Snowing!!!

It has come at last - the snow! Although threatened over the last few days, the snow finally fell this morning sufficiently to cover the ground with a fine powdering at first and later in heavier flakes. I decided that my trip to Birmingham today was probably not such a good idea - not that I thought I couldn't get there but I was concerned that as I would be driving back very late at night, the freezing conditions and slippery roads may make driving hazardous. I therefore phoned Tony and told him that I would not be going. This meant that I could now take Ben out for his walk this lunchtime. It was bitterly cold and the snow was falling as I set out with Ben to walk the route we did yesterday but in the opposite direction. Up at the barns we met David C with one of his Labradors, Alfie and we walked together along the top of the field opposite our house. Sara prepared hot mulligatawny soup and pitta bread for lunch which was most welcome. This afternoon I set about writing out Christmas cards and looking at some further paperwork sent to me by a client. Sara cooked cottage pie for supper and then left us to attend another Vie party in Salisbury. I need to get up early tomorrow as I have a dental appointment at 8.30 a.m. and a meeting with a client in town at 10.30 a.m. My veneers should be ready for my top three teeth so I am a little apprehensive as to how they will look.

Cold Dog

This morning it can only be described as bitter-cold. This November is being recorded as the coldest on record - even I am feeling the cold at the moment - so dark and cold in the mornings. I made tea and then promptly returned to bed where I read my devotionals and wrote up yesterday's blog. At lunchtime today I had a meeting with a large firm of solicitors in Salisbury to discuss a possible referral arrangement between them and my company. The meeting was successful in that, in principle, we can do a deal but it will require further discussions with their employment partner. Early days but I am optimistic. Sara had agreed to Ben-walk today but came back early because she couldn't find the key to let the poor dog out! In the end, we walked him together as I knew where to find the key. We did an hour's walk up on the top of Barry's Fields to the Barns and down into Witt Road - just under two miles (1.8) for him and over two for us (2.2). I had a telephone conference with a client in Manchester this afternoon and now have quite a bit of paperwork to study which he has sent me tonight by email. I managed to post off all the long-distance overseas Christmas cards this afternoon leaving Sara to send off three further ones to her relatives in the USA, Thailand and Hong Kong. Tonight I attended a lodge rehearsal for Wednesday evening's meeting. Another cold night beckons with possible snow. I hope not as I am due to go up to Birmingham tomorrow.

Praise Sunday

The cold still air continues today leaving us with sub-zero temperatures. This morning we had a praise service conducted by Linda and Jane with me giving the New Testament reading and Sara leading the Junior Church. We had received a number of letters from a junior church in a village in Uganda who wanted to exchange correspondence with our junior members and Sara organised the writing of cards to them by our young members. We also took the Ugandan flag into church to show the congregation. Being the First Sunday in Advent, the topic was "waiting and being ready". An excellent service. Such a pity that more members of the PCC and older members of the congregation don't attend these services. They are really thought-provoking and I certainly learn much from them. We had a roast chicken lunch today and I spent the afternoon writing up questions for the pub quiz and drafting the Christmas newsletter to go out with our Christmas cards. My intention is to start getting the cards out next week - especially those destined for overseas. That is always such a major task at this time of the year. I also spoke to Mum who had had a very pleasant day yesterday on her coach trip to Harrogate. Apparently there is quite a bit of snow up in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire at present which I hope will go before I drive up there in ten days' time. I did ring her on her mobile yesterday to see how things were up there but she didn't answer it thinking it was some music being played by the coach driver and not her mobile ringing in her bag! Apparently my niece had changed the ring tone to some pop music. Tonight I met up with Richard and James to put together the pub quiz. We are almost there, just needing to complete two final rounds.

Football Crazy

The alarm went off early again today reminding me that I had a full day of football ahead. I made tea and hoisted the Saints flag as Southampton FC are playing Cheltenham today in the Second Round of the FA Cup. I also cooked breakfast for Tom and me - bacon, beans and scrambled egg. No further snow fell last night and there is just a sprinkling on the road outside the house and in our drive. Both of our cars were left on the road in case of problems this morning. Tom was playing near Romsey today and so it was thought best to take all we needed for his match and for the Saints match this afternoon so that we would not have to come back to Winterslow. We met up with the parents and other players at the Hilltop Grill as usual and once more I was nominated to lead the convoy because I had a satnav and drove at a reasonable pace for followers. I warned Gary that I had no idea where we were going so would be relying solely on the satnav. He assured me that the address was clear and we would find the football field easily. We drove through some very pretty countryside and along some narrow lanes until we reached the point where the satnav declares "You have reached your destination". On this occasion it was a farm with the same name as the sports field - but no sports field. Eventually one of the other parents advised me that his satnav had done the same thing on a previous occasion and that we would find the sports field on the main road - which we did! Tom went off with his team mates and came back 15 minutes later to say the match was postponed! We therefore headed back home to confront a pile of logs which had been dumped in the drive. Tom, Mary and I (but mostly "I") spent the next hour stacking them in readiness for their use over the winter months. Tom and I set off for Southampton at around 12.45 p.m. and were parked at College St. by 1.30 p.m. - our usual time. There was very little traffic about and the wind was bitingly cold. We visited our chippie and I had fishcake and chips (17 points). We took our seats in the Chapel Stand behind the goal in freezing temperatures and I was so glad to have my new coat and trapper's hat. Saints executed an easy 3-0 win over Cheltenham to secure themselves a place in the 3rd Round. The draw is tomorrow. At is so cold at the moment but thankfully, no snow yet. I shall sleep like one of our logs tonight. I have enough points left today for a little whisky too!

