Up to Surrey

Up early today. The alarm on my mobile phone went off at 5.30 a.m. but I lingered in bed until just after 6.00 a.m. I made tea and had toasted soda farls with marmalade for breakfast and packed my lunch. I said goodbye to Sara and set off for Dorking arriving there at around 9.20 a.m. There was a scheduled Senior Managers' Meeting at 10 a.m. but this was replaced by a Director's Briefing on the proposed changes to our employment terms. These will certainly make a difference financially to me next year - not for the better! I ate home-made sandwiches, with some vegetable soup from the office restaurant, at my desk where I also dealt with some paperwork. I did go for a short 20-minutes walk across the road to our sports field to view the state of our small pitch and put course. The previous nine holes have now been truncated to four! The greens are non-existent now and hardly worth the bother of keeping. So sad. I remember when we used to go out there on a summer's lunchtime or after work and play the nine holes with quite decent greens too. Worked through then until just before 5 p.m. and drove home via Farnham and Odiham arriving back in Winterslow at 6.45 p.m. I sorted out my paperwork and bag for tomorrow as I am catching the 7.10 a.m. flight from Southampton Airport to Manchester - yes, a day working in Manchester tomorrow returning tomorrow night. Vicki will be calling at 5.30 a.m. and I must be awake and ready to go - yes I really must be. We have to park the car and then go through security - we've already checked in. Although I went to bed at 10 p.m. after a shower I stayed awake for another hour to watch a programme on TV in which Keith Allen met Keith Floyd at his home in Provence. It was sad to see how age and booze had had its toll on him.