After work this evening I went off to watch West Ham reserves. We were top of the reserve league, but didn’t really look that good, and Chelsea were comfortable winners.  Obviously I didn’t bring them any luck.

We moved the clocks onto British Summertime last night, moving the clocks forward one hour, and duly we have had a nice spring day today. Warm in the sunshine.

It has been a busy week (when isn’t it ?). I spent most of the week in Windsor, at an IT conference – which was informative, if a little geeky at times. Of course this coincided with the visit of the French President, hence these photo’s of Windsor with the French flag draped alongside the Union Jack. These were taken about 8am before all the crowds came in.

Friday evening was a curry night with some friends, and Saturday night we went to a 50th…. Oh dear, it sure is a sign of being in your late 40’s when some of your friends are celebrating 50.

On Saturday Tricia and I went out on the bikes for a few hours, it was a bit blustery and was spitting with rain, but it was nice to get out and do something together. Robbie went off to Aylesbury to see his new girlfriend, Nikki was in Aylesbury working at Homebase. Ellie went to a friends party.

Today, Tricia was at Brunel Uni as part of a Bucks squad training day (athletics). Nikki went off to Hemel H and did her first outside athletics training of the year, and seems to have really enjoyed it, and came back very positive. Hmel is only 20  mins from her uni, and with the new car she has arranged to meet her coach there on Sundays for the forseeable future.

I took advantage of the weather and went out on the bike again… when I sat on the saddle first thing, my rear was somewhat sore after the previous days cycling, so I didn’t go quite as far

Not too sure why I am reading the Lee Child book… I have started so I will finish. I heard a review on the radio that sounded reasonably good, but it is somewhat predictable, and offers nothing new.

Easter Monday morning greeted us with snow. It didn’t settle, but snowed hard for a good few hours. Nikki was off working at Homebase, the rest of us set off to our friends who live near Newbury, Wendy & Rob. We were also joined by Deb & Carlos and their sons Simon and Matthew.

Deb, who spoils Ellie, bought her an Easter gift…. not a chocolate egg – good, she has plenty of those – but Face Paints…. and of course Ellie wanted to have a go with them, and I was the first victim. Pretty much everybody was attacked with the face paint, as you can see.

Of course Matt and Robbie then took it a step further….. Matt’s handiwork, Robbie’s face.

Thanks to Wendy & Rob for a very pleasant day. Good company and good food.

How can 4 days go so quickly. Back to work tomorrow. Well, kind of, I am off to Windsor at a conference for a few days.

Well I wasn’t…. but that is what we got.

A bit of a surprise. I can recall a couple of White Christmas’s, but never a White Easter. Ellie was quite excited by the prospect of playing in the snow, but when we got out of church this morning it had pretty much gone. We have had a relaxing day, Tricia’s parents came over, and her brother.

With my Lentern promise concluded, I have indulged a little today. Over the day I have been pretty much restrained however, and only two cups of tea. I was also doing 50 press ups and a 150 sit ups a day as part of the Lentern thing. It has been a relief to have a day off from that.

The end result was that I lost 12lbs, and I feel a lot better for it….

Well it certainly feels like it, and the forecast is not good. We have just had the mother of all hail storms, and thunder. Not what you either expect or want at Easter. I managed a run this morning before the weather got bad, and Tricia got into the garden and has done some work, even planted potatoes, but the weather is curtailing that.

Nikki is pleased with her new car, and has been out and about. She has just taken Ellie out for a drive. However, she should have been at work, but with the bad weather, Homebase have cut back on the hours. Easter is normally a peak retail period, but they won’t be shifting too much on the gardening side as everybody retreats indoors. So with the volume of customers down, they cut back the hours.

Robbie is out at a friends and staying overnight. Nikki is going out to some friends later, and staying over. So, a quiet evening in, Tricia and I are planning to watch Atonement on dvd.

Lentern faux pas

With only 2 days to go, and with an unblemished record, Tricia and I overlooked something at lunchtime. Part of our lentern promise was no wheat. We had fishfingers… which are covered in breadcrumbs, and therefore wheat. A minor, absent minded infringement, I am sure we will be forgiven.

My Dad’s birthday today, so congrats to him on his 72nd. I spoke to him on the phone earlier, and agreed with him that 72 is a good number. Following a serious illness a few years back, he has recovered wonderfully well, and seems to have lots of energy. Long may it continue.

My Dad shared the same birthday as his Mum. She is no longer with us, but she would have been 100 today. Here’s to you Nan. Not with us any longer, but not forgotten.

Another busy week, work wise and home wise. Nikki is back with us for Easter. She finished on Friday. Her car has been off the road recently. However, with it’s ailments repaired, Nikki was driving back. I drove across to Hatfield from where I work on Friday evening (only 20 mins away) and put most of her packing in my car, and then followed her back. Ellie is thrilled to have her big sis back home, and the rest of us are pleased to see her as well. Not that we have seen much of her in the few days she has been back. Most of her packing was dirty clothing. She seems to have eeked out her clothing, and came home in the last pieces of clean clothing she had. The poor washing machine thinks it is being punished as it has been going non-stop.

On Saturday Nikki was playing hockey in Banbury. Her team won 5-0, and she kept up her recent scoring exploits by getting a goal. Then last night she was off out catching up with friends. Today she has been playing hockey again, with Tricia. As part of the hockey clubs 75th anniversary celebrations there was a small tournament featuring past and present players. Tricia and Nikki played on the same team, and Nikki scored again. I stayed at home as Ellie had a party to go to. A pity really, I would like to have gone, it would have been nice for the three us to be playing on the same side for a while.

