A Sad Day for Football - Sir Bobbie Robson KBE, RIP

I worked at home today thanks to the technology now available. Tom didn't get up very early and I went off to the village shop to get bacon and fresh crusty rolls for our breakfast. Only Tom and I were in this morning with Sara being away with Mary at Brownie Camp somewhere in Hampshire. I made myself a latte coffee to go with the bacon rolls and spent the morning dealing with quite a number of emails that came in and making telephone calls. I received confirmation of our holiday booking in Lanzarote so all is now in place except a hotel near Gatwick and the car hire. I also made lunch for Tom and me, fish and chips, and Sara returned about 1.30 p.m. I did a little gardening before returning to work. It was with great sadness that I lowered the England flag (which had been raised for the Test Match) to half mast on hearing that Sir Bobbie Robson, the former England soccer manager, had died of cancer this morning. He was a true gentleman of the game and will be sadly missed. I received his autobiography for Christmas and really must now read it. I remember seeing him at Saint Mary's in a Saints v. Toons match wearing his smart dark overcoat. He was always smartly dressed and every much the manager. At one time I hoped he might be persuaded to do a short stint at St. Mary's after Strachen left. More work this afternoon including yet another teleconference about outsourcing. The weather bucked up today (as did the cricket - England ended the day on 116 for 2 in reply to Australia's first innings total of only 263) and so at around 3.30 p.m. I suggested to Richard C that we should play some golf this evening. Richard came round at 5.00 p.m. and we went off to Wilton to play 9 holes on the course there. I shot a respectable 41 and Richard 43 although my game seemed to get worse as we went round and his better. I did, however, score a birdie on the 2nd. I was very pleased with that. We agreed that we should try and play one evening a week whilst the weather and light remain good. I really enjoyed it and would dearly love to improve my game. We have made ourselves a target of going round in 39 or under next time. I know I can do that as I've done it before. We ended up at the Lion's Head before I returned home where Sara had cooked sausage casserole and plum crumble. Tonight Sara and I watched Ocean's Eleven with George Clooney, Elliot Gould and Julia Roberts. A free day tomorrow with no particular events or appointments.

Farewell to Hilary; Hello to Holiday

Woke at 7.00 a.m. and made tea for Sara and me. Hoisted the St. George's flag today as it was the anniversary of England's 4-2 victory over West Germany in the 1966 World Cup as well as it being the first day of the Third Ashes Test at Edgbaston. I arrived at the Salisbury office at 8.15 a.m. and was able to get one of the last two remaining car parking spaces. I had a bacon roll and a latte before having a long one and a half hour meeting with Serena. I spent the rest of the morning completing our Monthly Report. I also managed to get our flight to Lanzarote brought forward by four hours which will give us plenty of time to settle into our resort. I also confirmed to the exchange company my booking of the Club Tahiti resort for the week we want. So, all is now arranged for our second overseas holiday of the year. I lunched on a chicken curry with Andy G and then spent the afternoon with another meeting and dealing with more outsourcing queries. I went across to the Avon pub after work to have a drink with Hilary and her colleagues. Like Sara, Hilary is leaving after many years service with the company. I shall really miss her as we have worked together well over quite a number of years, visiting the north of England and Northern Ireland on disputed claims issues. Sara is, tonight, with Mary at the Brownie Camp and Tom and I are on our own. We had a very small House Group this evening, just me, Dawn and Ivan. We had a bit of a rambling meeting chatting about many things but we did look at some of the recent readings from The Word for Today - especially about grace and honesty. Tom has been very good tonight and cooked his own supper of tinned spaghetti.

From Rain to Sun

In Salisbury today and a series of very confidential meetings and telephone discussions the contents of which I can't publish on this blog and so it makes it much easier to write it up! At lunchtime I ate a light meal of cauliflower soup and smoked mackerel and ventured out in the pouring rain to get a birthday card for nephew James. I always seem to forget the date of his birthday (2nd August) and last year was the first year I managed to send him a card on time. I therefore thought about it well in advance to ensure I got it off in good time. I bought a lovely card with racing cars on the front in relief. I had intended to get home in good time tonight but one of our outsourcing matters was not going according to plan and I was forced to stay in the office until 7 p.m. for ma telephone conference call with our external lawyers (and this after an 8 a.m. start with just a short break for lunch). I was looking forward to a quiet night in tonight but when I got home Tom had hooked up his Xbox Live to the main TV with wires trailing from the router in the study along the hall, through the lounge and into the TV. I have to confess to having blown my top as he has been told repeatedly not to do this. I went out for a drive to cool off. Eventually all was resolved and I ate the spaghetti bolognaise which Sara (not Tom) prepared. Having spoken to our timeshare exchange company earlier today and finding no spare accommodation for the second week in Nassau, I discussed with them the possibility of using our 2008 week in either Spain or the Canary Islands for Christmas. Fortunately there was a two-bedroom apartment available in Lanzarote. The apartment has been reserved for us for 24 hours and tonight we managed to book flights with Monarch Airlines. Another break to look forward to.

Cadbury's FairTrade Choccie is here!

Back to Dorking again today - but only the one day this week and a good opportunity to catch up on some paperwork in the office. I woke at 5.30 a.m. but dozed for half an hour. This was the first time since "retired" that she was in no rush to go anywhere or do anything so she was greeted with a cup of tea in bed. I had a light breakfast of fruit and toast and marmalade and set off for Dorking at around 7.45 a.m. As the schools have now all broken up it was a fairly easy journey to Surrey this morning. The office was very quiet when I arrived with very few people in. I set about dealing with a small amount of "snail mail" and answering and sending emails. The papers from the two HR Consultants employment tribunal claims had arrived on my desk. These will need to be copied and sent out to he relevant people when I know who they are. At lunchtime I decided to forgo lunch with David, Michael and Anthony in the office restaurant and went into Dorking town centre to organise some banking matters. I had lunch at the local Subway, a "sub" with beef, onion, tomatoes, green peppers and my favourite sweet onion dressing - in Italian bread and then toasted! Yummy and far better than what we get at work. This afternoon I grappled with a new terminal illness claim which was on my desk when I arrived. Poor man, a brain tumour but he had non-disclosed his previous medical history. A potential legal fight ahead. The file had me rummaging through my Gray's Anatomy and Nurses Directory to understand what the doctors' Latin phrases meant. I have the file to take back to Salisbury tomorrow. Tonight I was told, on the telephone, Tom was cooking supper - homemade spaghetti bolognese. However, when I got home it seemed the idea no longer appealed to him and Sara cooked a fantastic stir fried pork dish with a Thai sweet sauce. Apparently this was one of the dishes on the menu at Forest Mere. It was served with egg noodles and was lovely. This was followed by yoghurt which Tom also ate. I brought home some of the brand new FairTrade Cadbury's Dairy Milk chocolate which actually tastes richer and sweeter than the old CDM. Not only is the cocoa FairTrade but also the sugar used. Well done Cadbury's and well done STT! Sara and Tom sat down this evening to watch TV and I dealt with quite a number of private emails- including a planning one for the House Group - and wrote this blog. Another early night tonight, I think, with Adrian Plass.

One Back; Another Gone!

