On Friday, the team I support had something of a let off. Despite clearly breaching league rules over the registration for two players, they were not docked points (which would have seen them pretty much relegated) and which teams in the past have had as a penalty, they were just given a fine. Well, when I say ‘just’, it was for ?.5m. Staggering. I am glad to say that the team went and won at Wigan 3-0 on Saturday afternoon (leading to a spontaneous dance in the middle of Milton Keynes around 5pm yesterday). Two games to go, and still with a slight chance of staying up.

Friday evening was curry night. Around to some friends, for some Indian cuisine. Good company and a fine end to the week. But then the rest of the weekend has been spent entertaining our German student.Saturday was some teenage fun, as we took them bowling in MK.

Today was different, we had a day at Warwick Castle. Splendid day out.

Robbie on the left, and the German student Oliver on the right. Best place for teenagers.

The opportunity to give Robbie a strangulated frontal lobotomy was too much to be missed.

With outdoor displays on falconry, archery from medieval times, and a trebuchet, as well as the excellent history and exhibitions on display it was well worth a visit.

And so the weekend ends. At least it is May Bank Holiday next weekend. Something to look forward to.

Over the last 3 years we have had German exchange students staying with us for about 10 days. In repayment I get to send one of my offspring to Germany for the same period. The first two students were girls, and Nikki went the other way. Last year was Robbie’s turn and so we had Max last April, and Robbie went out to Germany in October (and went to the Oktoberfest, I was envious).

Having had three easy to get along with students, I did wonder whether the odds were for us to have a difficult one this time. But no, we picked up Oliver and he is a nice lad, with good manners. But unfortunately, no sooner had he joined us than he became sick. Which made the last 48 hours difficult. However, he was brighter today and has gone off to London with his group. I hope he survived the day.

A hard week at work, I am so pleased the weekend is here.

Thank you Lisa for the book you sent me. Hit the spot. I am indeed a coarse actor.

I am pretty reasonable at decorating, painting, wall papering etc. And I usually don’t object to getting on with it providing I am given the time and space to get on with it. Plumbing and electrics however are not my thing, and I have a back catalogue of various misdemeanours which involving fusing the house lights and flooding the airing cupboard.

So, when the shower pump packed up recently Trish said we would find someone to sort it out. Which in veiled terms meant ‘don’t do it yourself’.

A few attempts at various plumbers ended up with promises of visits in the next millenium due to how busy they were. So, the job remained outstanding. And with a German exchange student arriving next week it was going to be inconvenient with the shower not working in the main bathroom. I had suggested to Trish that the actual replacement itself should be pretty straightforward. But I was told to leave it alone.

Today Trish went out to do a day’s coaching. What a nice surprise I thought if I get it done whilst she was out. So, after disconnecting the electric to the pump, and after turning off the feeds and draining as best I could 3 of the 4 pipes to the pump with little or no spillage, I proceeded to the 4 one, and ‘whoops’ the pipe came off, and oh my goodness I hadn’t closed the feed fully. Fortunately I did have a ‘just in case’ bucket handy, and managed to capture the torrent of hot water and almost close the feed without too much water flooding everywhere. But the carpet and the floor were reasonably sodden. I then noticed that in closing the feed fully I had loosened the joint on the pipe it was attached to, which was now seeping water. Aaaaagh. So I turned off the water mains and drained the tank so that things weren’t leaking everywhere. I then did what any failed DIY person does on a Sunday. I called out a plumber….

I called a bloke who advertised in the local parish magazine. He was brilliant, came out, corrected the leaking joint, fitted the new pump, and charged very reasonably.

Trish came home. The devatstation had been cleaned away, in fact I was cooking the Sunday roast. But I had to come clean and tell Trish all. She is pleased the shower pump is fixed. But I have had to make a promise to never, ever, attempt plumbing again. A bit like my promise never to eat Shreddies again. But that’s a story for another day.

Looking back at the start of the year I had set out to shift some weight. I lost some but then stalled. The alcohol abstinence during lent meant I didn’t really put any back on, but even so I felt I had stalled and so wanted to push on and shift some more. Trish and I are going away in June with some others on a ‘Jeeves and Wooster’ weekend, which will mean the dinner suit coming out and I don’t want it to be too tight.

So, I have attacked my body with vigour. I have had four hard sessions in the gym this week. I have been miserly with the calories. And I even cut out coffee and tea.

No caffeine. But my goodness, I have been having headaches, and my legs aches so much – and all this is apparantly part of the caffeine withdrawl. One of life’s peversities, eat and drink healthy, get pain.

The fruit teas have been nice though.

Went to a tutorial last night, which was looking at 60’s culture and counter culture. It is always good to start a new topic, I had just better pull my finger out and get the previous one finished.