Lunch at the White Hart

A cold day again today. Had quite a bit of mail to deal with before going into Salisbury at lunchtime to attend the Morning Star Christmas Lunch at the White Hart Hotel. Sara went to Morning Star this morning to give a manicure/makeover to Bev and Sharon for the lunch. I enjoyed a really good meal of smoked salmon, roast lamb and vegetables and bread and butter pudding. Unfortunately, the meal was so nice that I had to use some of my "naughty points" for the day. After the meal I met a client in the bar of the hotel to discuss his employment issues. Tonight I took Tom up to Sarum Academy for his football training. Just as we turned into the Academy driveway it started snowing heavily and when I drove back down the hill to fill the car with fuel, the snow was quite intense and was settling on the cars but not, fortunately the road. After football training, Tom and I went up to Barry's Fields to pick up Mary from Youth Club. Sara is out again tonight on Vie business - this time in Lordswood, Southampton. Mary, Tom and I watched Planet of the Apes (the Helena Bonham-Carter version) this evening and then an episode of On the Buses. I warned Sara about the snow but, apparently, it wasn't snowing to the east of us and therefore the roads around Southampton were clear. After Sara had gone to bed I watched some of the second day's play in the Ashes Test Match in Brisbane on SkySports. It isn't looking too good for England at the moment with Australia piling on the runs in their first innings.

Fat Fighters - A Good Start

Woke up early and made tea but decided to leave breakfast until later as Sara and I were to attend Fat Fighters (Weight Watchers) this morning at Stockbridge. After seeing the kids off to school and Sara having spent some time on the parish magazine (apparently there was a mini crisis over the number of pages) we set off in Sara's car for the great weigh-in. I was convinced that I could not have lost much weight but was delighted to find that I was the star "pupil" today having lost four and a half pounds in seven days! Sara had lost three and a half pounds. I learned afterwards that Sara had eaten a couple of chocolate bars during the week but my surprise came as I have been having the odd glass of wine at night and had a couple of pints of beer at the pub at the weekend, although I have been eating a lot of fruit instead of crisp-type snacks when feeling peckish and my bread intake has gone right down. It does show that Weight Watcher's new ProPoints really works - so I was feeling rather good about myself as we drove back. I treated myself to a brunch of scrambled egg (a lovely large fresh egg picked up today from Morning Star, two rashers of bacon, crusty roll and grilled mushrooms. This was followed by a late lunch of mulligatawny soup. This afternoon I joined Richard for his dog-walk with Hugo. We walked to the bottom of Witt Road and then along the edge of Bentley Wood finally come around in a big circle past the barns on the top of "our" hill. A total of 3.02 miles in an hour and a half - that gave me an extra five ProPoints to use up today - some wine later tonight! We had a good house group session - seven of us - and we discussed life's priorities - God's v Ours. A very thought provoking discussion. I ended the day by watching a programme on the JFK Assassination and Lyndon Johnson's perspective on that fateful day. Although only ten at the time, I still remember that awful evening (as it was in the UK). The first Ashes test match began yesterday and England were all out for 260 after 76 overs. Not a very good start. It remains to be seen how good the Australian batsmen are tonight.

Winter Blues - Staying Indoors

A very cold day today indeed with snow forecast tonight for the north of England with some likelihood of sleet and/or a heavy frost down here. It certainly seemed cold today and I decided not to venture out unless absolutely necessary. I did take Mary to school and called in on the shop for bread rolls and a Times on my way home. Sara was being taken by Morning Star this morning to the United Reform Church in Fisherton Street, Salisbury to undertake some manicures on homeless women. She was picked up at 9.30 a.m. and returned at around 1 p.m. We had a light lunch of mulligatawny soup and shared a bread roll. I spent a good part of the morning tidying and clearing the front of the house, moving the existing logs ready for the new lot to arrive at the weekend. I also started the laborious task of cleaning up the leaves from the tree in the front. There are a lot more to come down and so I will wait for the tree to shed all its load and have a massive clear up. I also dealt with some masonic correspondence and sent the publisher's proofs of his latest book to David Kaye for his approval before giving the go-ahead to the publishers to proceed to publish. I also began writing up the questions for the pub quiz on the 12th December. Tonight Sara went to Lymington to conduct a Vie party and Mary and I sat in a warm room with a log fire to watch Scott of the Antarctic which she found enthralling - especially as she could now relate the story to what she had learned at home and at school about Shackleton. Certainly it seems a fitting programme with the sub-zero temperature outside. Tomorrow its a trip to "Fat Fighters" to see if I have lost any weight. I seem to be eating quite well and enjoyed a small bottle of wine again tonight. I really can't decide in my mind whether I have lost any weight or not. All will be revealed tomorrow I guess.

