Island in the Sun

We have been away in the Bahamas from 23rd October until 8th November. In due course a summary blog will appear here on all we did over those 15 days. Daily postings will recommence on Monday 9th November.

BNP on Question Time

A final day this week in Dorking. As we are moving shortly back into the main building I spent a good bit of the day clearing out a lot of old papers which I don't think I need any more. I had lunch with Nigel G followed by a nice latte. Tonight we had three for the House Group - not many but as Sara is feeling very unwell with her bronchitis and went to bed very early coughing badly. We continued to study the First Letter to Timothy. Tonight also saw the screening of the controversial Question Time with Nick Griffin, the Leader of the BNP. Opinion has been divided as to whether this should have been allowed to happen or not. He is, after all, the leader of a political party with 12 councillors and 2 MEPs. I think it was a good move as he came across very uncomfortable and shifty and was very unconvincing in denying some of the racist statements he has made previously and which can be seen on YouTube. I believe that the credibility of the BNP was severely damaged by tonight's programme.

Hot Toddys are the order of the day

In Salisbury today and found it so difficult to wake up. Mornings are so dark now - at least when we put the clocks back on Sunday mornings will be a little lighter for a time but I shall then be driving home from Dorking (and Salisbury for that matter) in the dark. Golf will be confined to weekends only - but Richard is up for a few days golf over the winter so that we can keep our eye and swing in. The weather was wet again today. It was also the day of Tim's funeral so I hoisted the Union flag at half-mast - to be raised to full mast at 4 p.m. after the funeral and to mark the point during the Battle of Trafalgar (it is Trafalgar Day today) when Nelson was told that the battle was won. I took my lunch break between 10 a.m. and 11 a.m. today on account of back to back meetings right through normal lunchtime. I met up with Sara in Starbucks as we both had errands to run in town this morning. This afternoon I gave a presentation to HR staff on the Transfer of Undertakings (Protection of Employment) Regulations or TUPE. It had been useful attending the Employment Law Conference in London last week as I was able to use some of the material (particularly recent case law) for my own presentation. When I got home this evening we had a houseful of children as Sara had agreed to look after Louise's boy and Klynn and Susan's girls because their parents were stuck in traffic or were picking up family members from the airport. Sara cooked us sweet and sour pork with boiled rice for supper. She is suffering badly with a toothache and nasty bronchial cough but has antibiotics. I fixed her up a couple of "hot toddys" with a generous dose of Scotch whisky in each. Off to Dorking again tomorrow so a fairly early night I think.

More laptop frustration

A second consecutive day in Dorking - quite an unusual occurrence these days. The weather was wet and miserable as I left home today. I arrived at the office at 9.45 a.m. and immediately my laptop was taken out of action in order for it to be re-installed with Windows 2007. The whole process taking two and a half hours which meant I was unable to do any online work. I and Belinda and Matt looked over the CVs for Karen's temporary replacement and made a short-list of five which I took over to HR. I joined Anthony, Matt and Michael for lunch - tasking over my packed lunch from home and this afternoon joined in a teleconference on one of our income protection claims. I left the office fairly promptly a little after 5 p.m. and arived home at just before 7 p.m. Sara went out tonight to one of her best Virgin Vie clients and is hoping to bring back some big orders. Tonight I completed Complex's Annual return on line and printed off all the essential documents for our holiday arrangements. Mary played a game on Sara's laptop and I watched a poor film based on the Loch Ness Monster - with American Scottish accents - whilst writing up the blog.

