I shouldn’t complain really, I don’t seem to get many colds. But, I have had a stinker of a cold this week, and so has Tricia. Almost simultaneously at the begining part of the week we started sneezing and feeling under the weather. It seems we took it in turns each night waking ourselves up with nose blowing. I am still not a 100% but the worst is over. Of course, for a cold, you just get on with life, and so we both did.

On Tuesday we (Tricia, Nikki, and me) went to the BBC and saw Question of Sport being filmed. Tricia sent off for tickets quite some time ago, but the timing worked out quite well as the show (went out on Fri evening) was full of Olympians. Christine Ohuruguo, Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Andy Hodges were the guests. It was interesting to watch it being filmed, and was slickly done. Here I am getting acquainted with a dalek outside the BBC shop…

Last night I was doing a quiz to raise funds for the local sportsfield. We have been having a lot of work done on the field, so that it can be used for cricket and football. The quiz went down well, and we have raised some money, but it was a lot of hard work putting it together. It took up a lot of time, Wed, Thu and Fri evenings digging out questions, and then putting it all together on Saturday.

Today we were entertaining. In October we are going on a Cruise in the Med. We did one a few years back and it was one of the best holidays we have had, and so we are going again with the family we went with last time, plus three other families. And so we had them all around today for a pre cruise get together. Now a bbq had been planned, but of course the recent monsoons seemed as if they might get in the way. And it did rain for a while, but I didn’t let that stop me. We had a great time. Lots of laughter, and we are all looking forward to the holiday. One of the couples, Pat and Clive celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary a little while ago, and Clive is 60 in a few weeks, so we will be celebrating with him.

Of course all the housework and prep before hand, and the tidying up afterwards has left us tired this evening. So, when everyone had gone Tricia and I flopped in front of the tv…. and, surprise, there was something worth watching. Griff Rhys Jones presented a programme on Thomas Hardy. Excellent viewing. On Monday evening Tricia and I watched a programme on Ella Fitzgerald, that was excellent as well. Two really good TV progs in one week, highly unusual.

Robbie and Ellie were both back at school this week. Neither seemed thrilled at the prospect, but both seemed ok about it once they had got there, and met up with friends they have missed over the summer. Nikki played her first game of hockey for the new season yesterday. Her team thumped Tham 9-0, and Nikki scored a hat trick.

As a final footnote, the manager of the team I support (West Ham – Alan Curbishley), resigned this week, after he had been undermined by the board in trying to do his job. He managed to keep us in the premier league in his first season when we looked all but relegated. Then last year we finished 10th. Our best finish for a decade. In other words he has done a pretty good job… it just seems there are no pleasing some people.