I worked from home today. I woke at around 7 a.m. this morning and gently dozed for another hour before finally getting up just after 8 a.m. It had been a late night again last night with Klynn not going home until around 11.30 p.m. I found a single tea bag (obtained from a hotel by the looks of it) and made myself a cuppa. No morning can properly start without one! The hotspot wi-fi was working again today so I was able to connect to the office IT system and deal with my emails. I had a number of phone calls - notably from Serena and Teresa - and emails which lead me to believe that there is an awful lot of work to be done and more changes and challenges on the way. I reviewed some more compromise agreements and spent much of the day reviewing a chunky health claim dispute file. A pleasant relief from so much human resources/employment law stuff. This morning Mary busied herself preparing for her five day Brownie Camp break and I helped her tick off the list of things she needs. She is so organised and focused. Tom spent most of the day with his WarHammer models. Sara arrived back at around 11.30 a.m. and took over the supervision of Mary's packing - much relief to me. Sara was refreshed after her break but found me in a low mood with so much work and work issues which concern me. She has left all that behind now. Sara was only in the house for about an hour when she had to zoom off again to take Mary back into the depths of Hampshire for her pack holiday. I am the only one, now, who hasn't had a break. This evening Sara cooked us Cajun chicken and pasta. Absolutely delicious! We seem to have been living off chicken for the last five days! Good job we all like it. I also mowed the lawns (front and back) and whilst cutting the back lawn it started to rain heavily. I carried on as I found the rain very refreshing and I reflected on my life - where I had come from and where I was going on my mortal journey. I have much to be thankful for but still feel low at the moment. I printed off a few remaining pages of the parish magazine for Sara. It is going to be a bit late this month. There are still some pages which need printing and so Sara will have to visit the Team Office and see Linda as I did on Friday. I am feeling really tired again tonight so will turn in. I am really missing Mary. She is such wonderful company with a giant personality. A world without Mary is just unthinkable. It's incredible to comprehend that once we didn't think we would ever have a second child. I think I'll read a few pages of Adrian Plass before I do. I know that will cheer me up. I am feeling even lower now as what you are reading is the second version of today's blog - the first version - equally long - disappearing into the ether or wherever text goes when you click on the wrong wrong button with your mouse!

Fun and Games in Fordingbridge

I slept through until 7.30 a.m. this morning and then continued to doze until just after 8 a.m. I remembered that I was giving the Intercessions at church this morning so roused the two children (who both needed rousing) and cooked bacon for them which I served as bacon rolls with the crusty rolls I bought as Asda's yesterday. I quickly checked the BBC News website to make sure that there hadn't been any big rail, road or ship disasters or that a volcano or tsunami had wreaked havoc anywhere in the world overnight. Fortunately the only news was that that the last WWI combatant had died aged 111 - quite an achievement. We attended church on time - Mary singing in the choir and Tom sat next to me. There was an amusing or embarrassing moment when Nils and the choir entered and Tom and I, who were seated in the front pew, remained seated. It was only when Nils the Team Rector said "Please be seated" that I realised we should have stood up! Not unsurprisingly that provoked a wry smile from Klynn seated in the pew behind - that smug kind of "I thought he knew his liturgy; what planet is he on today" sort of smile, or "look at me, I know what we should be doing"! I am sure I am being unfair and he was not thinking any thing of the sort - after all, he is a Christian! The sermon today was about having faith - feeding 5,000 people with five loaves or bread and two fishes. What a miracle, and before the days of Tesco home deliveries too! My intercessions were on the lines of summer holidays and the suffering they cause. Not sure if that went down all that well - doesn't everybody suffer being in close proximity to their family for a couple of weeks?! Perhaps it's just me and the fact that Sara is away for three days and I'm in close proximity to the children for three/four days! After church coffee we rushed back home to get our things together to go to Fordingbridge for Food for Thought fun and games. The weather looked threatening as we set off and it never did prove to be that hot summer day we expected but spitted with rain throughout. An absolutely lovely spot close to the river (see photo above). We played cricket for a couple of hours and I realised that my bowling days are over - the opposition could win any game on my no balls and wides alone - but I am still a mean batsman. Tom and I joined the cricketers whilst Mary and the girls were intent on getting as wet as possible in either the river or the paddling pool. On the subject of getting wet, there was another Christian Church Group who used the proximity of the River Avon to conduct a full immersion baptism service for two of their brethren. Us blokes missed that as we were too intent on reliving the Ashes Test. Tonight Klynn came round and helped me polish off a bottle of the Quiz wine and some of the beautiful brandy left by my mother at Christmas. Sara phoned and told me of her day at Forest Mere and that she was now a convert to the sauna and plunge pool. Klynn left about 11.30 p.m. We had a long interesting chat about our role as fathers and remembered times when our own parents had brought us up. I recounted my mother's great love of cricket and how she played with us during the summer months on our small lawn in Grimsby. Those days seem so long ago but so vivid too - Mum bowling middle stump with her mean under arm!

Great Day for Hampshire Sport

I didn't actually go to bed properly until 2.40 a.m. this morning as I found I couldn't sleep in an empty bed - I was missing Sara, even her snoring! I ended up watching a fascinating documentary about the Chinese Communist Party and Deng Xiao Ping in particular with an in depth account of the Tianamen Square massacre. Some rare and unusual footage too. As a result I didn't wake until after 8 a.m. - late for me. Tom was already up but not Mary. There was a whole heap of letters on the hall floor when I eventually went downstairs to make myself a cup of tea. They were nearly all for Sara or joint ones relating to financial matters - bills mainly including Tom's bus pass renewal - three times the cost of an annual season ticket at St. Mary's!! Others giving advice on where to "invest" Sara's redundancy money. Mary and I went into the village to the shop to get bacon and fresh crusty rolls and Mary bought herself a Suduko book. I have been truly amazed at how quickly she has taken to this and how adept she is - doing twelve puzzles before the day was out. Following breakfast I did a bit of hedge trimming and then we all set off for Southampton (to watch the Saints v. Hearts pre-season friendly) but not before Sara phoned to say that Draco Malfoy (the actor Tim Felton that is not the actual character) is staying with his girlfriend at the Liphook Health Farm. She hopes to get his photo soon. She says he is extremely thin so must work out/visit health farms on a regular basis. Once in Southampton we parked at our usual spot and visited the chippie in St. Mary's Street before going up to the Stadium and getting Mary a ticket for £1 from specially installed new ticket portakabins. Not sure why they have done this - must be expecting an influx of ticket sales. Seating was restricted to either the Itchin or Kingsland Stand so we opted for the Kingsland and sat near where we did for the Ajax match. It was a great match - even if there were only about 7,000 people there to see it. Alan Pardew seems to have worked wonders on the team and they beat the Scottish Premier League side 3-0. Some great defending and attacking and Kelvin Davies was his usual steady self. After the match we visited Southampton's PC World and I bought a replacement scanner/copier/printer (but not the one I wanted which is still out of stock) and also Asda's to get food stuff for tomorrow's Food for Thought picnic at Fordingbridge . On the way to Asda's we heard on the radio that Hampshire had won the Friends Provident Trophy by beating Sussex by six wickets. A tremendous result for Hampshire and for Hampshire sport today. We ended the day in the Water Margin at North Baddesley where we had a Dynasty Banquet for two between the three of us. Mary has been in an extremely giggly good mood all day and announced that she would also like a season ticket to go to the football at Southampton! Tonight, before writing this blog I wrote my Intercessions as I am the Intercessor in church tomorrow.