Nikki has just gone off out again. However, I cooked a roast, and between hockey and her going out again, we all sat down together for a meal for the first time in a long time. Robbie, who is a slim young man, amazes me with what he can eat sometimes. A food hoover. He ate at least twice what I did, and I don’t eat small portions…. leftovers, we don’t have them in this house, we have a Robbie. A growing lad his Mum says. At the end of the meal he said, ‘I’m stuffed’. I’m not surprised.

Nikki is in the throws of buying a newer car. Our next door neighbour was selling hers, and it was a nice opportunity. The car is immaculate outside and in, has been looked after and garaged every night, and serviced regularly. So, this week Nikki will be sorting out her insurance and getting the car on Thursday. She is very pleased. Her first car has been pretty good, but is becoming unreliable, and so needs to be changed.

Ellie lost a tooth last Thursday evening, literally. She has been bothered by a tooth for a few weeks, and when she was cleaning her teeth it came out. She came downstairs very excited by this. She then went back up to wash the tooth before it went under the pillow… but the tooth slipped out of her fingers and went down the plug hole. She was distraught. So, I had to write a letter to the tooth fairy explaining the accident and leave that under the pillow. This pacified her, and of course she was pleased to find the tooth fairy accepted the letter and left her a £1 coin.

I had to do a Quiz for the school association on Saturday evening. Doing the actual quiz only takes a few hours, but the prep for setting questions takes substantially longer. The quiz went down well, and we raised around £700 for the school, so was worth it. For me though it is a blessed relief. With all the line learning for ‘allo ‘allo and the productions, then last weeks sketches at the Ladies evening, and the Quiz, I feel I have had no time at all. I am not committed to do anything now until a St Georges evening at the end of April, when I might have to recite some Shakespeare. But, I am not under pressure to do anything this week.

This time next week my Lentern promise will have been completed and kept. I feel substantially better for my abstinence. I have lost 11lbs in weight, and just that in itself has helped me feel better about myself.  I can be very single minded, and the willpower to complete is not a problem, when I have a target. The issue for me is what do I do after next Sunday, carry on ? The thing is I know what I am like… if I have 1 cup of tea, why not have 11 ? 1 slice of cake, why not 2. I don’t want to lay to waste all my good work. I have even started running again, only a few miles at a time, but it gets the blood moving. We will see. I may just enjoy Easter Sunday, and then carry on till I am happy or fed up with it.

A better sporting weekend. England won at the rugby, have a good chance in the cricket of beating New Zealand tonight, and West Ham won.

Oh well, time to sign off. No Lark Rise to C tonight. The last episode is being saved for next Sunday night. Just as well really, the final for Dancing on Ice is tonight and Ellie is addicted, and it would have clashed.

On Monday morning, instead of a quiet but reluctant rise from the bed and drive into work… the storm gave me a frantic start. First off, a leak, which we had previously had fixed, started to leak again. So, early morning I was in the loft catching water, and then shifting a wardrobe to get to some wet wall, and carpet. Then I had my second shower of the morning. Ellie got up and reported that some drainpiping had come away from the wall. Indeed, it had, and was swinging in the wind. As it was attached to some wall tiling that the wind was threatening to remove along with the drainpipe, I had to go out into the wind and rain, up a ladder to to remove it.

This of course made me late going to work. So, I ended up caught in the traffic, and a normally 1 hour max trip, took me 2 hours.

Today I was in London. The trip in was ok. But, my last meeting of the day overrun. Then the Jubilee Line was delayed, and I was stuck on a tube. Didn’t get home till 8:45pm. Not happy.

For Lisa, the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy…. please don’t look if of an easily shocked disposition.

Good night all….

Well not for a while anyway. Some while back I agreed to do some sketches at a Ladies evening at the local village hall. So, after finishing ‘allo ‘allo a week ago, I have had to learn and rehearse this week. The first piece was a rip off of an old sketch done many years ago by John Cleese, Ronnie Barker and Ronnie Corbett.

Me in the middle, as Mr Middle Class. The dialogue was changed to include local items and was well received. We then did, Three Little Maids from the Mikado, Sheila’s Wheels and the Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy.. this was well received as well, but not for the dialogue!

Here is one photo, I am on the right of the three ….. all other photo’s will be destroyed.

It has been a mixed sporting weekend. Nikki was back to play hockey on Saturday, and her team (Bicester Ladies), beat Henley 10-1. Nikki scored 3 goals. England were trounced by New Zealand at cricket, and then beaten by Scotland at rugby. Both beatings were deserved, as they played poorly. West Ham, after having a very good season, have now lost their third game on the trot 4-0, which is rather depressing. The team my dad supports, Portsmouth, however had an excellent result, winning at Man U in the cup, and by virtue of the fact they are the only Premiership team in the competition, are now favourites.

I am still keeping the Lent challenge going. Two more weeks to do. Nikki finishes for the Easter break on Friday, so will be back home for a few weeks. Robbie got an A for one of his GCSE English essays, and as it counts as part of the coursework, he is pleased. Tricia has been struggling with a bit of a back strain, so she isn’t coaching at the moment, hoping that rest will be the cure.

47…. I don’t look a day over 50 J.  I am still 21 inside. Had some nice cards and pressies this morning, and then into work. When I started my lentern challenge, I did say that my birthday would be a day off. But now I am here, it won’t be. 2 weeks and 4 days to go, I am sure I can wait till Easter Sunday.