Rob was given a school prize at the end of term for his achievements during the school year. Tricia went along to the prize giving on Wednesday evening. I couldn’t be there as I was watching Ellie in her latest school play (Africa Rocks). A case of not being able to be in both places at once. But well done to Rob for the recognition of good work. Not that we are seeing much of Rob at the moment, he seems to spend most of his time at his girlfriends.

Both Rob and Ellie have finished school for the summer now. The upside to the school holidays is less traffic on the road, certainly for the mornings. That will be nice tomorrow morning.

I have had a lazy weekend watching the golf and the cricket – although I did get out and cycle 20 miles yesterday. Rob’s game of cricket was cancelled today due to the weather. Nikki pulled out of a pentathlon today, she has sore ribs… probably from training.

A quiet Sunday evening. Nikki is in Hatfield, Robbie is at Laura’s… and Ellie had gone to bed.

Well a title like that won’t be referring to me…

Robbie was playing cricket for the village today, against Aylesbury. I was watching on, and got a bit frustrated that Robbie was held back from bowling for so long. He eventually was given the ball, and had to bowl against what seemed like their best batsman, who had been hitting some sixes… and Robbie got him first ball! He bowled 4 overs, and took 4 wickets for 13 runs. So, a top class effort from Robbie. (He was out for 0 when batting, but he is in the side for his bowling).

Nikki was in Bath to day, as part of a trial for the GB squad for Bobsleigh, and did very well. She is back down their next weekend to actually push a Bob… on a track. Not in the snow. She will also be going back for further trials in September, but she is very pleased with what she did today, and they have suggested they will look at her for inclusion in a junior squad for the world junior champs.

Many years ago now, Nikki competed at U13 level in the county champs over 200m. She was up against one of the best in the country in her year group, a girl called Joey Duck. Well, Nikki gave it her all, but was beaten by Joey, but not by much. Today Joey, who is still a friend of Nikki’s, came 2nd in the UK senior 200m. So, well done to her.

This morning, it was ‘Brownie Revels’, where the packs in the local distrct compete against each other in various odd Brownie type games. Tricia’s pack, 3rd Winslow won. Ellie’s Brownies, 1st Granborough were 2nd… which led to Ellie pronouncing Tricia as ‘evil’ …. not very competitive then

I went up the Scotland on Thursday, as my cousin Lisa, was having a book launch party for her book, ‘In Fortunes Footsteps’. It was a long trip, but great to catch up with her, and my Uncle and Aunt. My Uncle, has such similar mannerisms as my Dad that it is spooky. On the Friday morning I went with Lisa when she walked the her dog, Mac, a dalmatian. It was a beautiful morning, and the walk included a stretch of the beach, and woodland. I set off after a cup of tea, and down the A1, till I eventually arrived in Barnsley, where I stopped for tea with my old mate Longead and his wife Jools. I was a little tired on Saturday after all that driving

I had hoped to be watching Andy Murray in the final at Wimbledon this afternoon, but a rather lacklustre (in my opinion) showing in the semi’s means he won’t be. I will still watch the final to see Federer regain the title, and I expect it to be fairky straightforward for him. But then again, I expected Murray to win.

Nikki was in Edinburgh yesterday with Milton Keynes AC. The forecast had been rain, but she came back a little sunburnt. No spectacular performances in her events, but it is just nice to know she is competing. I was due to pick her up from Luton airport just after 7pm. We had a call at 5pm… from the airport, to say she had left her phone in the taxi… Now Nikki has a habit of sitting on, kneeling on, dropping in the loo, her mobile phones. So, when she said she wouldn’t be contactable at Luton because she had left the mobile in the taxi, nobody here was surprised.

As it turns out, whilst in the airport, her friend was trying to ring Nikki’s phone, and see if the cab driver would return it. And they heard the phone ringing…. turns out the phone was in the jacket pocket of the woman sat next to her in the cab. Nikki had put her phone in the other woman’s jacket… not her own. Only Nikki. At least she has her phone back.

Rob has been selected by the school as one of four pupils, to represent the school at the Ofsted ‘Drawing Together – Art, Craft and Design on Schools’ Awards, being held at the Uni of East London, so he is off there on Tuesday.

Ellie is off to do a dance ‘medal test’ shortly. This is an under 10’s dance assessment, which she seems quite confident about.

Tricia and I both got some biking in yesterday. I have managed over a 100 miles this week, which I am pretty pleased with. Tricia has managed to get out and do some decent distances as well.

Here is another phot from our recent weekend at Corfe Castle. This was the group in it’s entirety. And one of me doing the after dinner speech and awarding a few silly gifts.

Another ‘phew’ day. I took advantage of the fine weather and biked into work again. Beautiful on the way in, but very hot on the way back. Still enjoyed it though. I have resolved to do JOGLE… that is John O’Groats to Lands End, on the bike in June of 2011. I will have just turned 50, so that gives me 2 years training. I figure its now or never, as doing 70/80 miles a day for 14 days won’t be getting any easier, and will certainly be easier at 50 than 60.  And I am going to JOGLE instead of LEJOG as it will be downhill that way

Robbie has been doing well at cricket for the village. A few weekends back he played in a match, bowled 4 overs and got a wicket (clean bowled). The previous week he played, I couldn’t see him as we were away in Corfe. He told us he had taken a wicket. When I went to watch him the weekend after, one of the senior players came up and told me about Robbie’s magnificent catch. Apparantly it was a caught and bowled, the batsmen hit it back hard and Robbie instinctively shot a hand out and caught it.

This last weekend he was on duty for the school at a local arts festival, where the school he goes to had a display.

Nikki competed for Milton Keynes AC last weekend in Luton… and ended up doing 6 events as she filled in for some other athletes…. High Jump, Triple Jump, 100m, Shot, Discus, and 4x100m relay. She was tired of course at the end but pleased with herself. The team won by a few points, and she was particularly pleased with her shot, getting over 11m for the first time in a long time. She has now been selected to compete for Milton Keynes in Edinburgh this weekend in the UK Womens League. Its nice to see her competing at this level. She flies up with club on Friday and back Saturday evening.

Last Wednesday she was training at the Hemel H track, and was approached by a bloke who had been watching her doing some 30-40m sprints. Apparantly he is part of the British bobsleigh team, and wants her to try out for the womens bobsleigh team – which she is doing on the 12th July. An odd thing, but Nikki is up for it.

Here are a few photo’s from the recent weekend Tricia and I had in Corfe. The first one is the Saturday evening.The second one is Tricia looking at the birthday card she was given.

   Well thats it for tonight…. must get to bed and rest my legs before making them pedal again tomorrow.