Broken Specs.

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

Red and White Army

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

A Sad Day

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

A Sporting Sunday

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

Field of Dreams

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

Birthday Pastries

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

Provincial Grand Lodge - End of Term

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