roger's in Tytherley Road for the monthly Men's Breakfast. We had an excellent full English breakfast again of bacon, sausage, egg, tomatoes and beans with coffee and toast. I gave the presentation this morning choosing as my subject the topic of Stop the Traffik's chocolate campaign. It came as quite a surprise to everybody present that child slave labour is used so prolifically in the harvesting of the cocoa bean. I handed out some of the Fairtrade coupons for them to give out to retailers when they buy Fairtrade chocolate. Back home I had a coffee before tackling the massive job of trimming the hedge around our boundary using a combination of shears and my new tree lopping tool. In the end I had a mass of debris which I needed to dispose of. Sara and Mary were at ballet school and then went to All Saints for a wedding in which Mary was singing in the choir. Afterwards Sara returned home and Mary went off with Sara M and Molly to a birthday bowling party at Strikes. I continued to work on the hedge and Klynn helped me to gather up all the debris into a large tarpaulin which we wrapped up and put in the back of the car to take to the Amesbury Recycling Centre. I had never visited it before and was impressed as to how organised it was with more car parking and a larger selection of different types of materials for recycling than at Salisbury. Our green waste went into a special skip which has a mulching/composting mechanism. They sell the compost resulting from this production. As a treat, and because neither of us had had any lunch, Klynn and I treated ourselves to a KFC Variety Bucket at Solstice Retail Park. Having finished trimming the hedge I then mowed both front and back lawn. They looked really good - neat and tidy. Tonight, after a supper of spaghetti bolognese and red wine, I booked the Comfort Suites for our second week in Nassau although got one of the dates wrong so I'll need to speak to them to make an amendment. At least we will now have accommodation for the full 15 days.

Golf with Mary

Another day in Salisbury with a morning full of meetings. Quite a similar day to last week with a break at lunchtime for the Christian Fellowship meeting. Sara, unfortunately, couldn't join us as she had a meeting which lasted well into the CF meeting and she decided to use the remainder of her lunch hour buying balloons, poppers and bunting for her birthday celebration. I slipped out to the bank but otherwise spent all day inside the office. I joined Vicki H, Sarah C and Vicki's husband for a quick drink in the George & Dragon after work. They serve excellent John Smith's Bitter - beautifully kept and chilled so there is, at least, one pub in Salisbury for David and Andrea to visit. Tonight Mary and I visited Grateley to play golf having found that she needs larger clubs too - so I fitted her out with some of Tom's junior clubs. We played from about 7.30 p.m until 9.00 p.m. and then visited The Plough at Grateley where we sat outside, me with a bitter shandy and Mary with a J2O orange and passion fruit. My golf was slightly better than the other evening when I played with Tom and I went round in 39. Mary found driving difficult and so she was taking quite a few shots. She needs to get some driving practice and learn how to swing a club properly. Nevertheless, she enjoyed her game and remarked that it was good exercise. Unfortunately, she did not win the prize for the best presentation at school today although she was a finalist. Tonight we received an email from Sara's Dad with details of where he is staying near Salisbury. I will pick him and Andrea up next week. A short blog today. I need to skim read Steve Chalke's book on Stop the Traffik as I may be called upon to give a short presentation about the chocolate issue tomorrow at Men's Breakfast.

Removing the plank from the eye!!

My plans to go to Dorking today were shattered when Sara announced, on waking, that she had something in her eye which was scratching her right eyeball badly, that she couldn't see through it, that it was causing her pain and that as she had broken her spectacles she was unable to see anything! Quite a mess! We needed to get Mary and Molly to school and I would have to take Sara into Salisbury, either the optician or the A&E Unit at Salisbury General Hospital. Having dropped off the girls, I drove us into the city. Apparently some friends of ours were very concerned as they had seen me linking arms with Sara at the school and she seemed in a state as she appeared to be crying! We managed to get Sara an immediate appointment with David, the jovial and slightly eccentric optician, who removed a small piece of debris from her eye after checking over her sight and prescribing some long distance vision spectacles. "Cas", our friend who is a technician at the opticians, chose a lovely pair of Karen Millen spectacles which look really good on her. We had to wait one and a half hours for them to be ready so we had a coffee and pastry at the Cathedral Refectory. We also visited Sarum College Bookshop to buy a card for Cynthia on the occasion of her being priested. Once we had picked up Sara's new glasses, I drove us both back home for some lunch before I went back into Salisbury to finish the day in the Salisbury office. Morale was low there as further redundancies were announced in HR. After I had finished work, I stopped off at John H's to deliver some post from United Grand Lodge and pick up some fish and chips from Fry's at the bottom of Devizes Road. It was difficult to park and it seemed to take forever to get served. Eventually I got three haddocks, two chips and a sausage and returned home with them in a box. The house was in turmoil when I got back - the new carpet had been fitted in the lounge and dining room and most of the furniture was on the lawn (ah, memories of the pranks we played at the Halls of Residence in Liverpool when we removed the complete contents of Wayne's room and re-constructed it on the lawn!). We had five for our House Group this evening and managed to get all the furniture back in time for that - including re-connecting the TV and DVD player. We had a very pleasant evening discussing Steve Chalke's The Apprentice and discussing, in particular, the topic of "Belonging". The evening went very quickly indeed. Linda arrived before we started to discuss preferences for Spring Harvest next year. Only another 5 days before the bookings for 2010 open.