A "tyring" day in Dorking

Off to Dorking today following the settling of my case in Manchester. So glad that I haven't got to lose a day this week going up and coming back from Manchester. In Dorking I was able to bash on with some paperwork and prepare files for Belinda to nurse in my absence. Whilst in the mood to deal with all those niggling things I rang Companies House about the filing of Complex's Annual Return and went at lunchtime to Kwik Fit in Dorking to sort out my leaking front nearside tyre. When I was told that there would be a 2 hour wait I decided to leave it until later in the day and go back at about 4 p.m. - which I duly did. I was informed that not only did I have a leaking tyre on the front but two tyres on the back bordering on the illegal. The whole replacement and repair would take an hour so I walked into Dorking to find Costa Coffee. Whilst on my way I had a phone call from Kwik Fit telling me that they couldn't find the special alloy wheel nut. I had to walk back to delve into the car and find it for them - in the net under the passenger foot-well. I then returned into Dorking town centre and had my caramel latte. Saras had a meeting to go to in Southampton tonight and, fortunately, I got back in time to pick Mary up from her drama class in the village hall. Once back we watched "Walking with Monsters" together on the Eden Channel before she went to bed. Tesco's arrived with our weekly grocery delivery at 9 p.m. and Tom and I put them away. I then sat down to write this blog before watching a programme on the Titanic's sister, RMS Britannic.

Another Sporting and Churching Sunday

Awoke at 7 a.m. this morning and dozed for a little while. I remembered that Mary was singing a solo in the church choir this morning and I was reading the lesson. I showered and made tea as usual and had a bowl of cereal. Mustering the troop, Mary and I drove on ahead to church. Unfortunately, I missed Mary's solo as I had to leave just before the end of the service to take Tom to his football match at Barry's Field against Dinton Juniors. Tom and I got to the football ground at 10.30 a.m. and he ran off to join his team mates. I popped in to the Pavilion to use the toilet and smelled the wonderful aroma of cooking bacon. Following the smell I found myself in the function room where Shaun and Peter Y were chatting, making bacon butties and drinking tea. They asked me to join them and I had a second breakfast. We chatted about such diverse topics as the fortunes of the Saints and the worrying statistic that there are more suicides per thousand population in South Wiltshire than anywhere else. According to Peter, the national average rate is 4 per thousand whereas in South Wiltshire it is 19 per thousand! Tom played well this morning passing the ball well and accurately and it is a pity he didn't get any goals to show this statistically. Clarendon Juniors (Tom's team) beat Dinton 11-0! Should have been a goal for each team member then! I heard a number of the parents on the sidelines remark on Tom's skills which made me feel very proud. I was absolutely hopeless at football as a schoolboy so he certainly hasn't inherited his skills from me! One sport I have always been reasonably good at is golf. After a typical Sunday lunch of tacos! Richard called and we went off to Wilton for nine holes of golf. He had a new set of clubs and used this as an excuse for some of his mis-shots and over-hits. Although I haven't played for about three weeks I was pleased to go round in 45 although I didn't get any pars today. Tonight I went to the Deanery Mission Service at Farley. The Deanery Mission Project this year has been Save the Children in Ethiopia. Over £3,500 was donated from the Deanery churches this evening with still more to come. I spoke to Mum briefly on the phone this evening. She seemed to be well - but suffering from the usual aches and pains. We spoke briefly about holidays and the usual topic of the fortunes of Grimsby Town FC and Southampton FC which seem very different at the moment. Tomorrow I am going to Dorking - my case in Manchester having settled.

A fairly lazy Saturday/Saints go marching on

A bit of a lazy morning today - spent the first part of it looking out my casual holiday clothing - much of it seems to have shrunk since I last wore it! Mary didn't go to ballet today so we all spent the day at home - I did some tidying up and shredding documents. Also paid some bills via the Internet. Saints beat Oldham Athletic away this afternoon 3-1 and they are now off the bottom of League 1. That makes it three wins in a row in the league - two away and one at home. They are currently four points from getting out of the relegation zone and nine points from the play-offs - indeed if it wasn't for their 10 point deduction at the beginning of the season they would be in the play-offs area now. I have every confidence that they will survive and end up well this season. Alan Pardew does seem to know what he is doing. This evening we all watched Field of Dreams again - the children for the first time. It gets better every time I see it. We ended the evening watching a drama documentary on the "Unsinkable Titanic". I watched about half of it and then recorded the rest to watch tomorrow before going to bed.