Master and Commander

A most unusual day today. No travel to any of Salisbury, Dorking or London but working from home. Sara was off to Forest Mere today for her four-day "retreat" to the health farm near Liphook, Hampshire and so she spent the first part of the morning busily scurrying around to make sure that she had all the clothes and other things she needed for her stay - including my gym shoes and my camera. She also took with her her study bible and guide. After much fussing around she eventually left around 10.30 a.m. leaving me the "master and commander" of the house. Mary spent the morning watching TV and Tom was either on his laptop or war hammer games. For me I was busy working in the study after discovering that the wireless set up for my office laptop was now working. I was delighted as it met that I could deal with a number of urgent matters that arose during the day. This afternoon Tom went off to the Rec but came back later saying that he was being picked on by three of his so call friends and that these same boys had been bullying him before. We do need to talk to the parents which is going to be difficult as both sets of parents are friends of ours through the church. At 5 p.m. I took Tom and Mary into Salisbury - to buy Tom some war hammer paint and to look at some printers in PC World. I saw two printers I liked but both were out of stock. I will see if they have any at their Southampton shop tomorrow. I also had a letter to deliver in Salisbury and another in Amesbury so we drove over to Amesbury via Stonehenge and had our tea at KFC - a hit with the children. Tonight we spoke to Sara who is enjoying her stay very much and concentrating on getting fit. Mary announced that she didn't want to stay overnight tomorrow at Molly's which means she will have to come to the football with Tom and me. She understands and accepts that. I just hope we can get a ticket for her near us. Judging by the seating at the Ajax match, I am optimistic we can but we need to get there in good time. Tonight Mary and I watched Master and Commander - a great film starring Russell Crowe as the Royal Naval Captain chasing a French frigate in 1805. Some real live action and historical accuracy of warfare at sea in the time of Nelson. I visited the location in Mexico where most of it was filmed and have walked the decks of HMS Surprise.

Fixing

Today I worked in Salisbury again. I left later than normal today (around 8 a.m.) after putting out some extra rubbish for the refuse collection. I was delighted to find that there were two parking spaces still left when I arrived. I have found that it is quicker and easier to get into Salisbury in the morning through Laverstock rather than negotiate St. Thomas's Bridge. I phoned Michelle in IT early on to tell her that my wireless connection at home was still not working. I suggested that I take the laptop down to MacDonald's at lunchtime and try out the free wi-fi system down there. This would establish whether it was the laptop or my wireless router at home that was at fault. I did just this at 12 noon and over a chicken supreme meal deal found that the wi-fi still did not work! Back to the drawing and to India I guess! Sara and Mary popped into the office to deliver some Virgin Vie products. It was strange to have to let her in and for her to wait in reception whilst I went into the office to talk to staff. On my way home this evening I called in at the Mercedes Garage to have two defective lights fixed. Whilst I waited for the technician to do the work I fantasized over an S-Class Coupe whose price almost precisely matched Sara's redundancy payment! A lot of motor car but, at the end of the day, probably just as efficient if not less so than my humbler C-Class. Tonight we had our House Group with five attendees - Sara, me, Rosemary, Ivan and Dawn. Sara kept falling asleep throughout it - a great tribute to my leadership! We watched the final section of Steve Chalke's DVD - The Apprentice. This final session was on the topic of Questioning. Dawn stayed behind for a glass of wine and didn't leave until 11.15 p.m. Her domestic life still in turmoil. Hectic day tomorrow with Sara off for four days to the health farm and me working from home with two kids.

IBM and Fairtrade CDM

A really early start again today as I had to attend a meeting with our new HR Director at 9 a.m. in Dorking. Waking at 5.30 a.m. I made tea for Sara and me and also gave her some tablets for her trapped nerve which is giving her a lot of trouble. As I had he same problem earlier this year I have every sympathy for her. I arrived at our Dorking office at 8.15 a.m. - time enough to get myself a decent latte coffee and bacon roll and prepare my papers for my important meeting. The meeting was challenging but went well although I can see further challenges ahead. I continued to have problems with my laptop which now would not connect to the Internet! Michelle from our now outsourced IT support services came to see me several times during the course of the day, took my laptop away several times, managed to get me connected back on to the Internet and later announced that she thought she had solved my wireless connection problem at home. When I tried it at home this evening it did not work!! Looks like more calls to India tomorrow if I am going to be able to work at home as planned on Friday. It never ceases to amaze me that it took me precisely 20 minutes to get Sara's and Tom's laptops networked up to our wireless system at home yet so far it has taken two days for our professional IT people to fail totally to achieve the same thing! This afternoon I attended another meeting for the outsourcing of further IT services to India! I feel like a turkey voting for Christmas! I didn't leave until 6.35 p.m. and then drove home via Grateley Golf Course to see Roger and pick up my repaired club. Roger appears to have made a good job but I need to leave it for 24 hours before I use it to allow the glue to be properly hardened. Today it was announced that Cadbury's had started production of Fairtrade Dairy Milk chocolate bars which will soon be in the shops. A great triumph for Stop the Traffik. I will soon be able to eat my favourite chocolate bar again!

Indian Summer's Day

Sara's first full day as a pensioner! A very early start today for me - woke at 5.00 a.m. although didn't actually get up until 5.45 a.m. - it is so lovely to lie in bed thinking about getting up before you actually do it! I made tea for myself and slid out of the house so as not to wake anyone and arrived at Grateley Station in good time for the 06.57 train to London. It was drizzling verging on the heavy side so I sat in my car and read my daily readings whilst waiting for the train. It was good to see Klynn arrive on the platform and we shared the journey together all the way to Waterloo. We discussed a number of topics and he lent me a book given to him by Debbie Mac about fresh expressions within a rural ministry. He also mentioned a course called Pioneer which seeks to train people for ministry which we are both going to look into further. He also kindly bought me a coffee too. We parted at Waterloo Underground Station - he to join the Bakerloo Line to Marylebone and me the Waterloo and City Line ("the Drain") to Bank from where I was going to walk up to our offices near Guildhall. I had meetings in our London office until 12.30 p.m. and then I set off back for Waterloo popping into Stop the Traffik to deliver some papers to Bex and have a latte and mozzarella, tomato, avocado and black pepper wholegrain roll in The Hub - quite yummy. I arrived back at Waterloo Station in time to catch the 13.50 train back to Grateley where it was raining. After stopping off for diesel at Kentboro I arrived home at around 3.30 p.m. The phone didn't stop ringing then and I dealt with quite a number of issues but I was very frustrated by my company laptop refusing to connect to the system. It simply has not worked properly since I went from dial-up to wireless. Seeing as I intend to work from home on Friday and Monday I need to get it sorted. I spent nearly an hour on the phone - first to our IT people in the UK and then in India. I found it so difficult to explain to the Indian help desk what the problem was and at one point they asked me to switch off the computer and then to read out the version of the software as displayed on the desktop!!! I had to point out to them that once you switch the laptop off you get a blank black screen!! I will be the first to admit that I am not a very technical person - I leave that sort of thing to the Klynns and Steves of this world but I had spotted that if you don't "power up" (that's technical jargon for "switch on" apparently) your laptop, nothing ever appears on the screen. Later I had a long conversation with my bank advising me of a number of different financial products which would be good for me and my family. At least that call originated in Coventry and not India! I congratulated the voice on the other end, who did, i have to say sound a little Indian, that he was ringing me from Coventry and not Calcutta! Actually, although these calls can be annoying and long this one was quite useful in helping us with financial planning now that Sara has retired. Tonight Saints played Salisbury and I suggested to Tom that we should go but Tom wanted to go down the golf driving range at Grateley with me and his friend James H. As Saints lost 5-4 it was probably a good choice. Unfortunately Tom was rather enthusiastic in his golf tonight and managed to break my favourite club - a 24 degree rescue wood. He thumped it down on the tee as he drove and the club head flew further onto the range than the ball! Fortunately Roger was still there and said that he could easily fix it and that if I called in and saw him tomorrow evening he'd have it as good as new and I would never know it had been broken. The rain came down quite heavily as we swung our clubs under the driving range shelter. After our golf practice we called in at the Plough in Grateley for a fruit juice! Tonight I received a lovely e-mail from Ruth at STT and it is good to know that my offer to help them is so appreciated. Tomorrow I have a meeting with our new HR director which is likely to be quite challenging.