South (ampton) Pole

Another quiet day at home today. Not much to report. I had good intentions of going out for a long walk today but just didn't seem to get around to it. I picked Mary up from school and we watched two more episodes of Shackleton before Tom and I left for Southampton to watch the Saints in their big clash against top of the table Brighton. Both Tom and I bought new fur-trapper hats from the MegaStore and I felt like I should be with Shackleton on the ice! I think I probably look a bit like a wally but Tom looked fine in his (see picture). The game was disappointing with a 0-0 scoreline. Brighton clearly came for a draw and closed the game down all the time making it difficult for us to score. They were awarded a very dubious penalty in the second half which our goalkeeper, Kelvin Davis, managed to block and save the point. Still. Brighton were held to a draw which was good and Saints only dropped one place in the table (out of the play-off region admittedly) and are still very much in the fight at the top. Back home, I enjoyed a nice glass of wine and finished watching the Shackleton series with Sara. I was also delighted that despite having the wine and fishcake and chips for supper, I ended the day 6 points below my daily Weight Watchers budget. I still have about 30 "naughty points I can use too before Thursday morning. I am wondering, however, how you can lose weight with all these points.

Endurance

A day at home today. The weather was pretty miserable again with light drizzle on and off all day. No "Ben-walking" today either as his owner has relatives staying this week who will walk him instead. Sara spent (endured?) the day ironing and finished off all the clothes in the dining room. I set about dealing with some correspondence and bills - they seem to keep coming in! Sara went to lunch with some of her village friends not returning until quite late in the afternoon. I picked up Mary from school after her netball practice and we sat and watched some more re-runs of On the Buses and the Good Life together. Tonight we all sat down to watch the four-part serial about Sir Ernest Shackleton's Endurance expedition of 1914-1917. Mary has been learning about it in school and was delighted to see my photographic collection of pictures taken by Frank Hurley which I have in an expensive book I bought at the Lacock Photographic Museum many years ago. The casting for the series (with Kenneth Branagh as Sir Ernest) is remarkable and Mary could identify many of the characters from the book. Tom showed little interest in the programme preferring to watch The Gadget Show upstairs. Mary's knowledge of and enthusiasm for the Endurance reminded me of my own fascination for the Scott polar expedition of 1911/1912 when I read all I could get my hands on about it at her age. I would still love to go to Antarctica is the chance arose.

Harry Potter - The Penultimate Film

I was the first to get up this morning and the only one to go to church today. I was giving the reading at All Saints this morning so need to ensure I got to church at a reasonable time. The service was a a Parish Eucharist with a good sermon by Nils (but too short in my opinion) and some rather drab hymns. I left immediately after taking communion as I wanted to hear Kieran Dunne speak at CityChurch in Salisbury. I arrived about 20 minutes after the service there had started and the car park at South Wilts was already brimming with cars. I had to park on the road. The speaker hadn't started and I was welcomed by one of the congregation who gave me a "pack" about their church and made me feel very welcome. The speaker was engaging and humorous talking about "Contentment" in the Christian context. I stayed behind for a coffee and filled my pockets with satsumas which had been graciously donated by Dave and Bev of Morning Star. Back home Sara had cooked a really enjoyable roast chicken lunch and the children had spent the morning tidying their rooms and cleaning Sara's car. Before lunch I gave my own car a bit of a "de-griming". This afternoon we all drove into Southampton to see the new Harry Potter film at CineWorld in Ocean Village. A very dark film indeed with some very complicated plots. Not having read any of the books I didn't find it all that easy to follow but the special effects were magnificent. According to the press this film has netted over £61 million since it was released on Friday! We all now look forward to the concluding film which is due out in the Summer of 2011. Can't help but see Nils in the Harry Potter character! See picture above.

Another Win for Saints!

No football for Tom this morning which meant that we could get on and get some tidying up done. Sara and Mary went into Salisbury at lunchtime with Tom and me leaving at the same time to go to Southampton to watch Saints play Peterborough United. Saints were on fire this afternoon beating Peterborough by 4 goals to 1. Their one goal was a very soft one and we should have ended up with about 7 ourselves. One of the best games I've been to for a long time. It left us sixth in the league at the end of the day. Grimsby could only manage a home 1-1 draw against Barrow. Tonight Sara cooked poached salmon with vegetables. My total points for today (after a small bottle of wine this evening) was 38 - my allowance! We all watched the last Harry Potter film before the new one which has just been released so we could get up to speed again on the storyline. Whilst in Southampton I managed to get us tickets for the 5 p.m. shoeing of the new film at CineWorld, Southampton. I went to bed tonight at around 11.15 p.m. as I have to be in church early tomorrow to give the reading.