Down in Devon

I awoke at 7 a.m. this morning and realised that I was due to be in a meeting in Exeter at 10 a.m. After a hasty shower, tea and toast breakfast and a quick gathering of my papers, I was off to Devon. The Porton Down road is currently closed for improvements so I had to drive up to the Wallops and join the A303 at Cholderton. The weather was misty and drizzling. I had a good journey down to Devon and arrived at my appointment with our solicitors in Southernhay Gardens, Exeter at 10.10 a.m. This meeting was very successful and was followed by another meeting with firm at 12.15 p.m. Following that meeting I drove to our offices at Clyst St. Mary and stayed in the office until about 3.30 p.m. and then drove back to Winterslow. Sara had taken Adam up to Heathrow to catch his flight back to Thailand (with Mary). Tom and I went across to the Village Hall to take part in the Top Team Quiz and joined Elizabeth, Cynthia and Richard as the "Holy Huddle" team. We started off well but trailed off in the end. Sara joined us later and won the Head and Tails Game and Mary was given some chocolate eclairs for helping as a "runner" later on. It was a great evening and we had quite a few laughs. Richard and I retired to the pub after we'd help put all the chairs away. Sara seems extremely tired again tonight but we watched a couple of episodes of Monty Python's Flying Circus before she finally took herself off to bed.

Teaching and Thai Rum

In Salisbury again today but no dentist. Lots of paperwork to get through and felt a bit like a teacher as I checked letters and documents for others. Not a particularly stimulating day but a long and busy one. I popped into Sarum College again at lunchtime and managed to get another couple of booklets for the House Group course. As it turned out it was lucky that I did. Sara took Adam into Southampton to sit his examination at St. Mary's and managed to get there and back without problems thanks to her sat. nav. Adam has stayed on in Botley tonight with old school friends. Good house group this evening with Klynn, Sara, Janet, Rosemary, Dawn, Ivan and myself. A good discussion on "false teachers". I also gave the group an insight into the internal workings of the Church of England with its various levels of synods. Klynn stayed a little while after and we sampled some of Adam's Thai rum so apologies if some of the typing and grammar are a little unusual. Tomorrow I shall be off to Exeter early for meetings with solicitors.

Another Farewell/Deanery Synod

Another early start this morning. I drove into the office early as I had an appointment with the dentist at 8.40 a.m. The weather was bright and sunny again today as I walked from our offices to the dentists in St. Anne's Street - aptly named as my dentist is also Anne! Fortunately I had no problems with my teeth and the check-up went quickly - I spent longer chatting to her about her geographical exploits than in having my teeth expected. I also made an appointment with the dental hygienist - the most painful way of parting with money I know! It will be well into November before I can see her though! Back at the office I had meetings all morning and worked through my lunch hour with just a baguette to eat. This evening I joined some of the HR girls for yet another farewell supper - this time for Deborah from our Manchester office. We ate at The Lemon Tree in Crane Street, close to the Masonic Hall, and I had a lovely brie and pear on toast followed by "tipsy chicken" which, as its name suggests, was breast of chicken with white wine and cream sauce. I left before the deserts as I had to attend a Deanery Synod meeting at Sarum College. The meeting opened in prayers from Elizabeth and I stayed for the first half - the business of the Synod and the reports from General and Diocesan Synod. Two presentations were being given in the second half copies of which I will receive in due course, so I slipped out in order to get home at a reasonable time to spend what was left of the evening with Sara and Adam. We chatted over cheese and biscuits (my belated third course) before Adam went to be at the early time of 10.30 p.m. - he has his examination to sit tomorrow afternoon in Southampton. I have another day in Salisbury to look forward to tomorrow.