End of an Era; Beginning of a New One

What a day. Sara's very last day at work - tomorrow she becomes a pensioner - at 50! Never thought I would see the day when my younger wife becomes a pensioner and I am still actively at work. I guess that's the way of things and why we men live generally much shorter lives! Sara spent the morning finishing off a number of tasks and emptying drawers and cupboards. I spent the day with a couple of telephone conferences, checking a paper to go to the HR Director and reading some more medical reports. Sara was given a presentation by the HR girls at around 1.30 p.m. when she received a huge card and two parcels of presents - in one parcel several small joke items which were all relating to ginger ("Ginge" being Sara's nickname at school) and the other parcel containing some rather nice aromatherapy goodies including a book and starter kit. Sara was very stoic and made an excellent little speech. Her laptop was removed almost immediately afterwards and I helped her taker her things to her car and hand in her office/car park pass. It was a bit of a choking moment for me as I realised Sara was no longer an employee and would only return as a visitor - 21 years of service and not even a farewell from any senior manager within HR. I returned to the office to attend to a number of minor items. Having worked from 8 a.m. and had no lunch break I rang my staff in Dorking and told them that I would be leaving early. I drove down to Southampton and got tickets at St. Mary's for the Hearts pre-season friendly next Saturday and the Northampton Carling Cup tie on 11 August. I secured our own seats for both games. As I was driving back down Canute Road I saw Queen Mary 2 berthed in the new Ocean Terminal and drove on down onto the Town Pier. I was privileged to see both Queen Mary 2 and Queen Victoria set sail - both looked elegant in their Cunard colours although they'll never look as elegant as the three older Queens. Also in dock was Celebrity Cruises' brand new ship, the 122,000 tons Celebrity Equinox awaiting her maiden voyage on 8th August. Apparently, she has a croquet lawn on board! Back home I posted up the photos I had taken on Facebook and Sara and I drank champagne. Tomorrow I need to be in our London office for 9.00 a.m. so I need to catch to 06.57 train from Grateley - this will mean getting up at 5 a.m. so I'll close now so I can get all my clothes and papers ready for the morning. Sara is currently asleep on the sofa in the lounge.

Half Blood Prince

Woke at around 7.30 a.m. today and realising it was a Sunday, let Sara make tea as I thought about getting up. We attended the 9.30 a.m. Parish Eucharist at All Saints which was presided over by Cynthia. Tom and I took up the Elements to the alter. Cynthia's theme of her sermon was stress and the need for all Christians to take time out from their busy and difficult schedules to find time to be with themselves and God. We returned home after a hurried coffee (there was a Team Baptism Service at 11.15 a.m. and I burned some DVD discs for Linda as part of the "Back to Church" campaign and started to write up my Night Sky article for the Parish Magazine. After a lunch of pizza we then all drove into Salisbury in my car to see the latest Harry Potter movies (Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince) a very long and dark film with some good moments of humour and tragedy. We left the cinema at 4.30 p.m. and went back home for a roast chicken dinner. Whilst Sara was cooking this I mowed the bank during which it started to rain. I also took the recorded DVDs on Back to Church to Linda. After dinner I finished off writing my article for the Parish Magazine and then went off to the Lions Head for a jar or two with Richard and Klynn.

Back to St. Mary's; Back to Hogwarts; Ashes Coming Back?

The weekend - how wonderful after such a long and at times quite emotional week at work. Weekends seem to get more and more precious as the months go by. Time to do what things that are important to oneself and the family. Saturday mornings, however, do become rather predictable with Mary going off into Salisbury with Sara for her dance lesson and then, usually shopping. Today, Sara had to get her back to the village by noon for a party at her friends house up near the pub. I spent the morning making some urgent phone calls and mowing the lawns. It was fortuitous that I did the latter this morning and more heavy rain fell during the afternoon. I hoisted the Southampton Football Club flag today as Tom and I went to the pre-season "friendly" match at St. Mary's Stadium against the big Dutch league side Ajax who are usually more used to playing UK sides such as Manchester United, Liverpool and Celtic. We were not expecting to win the game but it did give the Saints fans an opportunity to see a big side once more at Southampton. The traffic was very busy as we drove in to Southampton and as we came into the city via Millbrook we saw the crane than had collapsed onto the container ship NYK Themis with its booms removed making the waterfront of cranes look something like a set of rotting teeth. W also saw the giant cruise liners Grand Princess, Independence of the Seas (still the largest passenger ship in the world) and Oceana; the latter moored in the Ocean Dock at the brand new terminal. Tom and I went to our usual fish and chip shop in St. Mary's Road and the two owners were pleased to see us back - they must be so relieved that Saints have survived as their trade (and hence profit) must stem largely from the vast number of football fans (both Saints and away supporters) who use them. Their fare is relatively cheap and good quality. They predicted that Saints would go up this year (wishful thinking?). There was a real carnival atmosphere about St. Mary's when we arrived. It felt like either a cup match or a premier league match with many people milling around. We headed for the shop to get Tom a new home kit shirt and I was delighted that he remains an "Extra Small" adult rather than a "Small" adult - that slight difference saving me £9 after taking into account the discount I get for being a Saints card member. He certainly need a new shirt and as both his season ticket and ticket for the Ajax match were free I couldn't begrudge him it - especially as Saints need the financial support. We spoke briefly to our friend Nikki , who sold us a programme (Ilike the new design and cover) and we took our place sin the Kingsland Stand halfway up on the halfway line. The new owner, Markus Liebherr and manager, Alan Pardew, were introduced to the crowd to rapturous applause. A group of fans in the Northam Stand had designed and presented a huge banner upon which was written "Wilkommen St. Mark. We Thank You" . There was also a giant Swiss flag at the Northam/Kingsland corner. Saints played well in the first half with the strong first team - scoring first but then pegged back to level by an unfair penalty awarded after a clearly fair tackle. In the second half, Ajax seemed to get into top gear and the less experienced Saints players struggled. The final score was 1-4 to Ajax who go back to Amsterdam with the Ted Bates Trophy on their coach. Tom and I returned home after the match via Chandler's Ford where we picked up a copy of Harry Potter and the Order of Phoenix on DVD for £5 so we could watch the last film before we go and see the sixth film at the cinema tomorrow. I certainly need to see it to remember where the plot had reached. As we drove home we followed the 2nd Ashes Test at Lords where England closed play some 530 runs ahead of Australia with four wickets remaining of their second innings. They will no doubt declare tomorrow morning and hope to get Australia all out for less than 530 in the two remaining days. As always with Test cricket, the weather will be a major factor in deciding the result. It is, however, extremely unlikely that England will lose this one and a win will put the Aussies on the back foot. Tonight we all sat down and watched the Harry Potter DVD and I now look forward to watching the film at the cinema. A slight panic hit me this evening I was sure that I was the Intercessor at church tomorrow and I couldn't find the rota to check this at first. Eventually I found it to discover that it is next week that I will be interceding. I finished the day writing this blog, my article on flags for the magazine and part of my Night Sky article which I will finish tomorrow. Sara and I watched Michael McIntyre on TV before going to bed.

Sara's Retirement Drinks

A strange day today. I was in the Salisbury office again and today was to be marked by Sara's farewell drinks party at the end of the afternoon. The rain poured down again today - it seems our heatwave summer was another myth. I spent the morning reading medical reports on a policyholder who is disputing the declining of a claim. At lunchtime I ate yesterday's packed lunch which was still in the fridge and then braved the heavy rain to go to WH Smith's to get Sara an autograph book so she could record messages from all her erstwhile colleagues who attend the drinks do this evening and who want to contribute a message later. Sara left the office at 2.30 p.m. to collect Mary and bring her back for the drinks do at the Boathouse whilst I engaged on a long teleconference with our proposed outsourcer's lawyers. I went over to The Boathouse with Jade at around 4.20 p.m. and stayed there with ~Sara until around 7.45 p.m. About 30 or 40 people joined us - many people from the past and either going or under notice of redundancy. I found myself being one of very few indeed who has not been given any indication of redundancy. It was interesting to observe that all those going or gone were smiling and in good humour whilst those of us who appear to be staying seem far less jolly and relaxed. Sara had arrange for jugs of Pimms to be freely available. Mary enjoyed herself playing hand games with Kieran who is fantastic with children. It was so good to se some of the old people and to remember the the good times. how things have changed. On the way home I bought a Chinese takeaway from Porton for us to enjoy as a family treat.

