Saturday evening Tricia and I took a trip to MK theatre to see a production of Oklahoma, and very good it was to. I recall being forced to sing about the Surrey with a Fringe on top when at primary school. The fiery Mrs Thompson, who was our teacher in the final year of primary, loved her musicals, and she played piano, and we sang along. But I never had a clue what the Surrey was, or why it had a fringe on top. Of course I am now much more knowledgeable about Surrey’s and Fringe’s.

We only just made it to the theatre, after a typically busy day. Tricia, who is only happy when her daily schedule is ‘manic’, went off to the athletics track at Hemel Hempstead with Nikki in the morning. I went out and did my 6.5 mile jog/walk… I came back and collapsed in the chair. Tricia and Nikki came back, and then within an hour were gone again. Tricia is doing a charity bike ride in a few weeks, from London to Cambridge. So, Tricia was out with one of the other cyclists doing a practice ride, and Nikki joined them. They planned to do about 50 miles in the afternoon. Robbie was at work at the pub, and Ellie had her friend Jess over. I settled down to watch the Germany Argentina game, and had enjoyed the first half, and was looking forward to the second half… when the phone rang. The gear system on Nikki’s bike had snapped (these things only happen to Nikki). Hence I was summoned out to Toddington to pick up Nikki. And missed an exciting second half, so I was a bit grumpy. Tricia arrived back from her bike ride, showered quickly, dressed, jumped into the car, ate her tea in the car as I drove, and we made it to MK theatre with a minute to spare.

Later on Saturday evening, when Tricia and I had got back home, we were sat talking with Nikki and Robbie… I said to Robbie, ‘your Mum was in such a hurry to get ready she forgot to put her knickers on’… Robbie’s jaw hit the floor, and a look of horror came over his face. Then he realised it was me that had said it, and that I was just winding him up.

Sunday was no less manic. Tricia had to help set up a fund raising stall in Winslow at 8:30 am on Sunday morning. I had to take Ellie to Aylesbury for a dance exam, and we had to be there at 9am. So, early starts all round. Well, when I say all round, the two big lumps (Nikki and Robbie) had not emerged from their respective pits. When I got back with Ellie, they had both emerged. Robbie was sat in the living room, in his dressing grown, with a mop of hair on his head, a growth of beard and two eyes appearing somewhere in between. A neanderthal ‘mornin’ escaped the bearded part of his face. Well, Ellie was pleased with her dance exam, Tricia was still out, the sun was shining, I thought … I will go out on my bike. And so I did for a few hours, and very pleasant it was, but it was quite blowy, and so with heavy legs from the run the previous day, I found it hard going. I got back at 1pm, but in quick order had to go out again to help Tricia take the fund raising stall, and a load of others down.

Now, there was no village cricket fixture on Sunday, so the club decided to have a little competition amongst all the players. The new village cricket pitch has been created with a lot of hard work, and so it is nice to use it. Robbie was playing, and so was Nikki. I had said I would go over and help with some fielding or umpiring. So, when the stall was taken down we went straight to the cricket. The format was that batsmen would be paired up, and they would get 5 overs to get as many runs as possible but every time they were out they would get 5 runs taken from their total. This was a good way of ensuring everybody got a share of participation.

I stood as the umpire after the first pair of batsmen scored a net 28 runs. Robbie was bowling… he took 3 wickets in his first over for no runs, and ended up taking 5 wickets for 7 runs in his three overs. Pretty impressive, and I was a proud Dad / Umpire… even more so that the guys he was getting out were not mugs and batted for the village each week. It was in Robbies last over however, that Tricia nearly got her hands on the life insurance money. Arlen, who is a young lad of about 18, and likes to bat like Ian Botham, smacked a very straight drive, so straight it came at me as I stood as umpire at the other end, and it was at head / throat height. One of the reasons I stopped playing a few years back was that I felt my reactions were no longer good enough against the faster bowlers. However, my reactions worked quick enough for me to be able to get my left hand up in front of my face as I tried to avoid the ball. Thankfully the ball smacked into my hand, and I tumbled to the ground. It all happened so quick everybody thought the ball had hit me in the face. Just as well it didn’t or else I would still be at the dentists. I recovered my composure, and was given an ice pack for my hand by the team physio (Nikki). After Robbies bowling spell the batting team had a net score of -19.

Now, there was an odd number of players, and so there was one batsman without a partner. And as it was my old mate Peter Doc (who has appeared on stage with me many times, and also shares the same birthday as me, Marach 6th), I volunteered to partner him. Ha, they must have all thought, couple of old fogies (Peter is 56, and me 49) they will have no chance. However, we chose a slightly different tactical approach. We didn’t try and slog our way to victory… we took 1’s and 2’s, and despite a swollen and bruised left hand, I scored very well, and we reached a net 29 at the end of our 5 overs.  The next batting pair got to needing 2 runs to overtake us, off their last ball, and it was the club captain Trevor, who was facing the last ball… and he had hit most of his pairs runs. But in going for a big strike he missed and was clean bowled… teehee -5 runs off their score. The last pair to bat were Robbie and Nikki. They got close, Nikki scoring an impressive 17 with three boundaries, but didn’t pass the 29 … and so Peter Doc and me won ! Not bad for a couple of old has beens.

With cricket over, it was back home, and the bbq was set up. I cooked the meat, Tricia prepared the salad, and I enjoyed a rare cold lager…

Last week, on four mornings I had swam a mile, on the Monday evening I had run 3 miles, and on the Tuesday I had done circuit training – this is an open air training session Tricia runs in the village. So what with the cumulative effect of all that, and my weekend exertions, I was somewhat knackered this morning. I managed a mile in the swimming pool but it was a rather laboured effort.

Robbie has been awarded the ‘Claire Highfield’ Art Trophy by his school, for all his artistic work this last year, and so has to go back for school prize giving next Wednesday. So, I will be proud Dad again. As a governor at the school, I have been fortunate enough to see Nikki and Robbie both be successful at the school. We are hoping Ellie will get in next year.

Of course nothing is ever straightforward, and Ellie is in her school play the same evening as prize giving… Tricia has just explained to me the most complicated set of arrangements for taking kids here there and everywhere that evening. I hope she doesn’t expect me to remember it all next week…

And so, as you can see, there is little or no let up in our hectic lives. Ellie has her grade1 music exam on the clarinet this week. It is chaotic at work for me at the moment. Life at BP is a little frenetic as you can imagine. With some of the IT systems that our American colleagues use running from our Data Centres over here, you can imagine how excitable it gets if one of the systems they need for the Gulf of Mexico crisis goes down…

I forgot to mention in last weeks blog, that Nikki and Tricia had gone into Debs school in Market Harborough and done some PE with the littlies, and Nikki told them about bobsleigh.

Unfortunately, last week Carlos’ aunt passed away. So, our thoughts and prayers are with Carlos and Deb, Matt, Simon, and Carlos’ mum.