I was born in 1961, so clearly don’t remember anything of the early 60’s of any great consequence. But as a young lad watching television in the late 60’s I became quite aware of the vietnam war and the fact there always seemed to be protest marches about something or other. What was quite interesting though, was reading / going through a number of changes that emerged in the 60’s but probably didn’t become mainstream culture until the 70’s – such as the contraceptive pill. I became aware of it, it caused horror amongst older generations, but I could never get why it was considered such a big issue.

I suppose you grow with what is avaialble and around you and accept it when going through adolescence and young adulthood. Then you get stuck in those ways when you arrive in midle age

Well, today I went to Warwick. Beautiful place Warwick, not that I saw much of it. I arrived in time for my 11am meeting. This was supposed to be a big pow wow, as part of putting together a customer proposal. Before leaving I feared it could be a long meeting, knowing that at least two of those invited to the meeting could win an Olympic medal for talking.

They excelled themselves today. It could have all been over in about a third of the time it took. Half past four we finished. It was at this point, not able to take anymore that I packed my laptop and items. They got the hint ! I only wish I had done it 2 hours earlier.

Oh well. Home now. But on the news some lunatic has shot 20 odd people in Virginia. Horrible.

My brother-in-law had been trained in the use of a chainsaw, and tree removal, pruning. He is a golfing green keeper, but has these extra skills as part of keeping the overall course where he works in trim. Trish asked him some time back to come and do so some work for us, and so yesterday he came and severely pruned a tree for us. The tree was not deep rooted and we have been concerned for some time over its stability, we will have to keep it pruned back. And so my Saturday afternoon and evening disappeared amongst he a heap of branches. The garden looks better for it, though we will miss the shade we got in the summer from it.

My son Robbie was asked to play drums for a band that had fallen out with their drummer, but were due to record some material. This particular band had won a recording session at a studio, so last Wednesday there was hurried practice before the recording on the Thursday. Apparantly it went really well. Robbie was absolutely shattered after playing the drums for about 6 hours. The good news is they are a rock band, as opposed to a heavy thrashy metal group.

Sunday morning, and I really should be finishing an OU essay…. it’s more difficult to find the motivation when the sun is shining and it is a beautiful day outside.

It seems the blogging world is full of controversy at the moment, about freedom to write what you want, some bloggers receiving death threats etc. Saw this article on the BBC website this morning http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6540385.stm and saw some similar ones last week.

So, I have updated my tag line so that anybody who passes my way can see that in general this is an inoffensive blog recording the humdrum life activities of a middle aged, father of three, with no real axe to grind about anything.

And if that’s not good enough for them, I will be around and put a bat up their night shirt.

As for my ‘currently listening to item’ I kind of stumbled across this. I used to listen to a lot of Springsteen in the 80’s but lost track of what the old boy was doing these days. It’s an album of American folk song covers, that I think he does a pretty good job of. The opening track is about some bloke called Dan Tucker, and I keep singing it…. it’s trapped in my head.

Nearly a week since my last weblog, I am either slacking or just don’t have much to say right now.

The weather has been beautiful over the Easter weekend. Much of Good Friday and some of Saturday was spent in the garden. The lawn has been raked, mowed and fed. Trish has been getting potatoes and onions planted, whilst sorting out some of the flower beds.

Yesterday Tricia’s parents came across for lunch, which we had in the conservatory with the doors open. Not quite still or warm enough to eat outside, but not far from it. Ellie enjoyed her Easter egg hunt. I enjoyed a glass of champagne with breakfast, a pre lunch sherry, one glass of wine with lunch, and one beer in the evening. I didn’t go over the top. In fact, to be honest missing out on alcohol really wasn’t that much of a challenge, it was just the occasional time with friends when I would have liked to have had a drink.

A great weekend for sport. The Masters was a bit slow at times, but the final round was quite good. A Brit, Justin Rose, was in with a shout up until the 17th of the final round when he played a bad hole. Tiger Woods wasn’t at his best, but the guy who won, Zach Johnson, played the best on the final day, so good luck to him. Britain won the Davis Cup match easily. England lost at cricket to Australia, no surprise, but it wasn’t a hiding.

But the surprise result of the weekend, Arsenal 0 West Ham 1. My team won again. Quite fortunate as they had to defend for long periods and nicked a win, but that’s 3 on the trot now. A little bit of hope that they may avoid relegation, but the odds are still against it. They have a must win game against Sheffield Utd next weekend, and then home against Chelsea a week Wednesday, and I have a ticket to go .

A quiet Easter Monday at home. I feel rested. Trish is in the garden, Ellie is outside playing, Robbie says he is doing homework (but probably on MSN), Nikki is at work….and me, well I have an OU essay I really should be writing….

One of the great sporting events of the year kicks off on Thursday. The Masters, from Augusta. It is normally a great spectacle, a beautiful course, and top class golf. And to really help this year, it is over Easter weekend, so sitting up till the early hours to watch the final round won’t be a problem as there is no work on Monday. And of course, I will be able to have a beer whilst watching the final round as Lent will be over… can’t wait.