Questions?

Another day in the Salisbury office with an early meeting at 8.30 p.m. I made myself a salad and a corned beef roll to take into work for lunch. As it happened, Sara and I went for lunch together where we had a rather good Mexican meal with my packed lunch left in the fridge for my tea! As it happened I forgot the packed lunch which will now have to suffice for lunch tomorrow. It was a bit of an emotional day with me signing Sara's "goodbye" card and learning that there are now two appeals and another grievance from HR staff about the way they have been treated. My work certainly looks cut out for me over the next few months and it is not eased by having to look at grievances from people I have come to know and respect over many years. I have to admit to having shed a tear as I signed Sara's card. The Company without Sara seems impossible to think of. I also had a chat with Hilary L who leaves us in another ten-days time - again somebody I have worked with over many years, whose company I have enjoyed and who has an enormous wealth of knowledge. After work I took Sara's laptop into PC World and they wereable to fix it very quickly so that Sara can now download attachments from emails sent to her for the Parish Magazine. We had a small House Group tonight and discussed the subject of "Questioning" and "Doubting" in the context of the growth of faith. The discussion was of a very high quality and after the formal House Group itself, Klynn, Steve, Sara and I discussed mission, worship, leadership and the future of Food for Thought. Sara went to bed early and Klynn and I continued chatting until after midnight. I think it very important to give Klynn all the help he needs to grow FFT. I am left with many questions tonight both from a work and a church perspective.

PCC Meeting

No flag was hoisted today. It was my second day in Salisbury this week. I made myself a packed lunch again today - a corned beef roll and a salad - and had a bacon sandwich for breakfast. I arrived at the office at around 8.20 a.m. and immediately dealt with some drafting of compromise agreements. The work seemed to just pile in all morning and my involvement in a number of telephone conferences and meetings never seems to abate. I was glad that I had packed some lunch as I worked right through my lunch hour on a telephone conference concerning outsourcing. Sara was also in the office today but we had little opportunity to talk much to each other. Sara is now clearing up some last minute matters before she leaves - only three more working days to go! This evening I visited Homebase (again!) but not in Basingstoke this time. I bought a new lamp fitting for Mary's bedroom and new light bulbs as she has a pink chandelier which has remained in its box for a few weeks now and which I have overlooked fitting for her. Back home I gave that priority and had it fitted for her in about ten minutes. It really does look good in her bedroom. Matthew the plumber had been and clearly had had a very productive day. The new tiles were on the wall of the bathroom including the special border ones which I went to Basingstoke for yesterday. The bathroom is being transformed and looks really great. Slowly but surely, the house is beginning to look so much better inside. Unfortunately the garden needs much doing to it and my plans to mow the rear lawn was thwarted by my trip to Homebase and the fitting of the light. I only had a brief time before I had to go off to the Church PCC being held in the Junior Church Cabin (as it is now referred to). The meeting was quite a lengthy one and one in which I had quite a bit to say - on the topics of the Church's Vision, Food for Thought, Worship Training, Magazine Advertising, Deanery Synod Report, and Back to Church Sunday (27th September 2009 - my birthday). One issue that does need resolving is the problem of laity being allowed to lead worship and current canon law. At present no solution seems to be forthcoming with the clergy split on this.

Miles for Tiles

I awoke at 6.30 a.m. making English tea for me and fruit tea for Sara. I hoisted the French flag to mark Bastille Day. It was a bit of a manic morning as Sara had to get off to the doctor's for 8.30 a.m., Molly was arriving at 7.30 a.m. , Mary announced that she was feeling poorly and Tom was rushing around and needed to get off for the bus, with his PE kit for Sports Day. In the end Sara took Mary with her to the doctors and I took Molly to school. I had a meeting at 9.30 a.m. (or so I thought) and was lucky to get a parking space at the office in Salisbury. My meeting at 9.30 a.m. I soon discovered had been cancelled. I still had plenty of work to do and another lengthy meeting to look forward to in the afternoon. I lunched with Andy P on mackerel salad. I was very pleased with all the work I managed to get through today. I also briefly met Sara's "replacement", Ann. I arrived home at around 5.45 p.m. after having to stop twice to take phone calls from the office. Once home I had a quick cup of tea and a home-made burger before setting off for Basingstoke on a 66-miles round trip! Why Basingstoke? Well we are currently completely modernising the children's bathroom by moving and installing a new bath and shower and after a lot of discussions Sara had decided upon a grey and white tiling regime. Sara bought them today but the proposed border tiles had been wrongly sized in their box at Homebase and so she had bought insufficient to complete the job. The tiles were also discontinued and stock had only be tracked down to Basingstoke - hence the drive over there to pick up the additional tiles needed before Homebase closed at 8 p.m. I had intended to mow the lawn and hoped I might be be able to do that on my return before it got dark. I had no difficulty in finding Homebase as it is on Winchester Road and I have passed it many times on my way to and from Basingstoke Station. How many assistants does it take to change a table lamp? Apparently four as I was kept waiting to pick up the tiles by a long discussion surrounding another customer who wanted to change one! Eventually I got served, checked the tiles were the correct ones (they were) and left - my transaction taking about 2 minutes in total. On the way back I phoned Mum as I had been unable to get through on Monday evening. We had a brief chat as she was in the process of cooking herself some gammon for her tea. Shortly after the call the heavens opened and I was caught in torrential rain as I drove along the A303. Back home, we checked that the tiles matched the others - they did - and I read Mary the next instalment of "Five have an Adventure" by Enid Blyton complete with pony and trap, ginger beer, buns and ginger cake for tea, dinner gongs and grumpy Uncle Quentin. Tomorrow another day in Salisbury. Only another four left for Sara.

Sleepless in Wiltshire

I can't have had more than two hours sleep last night. Having been to the pub for the quiz I let Sara go up to bed first whilst I completed the blog. I found it difficult to get to sleep and every time I started to drift off I seemed to be greeted by snoring from Sara which I feared would wake up the whole close - never mind just keeping me awake. In desperation and at around 2.20 a.m. I went down to the car, got out my sleeping bag and then tried to settle down to sleep in the family room on the couch. I eventually must have nodded off to be awoken at 5.30 a.m. by my alarm. I showered, made tea and then set off for Dorking, arriving there a little after 9.00 a.m. for a meeting at 10 a.m.. I worked through my lunch hour and ate a crayfish salad I had prepared at home that morning and brought in with me. The afternoon was taken up with more meetings until 5.00 p.m. and I finally left the office just before 6.00 p.m. I journeyed back the same route I had taken this morning - Guildford, Farnham, Winchester along the A31. I managed to listen to "Sorry I haven't a Clue" hosted this week from Newcastle by Rob Bryden. I also managed to listen to part of the first movement of Schubert's Great C Major Symphony (no. 9) on Radio 3. I haven't heard that piece in a long time and it was good to remember just what a great composition it is. Tonight Sara cooked a chicken stir fry which was very tasty and we discussed colour schemes for the children's bathroom. It is only about 9.30 p.m. as I write this but my eyes are sore and heavy and I will shortly go up to bed.