A Day in Salisbury - Points Adrift!

First fully day of the "Fat Fighter's" diet today - and not a very good start I'm afraid. I was up early this morning to attend the fortnightly Ambassadors' Breakfast Club meeting at the Grasmere Hotel - but I was careful having only one sausage, one rasher of bacon, one egg, mushrooms and tomatoes. No bread or toast. Our speaker was Karen who was talking about energy healing. After the meeting I placed my car in the Britford Park & ride and took the bus into the city centre where I spent an hour in MacDonald's (one cup of filter coffee!) on my netbook writing up my blog and attending to some emails. That was followed by as visit to the bank and library (where I bought a "Big Issue" from Garth) and spent some time reading. At 12 noon I met Anthony, my old colleague from work, at Anokaa's Indian restaurant where we chatted for a couple of hours over an Indian Buffet (that's where my points went astray!). We finished off with having a coffee in Costa Coffee where I showed him my American photos on the netbook. It was also good to get all the gossip from my former employment and which made me feel how lucky I had been to get out when I did! Tonight I went back into Salisbury to take Tom for his football training at Sarum Academy. Returning home I was feeling really hungry but apart from a few peanuts and fruit desisted having anything further to eat. I went to bed reasonably early to read my book on the USS Laffey.

"Fat Fighters"

Up early this morning as Sara reminded me that we were going to the Grosvenor Hotel in Stockbridge this morning to register with Weight Watchers - Fat Fighters as I call them after the famous series of sketches in Little Britain! Every since seeing those I have had a bad impression of these weight loss organisations and cannot think of them without thing of the dreadful Marjorie Dawes and her obnoxious ways of dealing with her overweight clients. So it was with a mixture of humour and apprehension that I accompanied Sara - as much to help her as myself (at least that is what I am saying!). In fact it was all quite a positive experience and the lady running it, Karen, was not rude at all - very positive in fact. We both signed up and got our starter packs and a couple of gadgets to help us keep a record of the food we are consuming. I discovered that my morning breakfast had already cost me nearly a third of my daily allowance but I was pleased to find that fruit and vegetables had no points and that I could earn extra points by doing light exercise - thank you Ben; walking you will mean I can have an extra pint of beer on those days. Must make a note to walk Ben when I want to go to the pub! In fact, this afternoon, I went for a two and a half miles walk (without a dog) - Weston Lane down to the Baptist Church - across the field to the Rectory and back home via the school. If I can do a similar walk each day I can earn an extra 4 points! In fact, I am quite excited with the idea. Sara discovered, after eating it, that one mackerel fillet cost her one half of her total daily allowance without any walking to earn extra points. Tonight we continued our exploration of the Sermon on the Mount in House Group. A good turnout - seven of us tonight in front of a nice roaring log fire. The fire is the one consolation of these cold, damp and dark nights. Early to bed as I have a business breakfast meeting tomorrow at 7.30 a.m. in Salisbury followed by a lunch with an old colleague. Not a good time to start the fat fighting!

Fresh Beginnings

Up early today - another wet and miserable day. Sara attended Morning Star this morning and was out for most of the morning leaving me to tidy up and spend the morning on my own writing letters and dealing with masonic business. This afternoon I went into Salisbury to meet up with a client at the White Hart Hotel where we spent about two hours over tea discussing his employment position with me listening and providing him with some general guidance. Clearly employment will be taking on a fresh beginning for him soon. Afterwards I went to Staples to buy some stationery items - principally a new wastepaper bin - for the business. Tonight I joined the Food for Thought Planning Group at the Team Office where, over a glass of wine (yes we Christians do like our wine!) we discussed the future of Food for Thought concluding that its principal purpose, at the present time, is to provide an alternative church for those (especially with young children) who find it difficult to come along to the main 9.30 a.m. service on Sunday - either because of other activities e.g. rugby or because they prefer a more relaxed style. I was pleased with the outcome and have agreed to lead the worship at the next event in December. Whilst outreach is important, I didn't believe that FFT was being particularly successful here and I believe that outreach will follow if we ensure that the FFT appeals to people who can themselves outreach because of their own connections. Another fresh beginning.

A Royal Engagement

Today the news was full of the announcement of the engagement of Prince William of Wales to Kate Middleton - who would become Queen of England if William ascends the throne in due course. All day the TV news was full of it speculating on when and where the wedding would take place and the design of the dress. At least the speculation about the engagement ring was ended when Kate proudly displayed the sapphire and diamond ring which the Prince of Wales gave to Diana Spencer all those years ago. I have to say that they appeared as a very comfortable happy couple but I did start to get rather fed up of it being constantly on the news. I took Ben for his lunchtime walk again - up Witt Road and up to the Green Barn returning via the field opposite our house and the village hall. Very muddy after all the rain of the last few days. Tonight Sara went out to a Vie meeting in Amesbury. Mary has her new phone operating again and we are waiting for it to connect to the SureSignal system. She is thrilled with it.