A day's training in London

Up very early again this morning - 5.30 a.m. Adam was already awake and after I had showered, made tea, had some breakfast cereal, we said goodbye to Sara and drove off, in the dark with the stars still shining, to Salisbury Station. There, Adam and I parted company - him to catch the 0640 train to Bristol (en route to Plymouth) and me the 0645 train to London. Klynn joined my train at Grateley and we journeyed up together - Klynn buying me a coffee. Once at Waterloo I took the Bakerloo and Circle lines to High Street Kensington where I attended an all day employment law update conference at the Kensington Town Hall. I very good conference indeed with excellent speakers and I was delighted to be assured of a number of stances I have taken recently on legal issues related to redundancy and TUPE. An excellent lunch was provided - trout, sweet and sour chicken, fruit salad, wine and coffee. The day passed incredibly quickly and I returned to Salisbury on the 1750 train from Waterloo. Klynn joined me again as far as Grateley and I returned his hospitality of this morning by buying him a tea. Tonight I have spent most of the evening catching up on correspondence and backing up my computer documents onto an external hard drive. It seems that I should be able to synchronize everything on my hard drive, including programmes, onto this external drive but I must confess to not understanding it all. I have merely uploaded copies of pictures and documents as I would not to memory stick. Will close now as I must now help Sara fill out her share option forms in light of the proposed takeover of our company.

Uncle Adam arrives from Thailand

m. After such a late night last night it was very hard to get up this morning. Sara's alarm went off at 6.45 a.m. and fortunately woke me up - although it was set for 7 a.m. I made tea as usual, showered and hoisted the Canadian flag as it was Canadian Thanksgiving Day. I left a little later than normal and due to problems on the M25 (fuel spillage just before Junction 10) got in at 9.55 a.m. - just five minutes before the Senior Managers' Meeting at 10 a.m. That meeting took up the whole morning and at lunchtime I went into Dorking to bank some cheques and some cash and buy myself a sandwich from Sainsbury's. This afternoon was a real rush to get a number of tasks completed before I went off to Heathrow Airport to pick Adam up from his Etihad Flight 017 from Abu Dhabi. I had a good journey to Heathrow arriving at 4.45 p.m. - about an hour before his flight actually landed. I had a wander around Terminal 4 and watched a few planes making their approach to the runway. Adam came through security at 6.30 p.m. and we were on our way back to Wiltshire by 6.45 p.m. arriving back at Winterslow at 8 p.m. Adam had brought us all lovely presents from Thailand and Mary was particularly delighted to see her Uncle Adam again. Sara had cooked us all a cottage pie. Although it is not yet 10 p.m. we are all feeling pretty tired and Adam and I need to be up early again tomorrow to go to Salisbury Railway Station where we are catching trains to Plymouth and London respectively.

Eye of a Needle

Up at 7.30 a.m. today. I went to church on my own this morning at Sara was not feeling up to going and both Mary and Tom were tired. It was a good Praise Service with the theme being the idea of letting go. I gave the First Reading from Hebrews and Klynn the Second Reading from the gospel about the camel and the eye of the needle. A good story for today. I went up to Barry's Field via Weston Lane where I noticed many people standing outside the Baptist Church looking in bewilderment and an ambulance quickly followed me and drove in front of the church. This flurry of activity was quickly followed by an air ambulance. It was only later in the day that I discovered that Tim Elliott, a stalwart of the church and village, a kind and gentle man, had collapsed and died whilst leading the service. Such a tragedy. Tom's team lost 6-8 in the Wiltshire Cup against Sarum Youth. A hard fought game which was very exciting at times. I worked hard during the afternoon to get as many documents and pieces of software on to the new laptop. I had a particular struggle getting the Internet favourites on but succeeded. Unfortunately, with advice from Kynn, I opened up a new administrator's account which resulted in me losing all the documents and pictures but not, fortunately, the software. I was able to put most of the documents back on the computer but will need to spend quite a bit of time putting the Internet favourites in again. Klynn and I walked his dog, Otis, around Bentley Wood - about two miles and tonight we joined Jeremy and Chris in the pub quiz. We won again although only by a tie-breaker - a biblical question. Divine right of winning? We were fortunate in having a round on the Battle of Trafalgar which Chris and I were able to answer easily. We finished having a curry at Klynn's.

New laptop up and running!