The Winning Truth

I didn't wake very early this morning - it was already 8.30 .m. when Sara reminded me that it was Sunday and we were attending a Praise Service at 9.30 a.m. and she was taking the Junior Church this morning. I showered quickly, lowered the St. George's flag to replace it with the Northern Ireland flag as it is the 12th July - the traditional day of celebration in Northern Ireland for the Battle of the Boyne or Orange Day. The service was excellent, taken by Linda, on the subject of truth - taking a stance as Christians to protect honesty, truth and integrity in our daily life. Great figures mentioned who have done this in recent years have been Martin Luther King Jnr., Desmond Tutu, Steve Chalke, Bob Geldorf and many others. Readings were from Amos and Mark (I read from Mark giving the story of the beheading of John the Baptist - not a particularly easy topic for a praise service!). Many of the words spoken today had a real meaning for me not least the need to stand up for integrity in our places of work. The service ended with a clip from a Christian music festival at Shepherd's Bush with music by Tim Hughes as sung by us at Spring Harvest. I hope seeing all the young Christians there at the concert spoke loudly to those who might think that such type of worship isn't "doing church". It really is and it is the younger generation who will lead the church of tomorrow. Sara stayed behind to attend a Junior Church Leaders' meeting and Tom and I got a lift back home with Maggie. This afternoon I was hoping to mow the back lawn but another downpour put paid to that. Tom stayed at home with me this afternoon whilst I started writing up this blog and did a little tidying up - cleaning the inside of my car and re-arranging the mess in the study. I also read another chapter of Lucas Unleashed. Very entertaining book but with some good moral teachings too. I heard the closing stages of the First Test on the internet radio - what a fantastic climax with England just holding on to produce a draw when all the odds seemed to be on an Australian win - good old Anderson and Panaser. They held out for 40 minutes as the tailenders before the might of the Aussie bowling to ensure that time ran out for Australia to bat a second innings. Chris M called at 8 p.m. and we went down to Klynn's to pick him up for the pub quiz. Embarrassingly, although there were only three of us we managed to win again with a massive 9-points margin - mainly thanks to Chris's knowledge of obscure geographical locations through his naval knowledge. We came away with a bottle of wine each. The regulars will begin to get frustrated with us. It's been a fun-packed busy weekend but it's back to work in Dorking tomorrow!

A Day of Deans!

A very packed day today. I awoke at 7 a.m., made tea and hoisted the St. George's flag. I then hurried down to the Village Hall for the Annual Men's Breakfast. The meal was excellent, cooked mainly by Chris, Richard, Clive and Chris M. The speaker was the former Dean Emeritus of Lincoln, the Very Reverend Dr. Alec Knight, who spoke about the schism which occurred there about ten years ago. Alec Knight is also known for his approval of the Da Vinci Code being filmed in Lincoln Cathedral when Westminster Abbey had already refused to allow it to be filmed there. Alec currently lives within the Clarendon Team area at Whiteparish. After helping to put out some tables for the Parish Fete, I returned home to collect Tom to take him with me to Southampton to get our season tickets and free tickets for the Ajax friendly next Saturday at St. Mary's Stadium. I had to queue for an hour and a quarter to get the season tickets (our current seats renewed) and then another 20 minutes at another window of the ticket office to get the Ajax tickets - all the time the rain was drizzling down. Tom stayed in the car whilst I whiled away the time chatting to the folk around me in the queue discussing the events of the recent days and speculating as to who might be the next manager. Gordon Strachen seems to be a very possible choice. Having secured the tickets, we wasted no time in trying to get out of Southampton and drive to Bournemouth for the Saints v. Cherries pre-season friendly at Dean Court. The traffic was bad getting out of Southampton and congested again around Christchurch (I chose to take the A35 as somebody in the queue told me Ringwood was badly congested) but we got to Dean Court and parked the car by 2.20 p.m. - 40 minutes before kick-off. We found the only hot food on offer was hot sausage rolls so we bought one each and I had a hot coffee too. The support for Saints was phenomenal with the segregation nets having to be moved twice to accommodate all the Saints fans. There must have been more Saints fans than those supporting the Cherries. Despite all this support, Saints put on a rather lack lustre performance and lost 2-1. The drizzle became a torrent and we had to wait about an hour before we could get clear of Kings Park. We stopped off on the way home at Southbourne for some chips as we were both hungry. We got back home around 7.20 p.m. with the rain coming down heavily. There was time to change and quickly check emails before Sara and I set off for the Houghton's garden party leaving Dawn in charge of the children. Fortunately they had set up a marquee and a number of gazebos to keep the rain off the hundred or so guests. We enjoyed a hog roast, some excellent cheese and strawberries, spoke to many people who we knew although there were quite a few we didn't! We left around 10.45 p.m. and trudged home in the pitch black night and in pouring rain.

A Fond Farewell and a Fond Hello

My final working day this week was in Salisbury and what an emotional one it was. Sara was hosting a farewell lunch for her colleagues in the HR Department one member of which, Jemma, was leaving herself today. Jemma brought in cakes (mainly donuts) as her parting gift. I had an early morning meeting with Serena again and also quite a bit of drafting to do for our claims department. We all lunched at Da Vinci's next door and had an excellent meal - I had scallops followed by salmon fettucini washed down with an Italian white wine, the name of which escapes me. In the afternoon there were a few tears shed as Jemma said goodbye to her soon to be erstwhile colleagues and it reminded me that we will go through the same process with Sara next week. My afternoon was punctuated by dealing with the outcome of two grievances which worried me and the fact that four more people are facing the exit door. Redundancies seem to be increasing all the time yet my position seems to remain a secure but difficult one with the amount of work I am increasingly expected to do. England's performance in the First Test did nothing to brighten up spirits - Australia continued to pile on the runs with the loss of only another three wickets and their score is now ahead of England's. It seems that English (or should I say Welsh) weather will be our saviour as rain stopped play after tea today and more rain is forecast tomorrow. This would mean that so long as England don't get bowled out completely on Sunday before reaching a combined score better than Australia's first innings then a draw would be inevitable. Brighter news came from Southampton Football Club who announced cheap season ticket prices - nearly half the price we paid last season - and that holders of season tickets will get entrance to the friendly against Ajax next Saturday for free. The new ownership are now looking for a really good manager to get the team together and take Saints back to the Premier League. After an appalling season last year for both the Saints and the Mariners, I really do think that 2009/2010 will be the turning point for both clubs. Tomorrow, Tom and I will go to St. Mary's to secure our season tickets, get tickets for the Ajax and Northampton League Cup games and then watch the Saints in their friendly at Dean Court, Bournemouth. Back home I had a short snooze followed by a bath. I read some of Michael Lloyd's Cafe Theology on the topic of "Providence" - a continuation of the discussion we had at House Group last night. As I started to write this blog, Sara went off to Test Valley School to collect Tom from his trip to Normandy. As I now finish it he has returned regaling stories of his exploits in France and seeming much more grown up than I can ever remember. It is an absolute delight to have him back and I realise how much I've missed him. Sara seems to be much happier too now he's back as she has been getting a bit grumpy lately. I am really looking forward to spending tomorrow with him and watching football together again.

Saints Captain stays; Head Coach goes

I slept well last night - these cooler nights certainly help. Today Sara had an appointment with the doctor at 8.30 a.m. and I had to be in the office in Salisbury early too. I cooked a breakfast of black pudding and sauteed potatoes and hoisted the Saints flag on the pole to celebrate Southampton FC's salvation. Later in the day, further good news came when I heard that Saints captain and goalkeeper, Kelvin Davis, had decided not to move on to West ham but was going to sign up for a further three years with Southampton. As the Player of the Season last year this is indeed excellent news for the Saints. Further news was that the current Head Coach, Wotte, was sacked as the new owners want to find a more experienced manager to lead the squad. Things really are looking hopeful now. I spent the day in the Salisbury office with two long teleconferences and a meeting with Serena to discuss policy issues. I lunched with two managers from our Customer Services Dept. (an Indian Curry meal). I thought how strange it is going to be soon to come to the Salisbury office and find no Sara! Tonight we had our usual House Group - Steve, Ivan, Sara and Dawn. Klynn has visitors and Max is on holiday hence the numbers were down. We discussed the topic of questioning our faith and the dilemma of God's plans for our lives versus our free will. It was not a dilemma which we could easily solve and no doubt will require quite a bit of theological research. In the test match, England received a thumping today. In reply to England's 435 all out, the Aussie batsmen made 249 for 1 by close of play. With rain predicted on Saturday it looks like a draw is now the best England can hope for.