Dentists and Dogs

A cold damp start today although the sun did shine later giving a crisp bright day. I was up early as I had a dental appointment at 8.30 a.m. to have my top front teeth "shaved" and prepared for the fitting of veneers to bring them all in line. It was an uncomfortable process which lasted nearly an hour (without anaesthetic) but the most painful part of it was paying for half the cost of the total treatment at the end! No wonder dentists are so wealthy! I will be going back in two week's time (1st December) to have my new teeth fitted. I need to be careful not to eat anything hard or crusty or with an extreme temperature e.g. cold ice cream or chilled wine or boiling hot coffee as the teeth are very sensitive at the moment. Both Sara and I were at home for most of the rest of the day. I received two new sets of instructions for Complex - one entailing a meeting in Salisbury on Wednesday and the other quite a bit of reading. At lunchtime I took Ben out for his walk - Witt Road and around the fields into Bentley Wood and back. The light in the woods was fantastic - I really do enjoy these walks and having the dog makes them even more interesting. John H called around this afternoon with some more lodge paperwork for me to deal with. He stayed about twenty minutes. I was glad he did as he was able to confirm that the minutes and summonses can be sent out to all but 4 people by email which makes life much easier and saves the lodge a considerable amount of money in postage. Sara and Mary went into Salisbury to buy Mary a new mobile phone - one which will work at home using our SureSignal box. She was delighted with it but unfortunately managed to lock out her pin number making the phone inoperative. Sara will need to go into Salisbury tomorrow to get Vodaphone to unlock it! I spoke briefly to Mum on the phone. She seems reasonably well. She has had a new 32-inch flat screen TV installed so is well pleased with that. She still has her aches and pains. She has not mentioned Christmas again so I expect she will be staying in Grimsby or going to my sister's in York.

Healing and Remembrance

Another wet day today. I hoisted the Union Flag to mark Remembrance Sunday. Sara and Mary stayed at home whilst Tom and I went to Salisbury City Church again. Such a lively church. We met up once more with our friends from Morning Star and enjoyed the worship and the sermon on healing. The quality of the sermons is excellent. There were also some very powerful testimonies too and we had a one minute silence for those who have given their lives in conflict. After coffee and a few chats with people, we went into the city centre for Tom to get his Black Ops game from Game and for me to return to Vodaphone to get Sara's Blackberry. Missions accomplished, we then went to Southampton Road to discuss the guarantee situation on Tom's laptop at PC World (the issue was not resolved and we await a call from the business customers' manager) and to do some essential shopping at Tesco's. This afternoon I attended Food for Thought at the village hall where the topic was relations. We had to guess, from photographs, who was related to whom (in real life). Gillian and I scored 7/16 which wasn't bad - the winner scored 9. Tonight Tom attended Rockface whilst I went to the Lion's Head for the monthly pub quiz. There were six of us tonight so we split up into two teams of three. We didn't win for once (our forces were divided) although my team came third and the other team came fourth. Still it was nice to see some regulars win it.

Gathering Blackberries or not!

Up early this morning as I had to meet up with the other members of Tom's football team at the Hill Top Grill car park and we had to drive in convoy (me leading by with my SatNav) to a field in South Wonston near Winchester. At first my SatNav led us into the middle of a housing estate - the residents gently smiling at us as though this was quite a common occurrence. Tom didn't play in the first half but played the whole of the second. His team were 2-0 up at half time and ended the game winning 3-1. Afterwards it was a quick dash home and Tom stayed whilst Sara, Mary and I went into Salisbury. Sara dropped Mary off at her ballet school and parked in Waitrose. Sara and I walked into the city centre and after doing some banking at the Halifax went into Vodaphone to upgrade her phone for a BlackBerry. There was a massive queue which wasn't helped by the farmer in front of me wanting to know why a Blackberry Torch didn't have a torch fixed to it as this would be good for getting in the cows at night! I really didn't know whether he was joking or being serious - I think serious. In the end he went off to "T-Mobile". I hoped my request would be much easier - not at all! After having established that Sara could have a Blackberry Curve at no cost and an improved contract tariff and assuring me that my letter of authority from Complex services was in order and one and a half hours since I entered the shop, the assistant finally told me that I needed another piece of company identification - this despite the fact that his manager, who had already acknowledged me in the shop, had sold me my own Blackberry only a few months ago! Eventually, I had to leave the shop and walk back to Waitrose empty-handed. A real wasted trip into town. To cap it all, when I did get back home it was to find that Saints had lost at Carlisle 3-2. Fortunately Grimsby did win 3-0 in their away match at Hayes. Tonight we watched several episodes of The Good Life and a documentary on the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Another late night.