Brazil mourns Flight AF447

Awoke at 6.30 a.m. today and hoisted the French flag at half-mast after learning that there was to be a three-day period of mourning in Brazil for the 228 people on board the missing Air France Airbus. It was also announced that wreckage found in the Atlantic had definitely come from an Air France airliner. There is little doubt now that this wreckage is the remains of Flight AF447. After my long trip to Exeter and back, yesterday, it was good to only be in Salisbury today. A full day as usual with a short lunch break in the restaurant with Andy P - roast beef and trimmings. Sara went out to lunch with the rest of the HR Lead Consultants - their very last meeting today before the role is redundant with the termination of most of them - including Sara. The end of an era. I received a phone call from Stop the Traffik relating to a further initiative they have and asking me if I am interested in being involved. I have arranged to see Simon and Ruth on Friday 19 June up at their offices in London following meetings I have there already to discuss this and other issues where I can help. This evening Tom and I went to Grateley to play some golf. Tom hadn't played for quite a while and it was clear that his junior glove and junior clubs were now too small for him and he had to use my second set of adult clubs (those I reserve for visitors) and buy him a new glove from Roger, the Professional. Tom seemed to get the hang of the larger clubs immediately and played some excellent golf. His driving was much better than mine and I had an awful half-round shooting a 46 (it was 36 last time out!) and Tom managed 48 (the first time he has gone under 50). In matchplay terms we drew 4.5 - 4.5. It was a pleasant warm evening and we visited The Plough pub in Grateley afterwards. Tonight I also scanned in a few more photos of Sara. No Desperate Housewives tonight - they have finished for the season - yippeeee!!

A Visit to Devon

I woke this morning to yet another bright and sunny day. After making tea and cooking bacon for Tom and me, I set off for our Exeter office by way of Amesbury where I picked up my colleague, Belinda, who had driven down from Dorking. We made good time at got to Exeter at just before 9.30 a.m. and settled ourselves down in the HR Department there. The office in Exeter was such a contrast to earlier days - only three people in and it resembled at chapel of rest. It was so quiet and sombre. Belinda and I had a full day interviewing witnesses for a tribunal to be held in Exeter in a month's time but did manage to get a short lunch break - I had a quorn chow mein-style noodle dish which filled a hole but had little else to recommend it. It was again hot hot hot - reaching 28.5 degrees Celsius. We completed our work by 4.30 p.m. and returned to Amesbury along the A303. The radio news announced that wreckage had been found in the Atlantic Ocean along the flight path of the Air France Airbus which disappeared on Monday night. The wreckage included what appeared to be airline seats which strongly suggested that Flight AF447 did indeed come down into the ocean. When I got back home I found Sara was out. I made a cup of tea and then spent the evening scanning into my laptop all the dozens of old photographs Sara gave me which depict her first 50 years. When added to the ones I've scanned from slides, we now have a substantial collection for her Party on the 13th . A particular favourite is published here!

Another Atlantic Tragedy

Another very hot day today and another one tinged with sadness and tragedy. I woke up reasonably early and picked Anthony up at Grateley Station on the way in to Dorking. I had hoisted the Union Flag at half-mast in memory of Millvina Dean, who had survived the great Atlantic Titanic tragedy 97 years ago. As I drove up to Surrey, the news of Millvina's death was overtaken by two further news stories - that Susan Boyle the "Britain's Got Talent" runner-up singer had been admitted to the Priory Hospital in London under the Mental Health Act and that an Airbus 330-200 belonging to Air France had disappeared over the Atlantic on a flight from Rio de Janeiro to Paris north west of the Brazilian city of Natal. It was believed that it had been struck by lightning but there was no trace of it and all 228 on board were believed to have perished. It is unusal as most crashes occur over land or near airports. If it has plummeted into the Atlantic Ocean, it will be difficult to recover the flight recorder. There were two further famous deaths today - Danny La Rue the female impersonator and Vincent O'Brien the famous horseracing trainer. I spent the day in our Dorking office catching up on end of month paperwork - mileage returns, monthly reports etc. and a tele-conference with our Indian outsourcers. Lunch was a smoked mackerel salad - quite honestly, there wasn't anything else of merit on the menu except the potato and sweet pepper soup which was surprisingly rather good. I left the office promptly at 5 p.m. and called in at Sainsbury's in Farnham for some shopping including some red roses and gypsophillia for Sara for her kindness and patience towards us all. When I got home Mary had prepared a talk to give to her class on the inportance of Fairtrade products. It was an excellent piece of work and I laminated her talk so it didn't get torn and provided her with a few pages off the Stop the Traffik website so she could give the class some details of what chocolate they could eat and where they can buy it. Tonight we had an Indian ready meal from Sainsbury's and I put together some final questions for Sara's Birthday Quiz.