Saints Saved!!

I hoisted the French tricolor this morning to mark Tom's second full day in France. For me it was a second and final day in Dorking this week - the next two days I shall be in Salisbury. I arrived in the office after a good journey, stopping only once at Popham to refuel. I was actually making the round trip of 160 miles today for two meetings - both of which were cancelled after I arrived!! How annoying. Still, I was able to make good use of the time and fitted in a third meeting which, in all honesty, could have been done by telephone from Salisbury. It also meant that I could listen to the latest news about the proposed takeover of Southampton Football Club on the radio on the way up, and listen to the ball by ball commentary on the Ashes First Test on the way back. So there is always a silver lining. The news was confirmed mid-afternoon that the administrator of Southampton Leisure Holdings plc had successfully negotiated a sale of the football club to a Swiss billionaire, Markus Liebherr who has made his money from the manufacture and sale of heavy construction equipment. Unfortunately, we have lost three of our best players who couldn't wait to see the outcome of the negotiations - Kelvin Davis, Andrew Surman and David McGoldrick. England have made a good start to the First Test - at close of play they were 336 for 7. Tonight, Sara and I watch Collateral, a Tom Cruise thriller filmed in Los Angeles. It seems such a long time ago since we sat down together to watch a film Such a luxury. I shall shortly be going to bed after I've viewed the fifth and final session of the Steve Chalke DVD - The Apprentice - ready for tomorrow's House Group. I have also taken the opportunity to send Simon at STT some details about money laundering legislation.

Rain and Thunder

The Summer suddenly disappeared today - torrential rain, flooding and thunderstorms - and on a day when I was driving up to Dorking and Mary was supposed to be having her sports day at school. Before leaving for work I raised the French flag to mark Tom and his schoolmates being in Normandy. Despite the poor weather I still arrived in Dorking at a good time - 9.15 a.m. Today was a day of paperwork - such things as expenses returns, mileage and fuel returns - both my own and authorising others. The day was punctuated by a brief telephone meeting in the morning otherwise it was head down at the desk all day. The weather was terrible all day. I lunched with my peers - a cheese baguette and soup - when we discussed the state of the company. The stock market is poor again today and recession seems to be getting ever deeper. The news in the Financial Times is depressing. The main news of the day was that Wacko Jacko's funeral took place in Los Angeles and a memorial to those who died in the 7.7 London Bombings in 2005 was dedicated by Prince Charles. It does seem strange without Tom - no rows with his sister - uncannily quiet. Sara is obviously missing him a lot as she does seem to be a little unhappy at the moment. Tonight I tackled the task of approving and signing my company's accounts to send back to my accountant in Somerset for filing with Companies House and HMRC. Klynn apparently caught the wrong train this evening at Waterloo and announced it to all and sundry on Facebook. If I were him, I'd keep that sort of thing quiet! We all have senior moments but I do know which train to catch when I want to leave London! My one and only time of doing the same was when I was much younger and had four or five Guinnesses inside me. Then it was not my fault. They should have woken me up before they uncoupled the train!

A Quick Fit?

I think I had about one and a half hour's sleep last night. Sara was so concerned about oversleeping and missing Tom's bus for France that she kept waking up and disturbing me throughout the night to check on the time. She clearly had no faith in our alarm system - two mobile phones which penetrate their message of dawn. In hindsight, I should have slept downstairs or in the family room. At 2 a.m. I woke up and went downstairs and watched some trashy TV show entitled "Snog, Marry or Avoid" that frequents the channels at that time of night. It was either that or watch the inhabitants of the "Big Brother" house snoring contentedly leaving me to feel envious at the their nocturnal success of entering that longed for state of unconsciousness. I did consider reading some law reports but that would only remind me of work and stress me out further! Instead, I toddled back to bed to be woken again by Sara lovingly bringing me a cup of tea at 4.30 a.m. or some other unknown hour! Tom was successfully dispatched off to France and I drove my car to the Mercedes garage for its service and then to the office for a 9 a.m. meeting. The day was largely uneventful, broken by lunch with Sara, but the weather was extremely changeable with some torrential rain in the afternoon just at the time when I decided to venture out of the office to the post office to buy some stamps! Returning drenched, the Mercedes garage announced that my car was ready but that they had discovered a deep cut in the nearside front tyre which needed immediate attention. I was fortunate to find that Kwik Fit on Southampton Road close to the Mercedes garage had some of the required tyres and could fit one this evening. When I arrived at Kwik Fit there was only one other person there and I thought that I would be in and out in a flash. No such luck. Although they had the tyre, the fitters and no queue an hour of my life passed in that tyre shop. I used the time profitably by reading some the BRF literature I had on me and when I had read that I was stimulated by reading "Tyres and Tyre Fitting Monthly" or some such publication which gave long detailed articles about the merits of certain rubber products. The only thing of any real interest was an article on the use of nitrogen filled tyres (mine was so filled!) and rubber sustainability - I guess that was a bit of research for Stop the Traffik! Both Sara and I were so exhausted that I spared Sara the need to cook a meal and brought in a Chinese takeaway from Porton. This evening Sara went up to bed at 9 p.m. and I am writing this blog at the unheard of time of 9.20 p.m.. It is not usually written much before midnight. I might just watch an episode of Whatever Happened to the Likely Lads before I turn in.

Exciting Wimbledon Final

Woke up at around 7.00 a.m. this morning but had a bit of a lie in as no urgency to go anywhere today except to the 9.30 a.m. Family Eucharist at All Saints which, this morning, was presided over by Elizabeth. The theme for the day was "Listening" and she conducted a really interesting and different style of service. Her especial care in blessing those who didn't take communion and her general "bedside manner" makes her a true asset to the team. I am sure that it won't be long before she will be a firm favourite of the youngsters and that those involved in youth worship and study will find her a really good resource. I don't think that Tom was quite so keen on the service and he has, all day, been rather anxious about being ready to go to France tomorrow. Sara and Tom went into Salisbury after church leaving Mary and me at home. Mary tidied up her bedroom whilst I mowed the front lawn and the bank in the searing heat. Following the gardening I took the crab which had been defrosting overnight and dressed it ready for a light lunch. Apart from Sara and me, nobody else ate any of it so I enjoyed most of it myself as Sara only picked at the white meat. A nice cool glass of chardonnay washed it down well! I spent some time joining up to the network site "LinkedIn" following an invitation from Simon at Stop the Traffik. This is a great professional networking site and I think would not only be useful for Stop the Traffik work but also for expanding Complex Services Limited. At the end of the day I had two new "connection" - Sara and Klynn! Oh well, at least it's a start! This afternoon was spent sorting out cases and clothing for Tom. Sara bought him a small digital camera too which will probably work out much cheaper than buying him a 35 mm camera or disposal one. He will be able to download his French photographs directly onto his laptop. We needed to ensure he had a watch, any books and playing cards, toiletries, changes of clothing for wet, dry, windy, cold weather, gloves for sand yachting, a kitchen sink! Whilst all this preparation was going on Roddick and Federer were battling it out on Centre Court at Wimbledon - the final of the Men's Singles going to 5 sets and 30 games in the final set. Federer won 16 games to 14 in the final set which lasted 95 minutes! I spent a lot of time folding laundry and generally tidying up whilst at the same time watching the match. some powerful and really great tennis. The stamina of the players must be exceptional in such heat and over such a long period. Roddick simply wasn't going to let Federer win that easily. Federer has now won more Grand Slam titles than any other tennis player. He now has 15, overtaking Pete Sampras's 14 today. Sara cooked us a roast chicken dinner this evening although it was still hot outside. She also finalised Tom's packing whilst I washed up. We need to be up in the morning at 4.15 a.m. to get Tom to Stockbridge for the coach. They sail from Portsmouth at 8.30 a.m.!