I was abruptly awoken this morning at 6.30 a.m. by Sara's brother, Adam, phoning from Bangkok to ask what present Tom would like bringing from Thailand. Having only gone to bed at 1.30 a.m. and hoping for a bit of a lie in this morning, I was not too impressed! I asked him to call back in a couple of hours time - which he did - but my sleep was broken. Sara, Mart and Tom went into town this morning - Mary for her ballet and Tom to buy shoes - and I had a fairly lazy morning - a bath, watched a bit of TV, had a cup of coffee and answered several telephone calls - all for Sara! At around midday I went into town myself to pick up my new laptop from PC World - I am using it now. Sara arrived back with the kids about five minutes before I returned and we had soup and rolls for lunch. This afternoon I did a bit of gardening - trimmed the hedge and some bushes and mowed the three lawns. I also washed my car. After a cup of tea I set about installing programmes on the new laptop and transferring documents from memory sticks onto the hard drive. This whole process took about five hours but it did mean I had a perfect excuse not to watch the X-Factory or whatever it is called! Towards the end of the evening Sara and i watched an interesting National Geographic Channel documentary on freemasonry which concluded that it was, indeed, just a very altruistic organisation of men and not the great conspiracy factory which sensational writers would wish the public to believe. Sara is very tired tonight, as am I, so I will call it a day now. Tomorrow we have a Praise Service at All Saints and Tom is playing in a cup tie against Sarum Youth at Barry's Field.

Another Farewell Dinner

No further mention of dolphins this morning! Working in Salisbury again today. A new case arrived today which is likely to be quite time-consuming and tricky and may require me to go down to Exeter next Friday. I had lunch with Phillip today when we discussed this new case. The weather today was appalling again and I had to run the gauntlet of the rain to get to the bank. After work I joined some of the HR people to say a formal farewell to Sheila and Nikki (although Nikki has a reprieve until the end of the year) in the George and Dragon. Sara and the kids arrived about fifteen minutes later and I took Tom to his football training at Salisbury High School in Bemerton Heath. I had a chat with Gary and discussed the subs situation and finances of the Clarendon Club. I left Tom there and drove back into Salisbury to buy railway tickets for Adam (to go to Plymouth) and me (to go to London) on Tuesday. I went back up to Bemerton and picked up Tom and brought him back to the George and Dragon. When we got back we discovered that, yet again, he had left his fleece behind. This is getting to be a real annoyance as I've lost count of the number of times we've had to go back and find lost items of Tom's clothing. Sara went all the way back and his fleece had gone. We can only hope that one of the trainers has picked it up. I, and a group of us, went on to Prezzo, the restaurant in the High Street which had formerly been Beaches, the antiquarian bookshop. for an excellent Italian meal. I had crab cakes and prawn spaghetti which tasted very good. It was a pleasant evening but signalled the farewell of two more colleagues. Another one of these to attend next week!

Dolphins

My first day in Dorking this week. The traffic was not too bad this morning and my journey took about one and a half hours with a short stop for fuel at Popham. A very busy day as usual with a meeting with a work experience girl, Bianca, who seemed to be fascinated with the work I do, followed by a constructive 1:1 with my boss Joanna. I had lunch in the restaurant - an Indian Meal Deal - with Joanna and Gordon, my Director. I arrived home this evening at 7.30 p.m. just in tie for the House Group to start at 8.00 p.m. Ivan and Klynn joined us this evening and we continued our study of 1 Timothy. Klynn stayed behind for a quick whisky and a chat about his prospects for a new job. We had tears from Mary at bedtime as Sara has promised to take her to play with the dolphins at the Blue Lagoon, Bahamas; but I was less than enthusiastic when I saw the price! With the $ to the £ being much less than it was in 2007 we must be careful and realise our money won't go quite as far or there as it did two years ago. I therefore wanted to manage Mary's expectations and not make any promises. Sara and I will have to continue these discussions tomorrow as she has now gone to bed exhausted.

Broken Specs.