Reaching for the Sky

Another very wet miserable day. Mary did go to school today although she is still grieving over Harriet. Sara was working in the Lord Nelson this lunchtime and I drove up to Marlborough to see my old Uni friend, Dave, for lunch in the Sun Inn and to discuss his matrimonial problems. He really needed some confirmatory advice rather than any legal input. The journey was very slow due to road works, slow vehicles and the weather and parking in Marlborough was an absolute nightmare. I chose to park in the Waitrose car park as usual after finding any closer parking spaces did not exist. We chatted for about an hour and a half and ate fish and chips. Back home Sara had prepared a nice coffin for Harriet made from a plastic box and placed a picture (the one on yesterday’s blog and some flowers in it. We will bury Harriet tomorrow. Tonight I took Tom to football training at Sarum High School and on the way nearly filled my diesel car with petrol (I have been filling cars with petrol over the last few weeks and nearly forgot that my car runs on diesel). Fortunately, only 6p worth of petrol got into the tank and mixed with $ 50 worth of diesel shouldn’t do any damage. I picked Mary up from Youth Club (Tom didn’t to got to his) and she and I watched Reach for the Sky, the film about Douglas Bader’s life, on the the TV. She was enthralled with the story. This was the first film I ever remember seeing at the cinema as a child. Tonight Sara was out again doing a Vie party and didn’t get home until 11.15 p.m. We watched a couple of documentaries on TV before going to bed quite late. Up early tomorrow as Tom has a football match at South Wonston.

Goodnight Harriet

A very tragic day today. Once again the weather was appalling and we found Mary's pet hamster, Harriet, dead in her cage. The poor creature had been suffering from a growth on her side for a little while and we knew the end would be soon - we are so thankful that she did not die whilst we were away and being looked after by our neighbours. Mary was taking part in a Remembrance Service at school this morning so decided to break the sad news after she returned from school. I went along to the school service getting soaked by an inconsiderate driver of a white van as I walked from my car. Mary was part of a group of her class telling the story of Anne Frank. Considering that she had only been given her lines to read when she got back from the States, she did really well - I was so proud of her and felt really upset that we would be breaking such sad news to her later in the day. As it happened, Mary did take the news very well - obviously upset but she had been expecting it for a little while. It doesn't make the pain go away but it is easier. I sat with her this afternoon and we watched a few episodes of "On the Buses" which cheered her up. Tonight Sara was out again on her Vie business (she also spent most of today at Porton Down selling her cosmetics) leaving me to run the House Group and look after the children. We continued our discussion this evening on the topic of the Sermon on the Mount in front of a roaring log fire. Mary joined us for some of the meeting and our friend Dawn was great at comforting her.

The Bare Essentials - Sunflowers at the Mayflower

Today was a complete contrast to yesterday - the sun was shining and the sky was clear bright blue. Sara went off to Morning Star leaving me to clear and tidying up. I went into the Wallops and bought some petrol for the mower meeting my old Geordie garage hand friend serving - he used to be behind the counter at Lopcombe Corner when I filled up with fuel on my way to Dorking and I wondered what had happened to him when the garage there closed . Returning home I managed to cut both inner lawns before it started to get too dark - I'll cut the bank tomorrow. Mary and I did some BB Gun shooting in the garden afterwards until Sophie C arrived to look after the children while Sara and I went to Southampton's Mayflower Theatre to see a stage production of Calendar Girls. We arrived in very good time (I had to pick up my duplicate tickets following my loss of the originals - I still don't know where they are) and parked a few hundred yards from the theatre. I felt quite out of place at first as the theatre filled with hundreds and hundreds of middle-aged women with only a few "dirty old men" (as Sara described us) dotted around. The volume of the chatter was incredible and most women appear to have come in groups together with large tins or boxes of chocolates. I guess the Hampshire population of the WI were there! The production had a star-studded cast included Lynda Bellingham, Michelle Collins, Jan Harvey, Ruth Madoc, Mikyla Dodd and June Watson - all famous names of screen and stage. It was a tremendous production having me laughing aloud and crying silently in places throughout. Although I have seen the film a couple of times the stage production lost none of the message and depth of feeling - in fact it may have enhanced it. You felt you were really with the girls. Their cause in raising money was to fight leukemia - "a shitty disease" as Chris (Lynda Bellingham) described it. With my own father having died of that "shitty disease" I felt a great affinity. This week I have been able to laugh and cry at two events already. A wonderful evening. Sara is now seriously thinking of doing a similar calendar for breast cancer with the owmen of the village. Good on her if she succeeds. I'll support her all the way.

Rain Rain! and Rain Again!

A miserable cold rainy day today. Not one of those days you feel like getting out of bed and doing anything. I spent the morning going through the mountain of mail I had received whilst away and paying off bills and writing letters as necessary. This afternoon I trapsed around Andover in the pouring rain to do some important banking and posting returning home around 2.30 p.m. with some crusty bread and pate for a late lunch. Tonight I went down to the Lion's Head to meet up with Richard who brought me up to date with the affairs of the church - over a couple of pints is the best way! - and we exchanged holiday notes. Stayed up until quite late this evening chatting and watching TV with Sara. Tom has his new X-Box following Sara's return to the Game shop to take back the "reconditioned one" which didn't work. He now has a brand new X-Box connected up to the Internet.