Nets!

I awoke at 7 a.m. and Sara and I had a little time to ourselves before the kids awoke. I hoisted the USA flag as today is Independence Day and made tea for us. Having had so much trouble yesterday with trying to connect to the office Internet remotely, I decided to go into the office for an hour to download my emails so that I would not have too many to deal with on Monday morning. I had a black pudding breakfast and got into the office at 10 a.m. The weather was already hot by then. At 11 a.m. I left the office and visited two banks to pay some money in - what a nice thought! - and then drove up to Amesbury to interview a prospective candidate for freemasonry who had been referred to us by the Provincial Grand Secretary for Wiltshire. He was at home with his three children whilst his wife was out shopping for a new cocktail dress for a military ball tonight (she is a Sergeant in the Army). Why is it that women always have to have a new dress for each occasion whilst us men are quite content with our dinner jackets or tuxedos as they are called in the US. We never mind looking the same as all the other blokes! Another of life's mysteries I'll never understand. He seemed enthusiastic about joining us and I left some literature with him. I drove back to Salisbury and visited Sports World and John Eadie's to buy cricket bat, gloves and stumps as promised Tom. After a lunch at home of chicken noodle soup Tom, Sara and Mary went into town to get Tom's haircut and some Euros changed for his trip to France next week. I stayed at home did some tidying up and online finances and watched some tennis and a programme on Prince John. At 6 p.m. Tom and I went up to Barry's Fields to try out our new cricket equipment in the nets up there. My batting isn't bad but my bowling is terrible and I'll need to get in some practice. Tom bowled a ball straight on to my ankle and I've now got a massive bruise where this missile landed. Cricket balls are lethal! It is years since I last played any serious cricket and it certainly showed! Klynn and Samuel came around later. They had been up to Barry's Fields to look for us to join in but we had left by the time they arrived. Klynn stopped for a glass or two of wine and shared supper with us. We all watched Sister Act - the Whoopi Goldberg film. Sara and I also watched some of The Untouchables starring our old friend Kevin Costner, and Al Murray Live at the Apollo.

Lunch in London

The weather seemed a little cooler this morning when I awoke although it was still quite muggy. Having slept in my own bed last night made me feel more refreshed than I had over the last few days. I made tea for Sara and me and showered. I raised the Confederate Battle flag in memory of those who died in the Battle of Gettysburg during the American Civil War. Tomorrow we will raise the Stars and Stripes - the flag of the Union - to commemorate USA Independence Day so both sides will have had their flags displayed. Sara later reminded me that I was probably being unpatriotic as Andy Murray was playing the American Andy Roddick in the Wimbledon Semi-Final. At least it wasn't the more recognizable Union flag. I tried to work at home first thing this morning but spent all my time unsuccessfully trying to connect my office laptop to the company's system through my wireless router. It simply wasn't having it and I was equally unable to connect using the dial up system. I spent a good 45 minutes talking to a help desk operative somewhere on the Indian sub-continent. Amazing, I can talk to somebody in India but I cannot access a computer system 8 miles away in Salisbury! The problem was not solved so by the time I left to catch a train to London I had accessed not one single email. I guess every cloud has a silver lining. I caught the 10.57 a.m. train to Waterloo from Grateley and chatted to a guy who was going all the way up to Preston in Lancashire to collect his children from his ex-wife and bring them back down to Hampshire. How sad that he has to do that to see his kids. On arrival at Waterloo I took the Underground to Temple and called in at 4 Pump Court to be taken out to lunch by the barrister and his clerk I am using for some international work in the Isle of Man. We had a delightful lunch at Chez Gerard in Chancery Lane - a restaurant Sara and I had been dined at by our other good barrister friend Michael. I had a fantastic "panache" of mussels, monkfish, prawns and scallops with mash potatoes and french beans washed down by an excellent Sauvignon Blanc. I wasn't sure what a panache was but the finished article was rather like a creamy garlicky soup. Saying my farewells to my hosts after the leisurelymeal I caught two incredibly hot Underground trains to Lambeth North and my meeting with Stop the Traffick. I spent an hour and a half with Simon in The Hub discussing the latest propositions and ideas. We had a good exchange of ideas and will continue to liaise on the question of funding, budgets and initiatives. I returned to Grateley on another full and hot train. I was just lucky to catch it as I boarded it one minute before it was due to pull out of Waterloo Station. When I got back to Grateley I listened on my car radio to the fourth and, as it was, final set of Andy Murray's Semi-Final and returned home just in time to see him lose the tie breaker on TV. He has made a brave challenge for the Wimbledon title and at age 22 still has time to get it before his career ends. He has equalled Tim Henman and no doubt Andy Murray rackets and sportswear will be on display in most sports shops.

A Day in the Employment Tribunals

The weather had turned cooler and it was drizzling when I awoke this morning. Yet another almost sleepless night - the heat in my room is dreadful and the bed so soft that I simply could not get to sleep until around 3 a.m. I then drifted in and out of sleep fitfully. I awoke properly at 6.16 a.m., made tea and had a bath - reading my daily readings in it. I had a light continental breakfast - the thought of a heavy hot full English breakfast simply did not appeal to me. We checked out of the hotel at around 9.30 a.m. and trundled our boxes and cases of documents over to the Employment Tribunals' offices about ten minutes trundling away. The case started promptly at 10.30 a.m. and all my witnesses' evidence was heard by lunchtime at 12.45 p.m. I was very pleased with their performance and as I prepared my cross-examination for the afternoon felt that the case was going as well as expected. The Claimant was only in the witness stand for about 35 minutes and this was followed by legal submissions. It was clear from the way the Judge was interjecting that he was far from happy with our case and felt that some procedures had been overlooked. When we adjourned at the end of the submissions I felt that we were going to lose the case and that if the tribunal gave a judgment today it would be against us. Our only hope was that they would reserve judgment and review the voluminous transcripts put in the bundle. We were called back in after around 10-15 minutes and I feared that we would be facing a judgment against us. We were given a glimmer (not a bright shining light I have to say) of hope when the Judge pronounced that they needed further time to deliberate and review the evidence. Our glimmer became a reality. I left Exeter, after three days of the place, at around 4.30 p.m. in heavy traffic and rain. Vicki accompanied me on the journey back. The temperature was a muggy 19 degrees Celsius. As we travelled further east the weather cleared (although it was a misty haze) and the temperature soared to a sweltering 29 degrees Celsius by the time we reached Salisbury. The heat was becoming unbearable outside and I was grateful for my air-conditioned car. When I got home at around 6.30 p.m. I found the kids messing about with the hosepipe the swimming pool out on the lawn with some water in it. I had a shower and then was picked up by Steve and Klynn to go to Maxime's for an evening meal. What a fantastic house she has! Massive room, lovely garden, swimming pool, wonderful conservatory. I can see why she is so happy in the house with its close proximity to Salisbury city centre. All of the luxury of her previous house in a more communal setting. She served us beef strogonoff, salmon, beautiful cheeses and trifle with Courvoisier. We talked about Food for Thought and Spring Harvest and in the lounge over coffee, bizarre stories of death including my signing of a French condolences book instead of a visitors' book. Tonight I am so tired after three consecutive nights of heat and little sleep. Off to London tomorrow for a luncheon meeting with a barrister and a meeting with STT.