The weather had really turned nasty this morning - heavy rain. Tom was up early doing his belated French homework with Mum who, also uncharacteristically, got up early. Another day in Salisbury today -the HR consultant girls have now put my name on the movements list as they want to know where I am so they can seek advice. They've even put up my Myers Briggs profile - ENTP by the way! The day didn't start too well as I dropped my new spectacles in the kitchen and the right lens was so badly chipped that I had to take the pair into the opticians for a replacement. The cost was astronomical - £97 - I just hope I can get some of it back on insurance. That's the problem with these varifocal specs. I met Sara for lunch - a pasty and a coffee at the West Cornish Pasty shop and Sara was delighted to tell me that at Weight Watchers she had lost 4.5 lbs last week. A great achievement. We called in first at Vision Express to pick up my repaired glasses. I called in at Sarum College on the way back to work to see if they had any more House Group study guides - unfortunately not. I picked up Stephen W, the master of my Sussex mother lodge (Brighton & Hove Civic No. 5223) at the station and took him the Sarum Lodge meeting. We had a great evening and the the Assistant Provincial Grand Master for Sussex, Grahame, attended along with Peter M. A great honour. Grahame is such a king and pleasant man - good company and good ceremony. Sara has bought herself an electric blanket - she is always complaining of the cold - so I guess she no longer needs me to cuddle up to her to get her warm! Personally, I don't like warm beds - I prefer refreshing cool sheets.

Red and White Army

An incredibly busy day today - I just seemed to be moving from one task to another with hardly any time to take a breath. It is nice to be so wanted by everybody but it felt like shovelling coal with more pouring down the chute all the time. I did, however, have the pleasure of spending a bit of time with Sara over a coffee at Starbucks at lunchtime. She had been and had morning coffee with Maxime and I suggested that as she was in Salisbury it would be good to meet up for a coffee and a chat as I was going to the bank anyway. One of the great advantages of working in Salisbury more is that I can work hard and still find time for family without being too tired. More meetings and advices given this afternoon and then back home to pick up Tom and go to Southampton for the Saints v. Torquay League Trophy game at St. Mary's. It was an early kick-off at 7 p.m. and so we arrived in Southampton at 6 p.m., had fish/sausage and chips at the St. Mary's Chippie and arrived at the game with 25 minutes to spare. Tonight we went in the Northam Stand - the only stand neither of us has ever been in before. This is where the noisy element stand (not sit!). It soon became very apparent how gentile we all are in our normal Chapel Stand. I was told I could not bring into the stand drinks in plastic bottles without removing the tops. When I pointed out that we are never asked to remove tops at the Chapel end I was asked if I knew what injury I could cause with a thrown bottle full of liquid? My response was that we tend to drink our drinks in Chapel and not throw them about! I removed the tops eventually and had to go through the turnstiles with three bottles all open. Our seats were about halfway up to the right of the goal by one of the gangways. As is normal in Northam, nobody seems to use their seats and we had to stand in order to see the game. Regularly the stewards asked us to sit down but after sitting for less than a minute the crowd would start singing "Stand Up if you Love the Saints" and the whole process would start all over again! The language was quite "choice" too. Tom has now experienced the Northam End, something he has wanted to do for a long time, and concluded that his preference, like mine, is to sit in the relative peace and quiet of the Chapel with only Andy's occasional outbursts suggesting what the manager or players should do! I must say, our Chapel stewards have it so easy. Saints were pretty awful in the first half with a stupid goal conceded when Kelvin came off his line and later a penalty caused by Kelvin fouling a Torquay player. By contrast, Grimsby Town were 2-0 up at halftime in their match against Hartlepool. In the second half Saints pulled two back thanks to winger/striker Papa Weiga. Full time saw the scoreline at 2-2. This meant penalties and a save by Kelvin meant a final scoreline of 7-5 - Saints winning 5-3 on penalties. Grimsby also went through tonight as the 0-2 scoreline remained unchanged during the second half of their game at Hartlepool. Are we to expect a Grimsby v Southmapton final at Wembley? A long way to go yet!

