Slipped Discs?

Woke up at about 7.30 a.m. today in the small nursery bedroom at Peter's house in Hove. I read my daily devotionals and then washed and dressed. Peter was not about when I went downstairs and so I made myself a mug of tea and two rounds of toast and marmalade. I sat in the main living room and read the Brighton Evening Argus for the previous Friday and chatted to Peter's son, Ian's, girlfriend, Kirsty. Peter joined us and we talked in depth about plans for our extension. I left Hove at about 11.30 a.m. returning in part along the coast road as I wanted to stop off at Rustington to bank some cheques. They have an irritating parking scheme there where it is necessary to park your car in a designated car park, then go to find a shop which provides parking discs to put in the car. In the meantime, if your car is seen without a disc a fine will be imposed! How then, are you expected to acquire a disc, if you are a visitor like me, without parking your car first? The bank didn't supply them and eventually I got one at a furniture shop! Once in my car, it looked as though I was a disabled person! I arrived back home at about 2.30 p.m. and was out again at 5.30 p.m. for a meeting of Stonehenge Chapter at 6.00 p.m. in Salisbury. This was a big meeting as the Provincial Executive and Team were performing the ceremony. About seventy of us dined afterwards. I was seated with the Wiltshire Inspector General of Rose Croix and a member of the Provincial Team who runs a coffee equipment business and knows one of my former commercial clients when I was in private practice in Brighton. I didn't get home until nearly 11 p.m. and after a cup of coffee and a glass of wine went to bed.

A rainy evening in Hove

A day spent at home this morning catching up on paperwork and other small chores now that one child, Mary, is back to school. Tom was quite happy sorting out his bedroom and spending time up there. This afternoon, after afternoon tea, I drove over to Hove for a meeting of my mother lodge's general purposes committee held at a school along the Old Shoreham Road. The traffic was terrible and an accident at Arundel meant that I took the coast road to avoid the queues but met others in the Bognor and Worthing. The weather also turned nasty and it was pouring with rain by the time I arrived (just on time) for the meeting at 7 p.m. We seem to have some issues with getting enough officers together next year. I am to be appointed Senior Warden which means I shall be in the chair in 2011. Following the meeting, Peter, Roger and I had a couple of pints in The Stanley Arms in Wolseley Street. A typical old back street pub serving a variety of excellent real ales. After dropping off Roger, Peter and I returned to his home where we had a late dinner of pasta bake and a long chat about lodge matters, our extension and other private issues, finally going to bed at 1.00 p.m.

A Day at the Races

We all had to get up early this morning as the family were acting as sidespersons at the 9.30 a.m. All Age Eucharist service in All Saints. The service was taken by Jane Dunlop who conducted a really lovely service. Instead of intercessions we wrote our prayers on a long strip of paper which were then all linked together to make a long chain. The theme of the service was slavery and Mary acted a a "slave" during Jane's presentation talk. At the end of the service we quickly gathered up the books etc. and not stopping for coffee or chats dash back home to get all the picnic things ready for our day at Fontwell Races. The Sussex Freemasons had orgnaised a Family Fun Day at the Races and we were going to link up with fellow Wiltshire Freemason Lee and his family and our good friends Paul, Sian and Simon. We arrived about 12.15 p.m. and had a picnic in the car park. Lee and Paul and their families joined us a little later and we all went into the course. The Freemasons had a smart marquee erected with a "posh" lunch but we had cheap entry into the family enclosure where there was a petting zoo, funfair, penalty shoot-out stall, and many many other side stalls. We all found a spot in the main grandstand where we stayed all afternoon. Each of us (apart from Simon) had a win. Mary won £8 and Tom £12 so they were pretty please. I also won £10 so, in effect, the day only cost us our fuel. At the last race there was a dead cert. at 1/3 on and in the last furlong it was in the lead. Just short of the winning post, underneath where we were standing, it suddenly veered off towards the stables, threw the jockey and smashed into the rails clearly shocking the people stood on the rails. A rank outsider, at 14-1 against won the race. A delight to the bookies no doubt! We arrived back home at 7.30 p.m. and Klynn called round with some whiskey and a passport application for Samuel for me to countersign. He stayed about an hour chatting. We watched an interesting programme this evening about a real life couple living in Poole who had been stalked called U Be Dead. Quite an alarming story and unbelievable story. I had to look it up on the Internet to be convinced that it was, in fact, true. Went to bed feeling quite tired and achy. Hope it isn't the 'flu.