Seriously Funny with Jeff Lucas and Adrian Plass

It was difficult to get up this morning after a disturbed night last night and with still feeling jet-lagged. I made a start on going through the mountain of mail which had come in and paying off any bills which needed immediate attention. I also rang both the Seriously Funny organisers and the Mayflower Theatre and made sure that the loss of my tickets for both venues would not prevent me from attending. Both confirmed there wouldn't be a problem with Seriously Funny asking me to make myself known to the chief organiser when I arrived and the Mayflower printing fresh tickets for me to collect on Wednesday night. Richard called for me at 5.45 p.m. and he, I, Linda and Rosemary set off for Chichester to see Jeff Lucas and Adrian Plass with Nikki Rogers at The Venue, Revelation Church. Revelation Church is situated on an industrial estate and resembles the typical light industrial unit - a massive open space with adjacent offices and rooms. We parked in Booker's Cash Carry. All together there must have been about 500-600 present. This is clearly an active evangelical charismatic mega church. Wine, beer and soft drinks were available as was a stall for the charity Toybox (relief for street children of Latin America) and a bookstall selling works by Jeff and Adrian. Nikki Rogers, and young singer songwriter opened the evening with a couple of lovely songs from her latest album and then Jeff and Adrian appeared on stage. There then followed two hours of anecdotes, poetry, readings, questions and answers - many of the dialogues incredibly funny but with some wonderful morale teachings. I guess that you could call many of the stories modern parables. My favourite quote of the evening was one of Adrian's - "Your children don't need a good father - they need YOU". In recent days I have felt my faith drifting somewhat and feeling that I am not very good at any thing. Adrian reminded us all at the end of the evening - "God likes and uses broken people and those who don't appear to be any good - after all he chose Paul to be the greatest apostle and his antecedents were hardly those to be expected. Thanks Adrian, I came away feeling like I had received a wonderful tonic and realise I must get priorities right. I wouldn't have missed this evening for anything!

Back in the UK

Having arrived at London Heathrow early from our American Airlines flight we picked up the car at around 9.30 a.m. and were on our way home - stopping for fuel near the airport and a quick shop at Tesco's in Andover for some essential groceries. We were absolutely exhausted when we got home - the driving had been fine but I had to get used to being on the left hand side of the road again! We actually went straight to bed for an afternoon nap - no red font please note - waking for a light dinner of pizza and to watch a couple of programmes on the TV. To my horror I discovered that I couldn't remember where I had put my ticket for the Jeff Lucas evening tomorrow and got up in the middle of the night and spent two hours turning the study inside out in the hope of finding it. I also realised that I didn't know where the tickets for Wednesday's nights performance of Calendar Girls are (we have booked expensive seats for the Mayflower Theatre in Southampton. The tickets were not where I thought I had left them and I can only assume that I placed them somewhere secure before we left for the States - so secure that I can't remember! Tomorrow I will need to ring the venues for both the Jeff Lucas Evening and Calendar Girls tomorrow. I am sure that they can provide duplicate tickets if I ask. How embarrassing that the group leader for Jeff Lucas has lost his own ticket!

Last Day in the USA

We were not up very early this morning as we didn't get to bed last night until about 2 a.m. Last minute packing and printing off the boarding passes after checking in on line. We tried to get into contact with Sara's brother but without any success. We had hoped to meet up with him and Christy before returning to the UK. Instead we returned to the Golden Corral for another "all you can eat" buffet as the children like this and are not particularly fond of airline food. We returned quite stuffed and after all our final packing we just vegged out until it was time to go. I watched a couple of soccer games on the TV and the neighbour Heidi cam round to give Sara her "secret" brownie recipe. We got to the airport in good time and through passport and security controls quite quickly. Our flight left on time and arrived in London an hour ahead of schedule thanks to a very heavy tail wind.

Bonfire Night

The 5th November Gunpowder Plot celebrations are not observed in the United States - why would they want to celebrate a failed British rebellion? However, because Sara's Dad is English he normally celebrates this typical British tradition and invites the neighbours around for hot dogs, beefburgers, toasted marshmallows (typically American) around a fire with fireworks from South Carolina and the burning of an effigy. The local children really enjoyed running around the back yard with sparklers and we adults enjoyed the fireworks, beer, wine and hot dogs. Talking of dogs, a stray (clearly deaf and half-blind) joined us and was well fed from titbits given to him by those of us there. We had a really lovely evening with David and Andrea's fantastic neighbours and friends. They were intrigued by our Enlgish accents and asked us all sorts of questions about our culture and history. We continued drinking and chatting until nearly 2 a.m. A lovely last night to our fortnight's holiday in the States. Tomorrow its final packing and the night flight home to London Heathrow.