A Sad Day

I woke Sara this morning when I got up at 6.30 a.m. Her response was - "I need to sleep" thinking that we had only just gone to bed. A bit of a shock for her to discover it was now morning! I had a bowl of cereal and a cup of tea and then drove into the office early as I had a telephone court appearance at 9.30 a.m. and a conference with clients at 8.15 a.m. The morning really flew past and I had a light lunch of an egg mayonnaise roll and mushroom soup. This afternoon I joined Sara and about a hundred others for David D's funeral - a young man of 46 years of age who worked in our Salisbury office who died suddenly. Many of his colleagues were there and Sara and I had the opportunity of catching up with them. There seemed to be as many former employees (if not more) than current ones. David's family seemed very stoic and David's own eulogy was read out. There were many wet eyes in the Salisbury Crematorium this afternoon. He was a great ornithologist and ringer (especially of swans) and I have placed a picture of a swan on this page in his memory. There was a wake at the Milford Hall hotel afterwards. I got back home at around 5.30 p.m. and Tom and I played on his xBox for half an hour - I am absolutely useless and Tom despairs of me. I get myself and others killed in the armed combat his games portrays! Good job I didn't have to fight in any of the last wars. Sara is out tonight at one of her V.V. parties and so after completing this blog I'll indulge myself with some Sky TV watching on the history channels!

A Sporting Sunday

Woke after a bad dream in which Sara and I had separated and I was looking for a one-bedroomed flat in Croydon - although it was actually New York! All properties for rent seemed to be owned by a criminal gang led by one of our company directors! Make that of it what you will! It wasn't very nice. It was just after 7.30 a.m. when I got up, showered and went to the 8.00 a.m. early Eucharist at St. John's. This morning Sara and Mary went to the special Harvest Festival Service at All Saints where Mary did one of the readings - wish I'd been there to see it. Tom and I went off to Larkhill for the Durrington Rangers v. Clarendon football match. Tom didn't start but came on after around 10 minutes. By half time Clarendon were down 4-1. Tom slammed a goal in in the second half, after a penalty had been missed, to make it 4-2 and soon the score was up to 5-5. Tom then took the ball along the left wing, running like the wind and instead of crossing it to another player and risk an offside (the linesman for this half was poor at understanding the Offside Rule) used his speed to beat the last player and drilled it into the net - 5-6! A further goal (although this probably was offside) clinched it and Clarendon won 5-7! Tom's new boots bought in Liverpool last Sunday seemed to work magic. Tom needs to make a point of attending training on a Friday night and gelling ever more with the team. His team mates the other parents and manager were absolutely delighted with him - as was I of course. He has real talent which needs to be honed by training. Lunch was home made fish, chips and mushy peas followed by jelly and fruit. This afternoon Richard and I played 11 holes at Wilton. I started off (we both did in fact) rather rusty but I did get two pars and my game improved as we progressed. My driving, when I did hit it well, seemed to be longer than usual. Back home I watched the Chelsea v. Liverpool match on Sky. Chelsea, unfortunately won 2-0. Tonight I was invited by Klynn to join the pub quiz team at the Lion's Head; but decided it would be nicer to stay at home and watch an Alan Rickman film with Sara. Tom went off to Rockface. I have an early start tomorrow morning so must get to bed early tonight.