A Day of Football or Saints fail again!

A long day of football today. Awoke this morning from a strange dream involving Spring Harvest, a massive hundred-mile motorway traffic jam and ended with me fighting to get back to my car after walking along the motorway for tens of miles using the London Underground. I can only think that this is a reference to the long detailed form I had to fill in last night to apply to become a steward at next year's Spring Harvest. At least I slept through the night although this morning I had something of a headache and have felt a little nauseous all day. I took Tom over to Alderbury this morning for a friendly match between Alderbury Under 14s (Tom being seconded to the team for training purposes) and their Under 15s. The Under 15s, not surprisingly, won 4-1. As Admin. Manager for Clarendon Under 14s I dished out as many subscription forms as I could and will need to chase up the rest. After a quick dash home to change and (in Tom's case) a shower, Tom and I went to Southampton for the Saints v. Rochdale match. Mary was picked up this morning by Andrea, the mother of Mary's good friend Izzy, who took the two girls off to Wilton House Gardens for the day. Tom and I got to Southampton in good time (not a great deal of traffic today), had our fish and chips (I had fish, no chips as I still feel a bit under the weather) and settled down for the game. Our friend John was not looking too well today and we learned that he had suffered a burst appendix last week and had been in hospital. I was surprised he had come especially as the performance from the Saints was so poor that it could hardly have cheered him up. Our other friends, Andy, Twiggy and sons, were attending their first match this season as they had been away in Australia. A really poor performance indeed resulting in a 0-2 defeat at the hands of recently promoted Rochdale who are spending their first ever season above the fourth tier where they have been for all of their history. Humiliating. What is going on at the club? Sack your manager after a fantastic win away and lose two games at home under a caretaker manager. Tonight Sara is babysitting for Karen and Paul so Tom and I got a Chinese takeawy from Porton. Still feeling fragile tonight and not really looking forward to the racing tomorrow unless I feel a bit better.

A Far Distance

Up early this morning. Again I didn't sleep too well last night and was up in the middle of the night watching "On the Buses". The sky was beautifully clear at that time and it was possible to see the Great Galaxy in Andromeda clearly with the naked eye - an object some 2 million light years distant - the furthest object anyone on Earth can see with the naked eye. Jupiter was also a brilliant object in the south. I breakfasted at Ambassadors' at the Grasmere House Hotel and returned home to have coffee and attend to some mail. Richard called at 11 a.m. and we drove to Wilton to play eighteen holes of golf. We dropped Tom off near Waitrose as he was going to spend a couple of hours in the city centre shopping and getting the bus back to the village. Our golf was a little erratic to say the least - we both had some marvellous shots and some we would rather forget. I used my new tees which I bought in Christchurch which I was informed should make my balls go a farther distance. It seems that it is the tee, not the ball, which goes further! We had a late lunch at the Hampton Park Inn (2 meals for £10) and after a quick dash to Tesco's for some saline solution for Sara's contact lenses, it was back home. Tonight the kids went to the Youth Club up on Barry's Fields where Mary managed to get a table tennis bat thumped on her hand. By the time I picked her up it was still red but she seemed okay. Sara is out tonight at one of her Vie parties again.