Surf & Turf

A day spent around Youngsville and Raleigh again today. We all went again to the Triangle Town Shopping Mall where I bought a couple of fleeces at a good discount price and we had a Thai meal in the Food Hall. I managed to get a couple of three-to-two pin adapters for the netbook which should work in the UK. I also noted that the UK lead for my laptop appears to fit the netbook too so it should all work. I tried to phone Mum today as it would have been Dad's 85th birthday but, unfortunately, the Internet server seemed to be down and so I was unable to connect. I had a little nap this afternoon and read quite a number of pages of my book on the Ark Royal dealing with the sinking of the Bismarck. Tonight we went to an Australian steak house called Outback where we bought dinner for the whole family as a thank-you to David and Andrea for putting us up this week. The children had ribs, Sara a filet steak and David, Andrea and I ate filet steak with lobster tails. Wonderful food with the steak simply melting in the mouth. Back at Youngsville, I read a little more from my book before going to bed at around 11.15 p.m.

Go on Hurricanes!

A lazy morning today. We all went to an "all you can eat" buffet grill today just up Highway 1 where the children were absolutely amazed at the choice of food available as well as the limitless sodas on tap. We spent a pleasant couple of hours having a combined breakfast and lunch meal. I particularly enjoyed the Mongolian beef and Asian beans on offer as well as more fried shrimp. The girls went off to do more shopping whilst we lads went back home. I spent an hour or so with Tom setting up my new netbook and then had a short nap whilst Tom had a play on the new computer. Tonight, David, Tom and I went to the Carolina Hurricanes v. New York Islanders national ice hockey match. What a great experience. We started by standing for the American national anthem and were then treated to a display of fast thuggery on the ice pitch. There seemed to be few rules and all of one team was substituted within the first thirty seconds. The game is divided into three periods of 20 minutes each but in reality, with stoppages, each period actually lasts nearer 40 minutes with two breaks of 20 minutes for hot dogs, pretzels, nachos, beers and popcorn. Within two minutes, helmets were off and two of the opposing team members were fighting with fists! This produced a two minute sin bin" penalty. I really cannot begin to understand the rules (assuming there are any) but it was a great entertainment and the final result was 7-2 to the Canes.

Corr! (Vette)

Another day in and around Youngsville. We ate omelettes for breakfast and after posing for photographs behind the wheel of David's Corvette sports car (Tom and I also went for a short spin in it too) went off towards Raleigh to re-visit the Triangle Town Shopping Mall and take the kids ice-skating. The ice rink consisted of two very large skating rinks (on a par with the ice rink at Basingstoke) but almost totally deserted as the children are all in school. Mary and Tom didn't spend very long on the ice as it was so cold inside the rink. I borrowed Tom's hired skates and went round about three times but didn't feel all that condiment as I was not wearing my own skates and the ice seemed much "stickier" than at home. We had lunch at a Deli where I had an excellent "pastrami on rye" sandwich washed down with original bottled root beer. We met up with the girls at Barnes & Noble's bookstore where David bought himself a Nook (electronic book reader) and Tom bought (or more correctly I bought Tom) Erich Von Daniken's latest book Twilight of the Gods about the ending of the Maya calendar in 2012 and the influence of extra-terrestrials on our culture. We then went across the road to Best Buy where I bought an HP Netbook which will save me lugging around my laptop in future when travelling. I will need to load some software on it including Microsoft Word. Tonight a couple of David and Andrea's neighbours came over and we grazed on fried shrimp and oysters washed down with plenty of bourbon! We watched the early election results coming from the Mid-Term Elections which indicate that the Democrats are going to lose the House of Representatives - a clear indication to President Obama that he is not a popular president.

Bizz-Buzz/Giants Win the World Series

Another lovely day in the States again today. After a leisurely breakfast of fruit and cereal we split into two groups - the girls went shopping at nearby Crabtree Mall and the lads went off for a drive around Franklin County stopping off at a Barnes & Nobles bookstore where I bought quite a few books on American history and had a coffee in Starbucks. I also looked at netbooks at the local Best Buys where they are about £80 cheaper than in the UK. They didn't have the Samsung I wanted but have an HP one which I needed to compare with the price in the UK. I will need to return there later this week. Tonight we ate salad and lobster tails and crab claws for supper and spent some time on the deck in the hot tub playing "Bizz-Buzz". In this game somebody starts the counting at "1", the person on the left "2" and so on until you reach a number which is either "7", a multiple "7" or a double number - e.g. 11, 22, and so on and instead of saying the number you have to say "Bizz". If you say the number then the rest of the players shout "Buzz" and you have to take a drink. The game recommences at "1" and off you go again. Great fun. Mary really enjoyed playing it and it is a good game to learn the times tables. Tom didn't join us preferring to watch the ice-hockey on television. We finished the evening watching the fifth (and as it happened final) game of the World Series with San Francisco Giants winning 3-1 and clinching the series 4 games to 1. A combination of poor pitching and fielding by the Texas Rangers and good batting by the Giants, including a great 3-Run Homer from Renteria secured the victory.