Field of Dreams

How wonderful, Saturday morning with no commitments. Sara and Mary went off to ballet and shopping whilst Tom and I stayed behind and did a mega tidying up exercise and put on some washing. I realised that if I retired I could spend a short time each morning keeping the house in order and enjoy the afternoons as a reward. We tidied up the hallway, stairs, landing, family room, bathrooms and Tom tidied up his own bedroom and vacuumed the carpets. It was then off to Southampton for the League 1 match against Gillingham. The traffic going into Southampton was terrible and we did not get to our car park until 2 p.m. We still had time to have lunch at our normal chippie - chips and pea fritters - and then to St. Mary's. We arrived at our seats just ten minutes before kick-off although we noted long queues to get into the ground at other turnstiles. Saints started off well with a quick goal. Unfortunately that was followed quite shortly afterwards by an equaliser from Gillingham. Saints managed to put two more in the net before half time and the teams went in with Saints winning 3-1. A further goal in the second half from Lallana clinched it and the final score was 4-1 to Saints - a dream result. This means that Saints now have 2 points, having extinguished the 10 minus points deduction. Fans left optimistic that Southampton have now started to gel well and the team will move forward adding to its positive points. The football was good and Southampton played well. Saints are now four points behind Wycombe Wanderers but still ten points adrift from safety above the drop zone. Alas, Grimsby lost again - this time a 3-0 defeat at Barnet. They now lay 3rd from bottom of League 2 - 90th in the league! An entertaining afternoon's football. Back home, Sara cooked us a chicken curry for supper and after the children had gone to bed we watched Field of Dreams starring Kevin Costner. A truly brilliant film and appropriate for today - it was a true field of dreams at St. Mary's this afternoon. Sara is still unwell and the anti-biotics do nor seem to be making much improvement. She is lying on the sofa watching QI as I "pen" these words. More football tomorrow with Tom playing at Durrington for Clarendon Juniors.

Birthday Pastries

In Dorking today. Left a little later than usual and stopped off at Tesco's in Leatherhead to buy pastries for the staff to celebrate my 56th birthday last Sunday. Also bought apples and bananas for those on a diet. A day taken up largely on admin. tasks - expenses, mileage returns etc. and an opportunity to meet and have lunch with the new commercial solicitor, Andrew, who shares my love of Monty Python. I heard from the Croydon Employment Tribunals this afternoon that my hearing in Croydon on Monday had been replaced by a telephone conference. This will mean that I will now be working in Salisbury. I dropped Anthony off at Grateley this evening and one my arrival home was informed by Sara that Richard fancied a night down the Lion's Head so after a dinner of chicken noodle soup, I walked down to the pub where we spent an interesting evening talking about work, golf and generally putting the world to rights. Again, tonight, I've had to use Sara's laptop as mine now seems definitely dead.

Provincial Grand Lodge - End of Term

Awoke quite early this morning although I had the day off and didn't have to go into work in either Salisbury or Dorking. Switched on my laptop and, surprisingly, it powered up successfully. It kept working long enough for me to transfer all my documents (including photos) on to memory sticks so I at least know that they are safe. It kept working for so long as I worked actively on it. Leaving it to go and have a shower was a mistake as when I returned the screen was blank and it would not respond to any movements on the keyboard. Indeed, that seems to have been its dying breath as I am having to type this up on Sara's machine. I left home at around 9.20 a.m. to get to the City Hall for the Provincial Grand Lodge Meeting rehearsal. Unlike my time as a Sussex Provincial Officer, the rehearsal for us deacons only lasted about 50 minutes and I was out again at 11 a.m. I went for a stroll through Salisbury - a weird feeling as I am normally rushing from one engagement or mission to another. I stopped off at Costa Coffee and had a very pleasant caramel latte before going on to the Guildhall for lunch. The luncheon menu consisted of chicken, gammon, new potatoes, apple coleslaw, green salad followed by apple crumble and coffee. The meal was served with wine (I had the white). My table companions included the new Junior Warden and my successor as Senior Deacon. Also on the table was the new Provincial Orator who has added me to his list of potential lecturers to go around the Province to deliver the official Grand Lodge lectures. Back to the City Hall, the ceremony went off well and I relinquished my active rank which became a past rank. I now hold exactly the same rank in both Wiltshire and Sussex until next June when, hopefully, I will be promoted in Sussex. On the way home I called in at PC World where the business manager restored my confidence - he seems to be the only one who really knows what he is doing. My new laptop should arrive at their shop sometime next week. Although it comes with Vista I shall install XP like our other laptops. Tonight we had the first of seven weeks of our new House Group course - 1 Timothy. There were four of us - me, Sara, Ivan and Rosemary. We had received apologies from Mike and Caroline, Maxime, Janet and Klynn. I do hope we get more next time. The meeting ran well, I thought, and to time. I must get some more books though. Tonight writing this blog up on Sara's laptop and will probably have to do this for the next few days until my own new laptop arrives.