A Day in Bournemouth and Christchurch

Another night where I couldn't sleep very well - I think it is always when I know I have to get up early in the morning. This morning Mary went back to school - new class and new teacher. She still isn't feeling too good but went off with Sara at 8.30 a.m. I left the house at around 9.20 a.m. all dressed up in my masonic finery as I was representing Wiltshire Masters' Lodge at a late morning/lunchtime meeting of Dorset Masters' in Kinson, north Bournemouth. Despite heavy traffic in Salisbury and roadworks on the Salisbury-Ringwood road, I made it to Kinson by 10.30 a.m. to find the car park already full up. I managed to park in a side road about 100 yards from the masonic hall so all was okay. The meeting was very well attended - something which surprised me for a midday meeting in the middle of a working week. Extra chairs had to be brought in to accommodate everybody. The meeting was presided over by the Provincial Grand Master for Dorset and we were given a really good talk by the Chairman of the RMBI (Royal Masonic Benevolent Institute) about how the various sheltered homes have been adapted for dementia sufferers. I was very impressed indeed by what I heard. Such care and thought - for example each dementia resident has their door painted as at home with a number they will remember e.g. if they lived at 42 Acacia Avenue with a green door then their door in the home would be painted green and bear the number 42. Outside each room by the door is a memory box containing reminders from their life e.g. a photo of their favourite car or person or something else which they will associate with themselves. I was also interested to know that dementia patients should not have mirrors in their homes. This is because most sufferers believe themselves to be aged between 26 and 36 and simply would get confused by seeing an older person in the mirror. Really impressive that so much care is taken. We followed this excellent talk by an excellent lunch of chicken and seasonal vegetables etc. The meeting ended at 2.30 p.m. and I drove to Christchurch to do some banking. It was very nostalgic walking along the High Street for two reasons - firstly because it reminded me so much of holidays down there when I was younger with my parents and also it was the last place I visited with Sara before I met her father for the first time on the same day. The weather was hot and sunny adding to the illusion of a summer holiday. I checked that the Bournemouth trolleybus turntable was still in situ - it is. There is, in fact, a plaque on the building now occupying the site stating that the turntable is still there - preserved. Unfortunately it is in an enclosed private car park and no longer accessible to the public. I drove back home through Mudeford noting that the Stanpit Fisheries is now under new ownership (Alexandra's) and the former caravan site we stayed at as children is now an estate of bungalows similar to New Waltham, Grimsby. We were due to have a House group tonight but only James turned up. We used the opportunity to plan out the Lion's Head Quiz we are hosting in December. Tomorrow I have Ambassadors' again followed by some golf at Wilton. The weather is promised to be hot and dry again.

Hassocks! Wheeling and Bowling!

I was up early this morning, made tea and had a sausage sandwich for breakfast. As arranged, I went up to All Saints this morning at around 10 a.m. to help Richard, Norman and Pam return all (or most!) of the enormous quantity of contents back into the church after the Death Watch Beetle spraying. Included amongst the items were hassocks, books, hymn books, candles, hymnals, vast quantities of sheet music, toys for the creche, bibles, palms, communion wine, notice boards, etc. etc. etc. We transferred all these items by wheelbarrow from the Junior Church mobile back into the main building - trundling across an uneven churchyard. We finally finished (apart from a few more hassocks) around 1 p.m. after several trips wheeling items and storing them away. There seem to be hundred and hundreds of hassocks! With the hard work and the horrible taste of the spray in our mouths we decided that we needed a bit of liquid refreshment and so popped into the Lord Nelson for just one quick pint. We met Klynn and Cristof in their and joined them for a short time. Sara managed to sniff me out and reminded me that we were taking the children bowling in Southampton that afternoon. After a quick lunch of pasta, Sara drove us all to the Tenpin Bowling Alley where we had three games (Tom won one, Sara another and me the final one) and a meal - all paid for by Tesco vouchers. Tonight I checked my investments as I do every first day of the month. I bought some BP shares yesterday and they are already doing better than where the money was previously. They were pretty rock-bottom I think yesterday and I think can only improve.