Well, as usual I seem to have been negligent of my blog. I do need to get a little more regular. I am just coming out the other side of a busy period, and I seem to have lost the habit. Anyway, there is much to report on, so this will no doubt be a lengthy blog.

I suppose for me, the highlight of the last few weeks has been my 50th birthday. I am not sure how 50 is supposed to feel, and it hasn’t really registered with me yet, but I am carrying on with life as if I was in my 30’s. I had said to Tricia that all I really wanted for my birthday was a party with family and friends. So, that was what I got. It was a terrific evening, I was a good boy, I didn’t drink too much, just a few glasses of Guinness, but I pretty much danced all evening. I even rolled back the years and did a turn as Gary Glitter to ‘Leader of the Gang’, much to the bemusement of the younger generation… but a few friends there remembered it as an old party piece from 30 years ago and enjoyed it. I had perspired so much that at the end of the evening I noticed my black shirt had white sweat rings around the sleeves. On Sunday morning I was first up, and whilst I had some stiffness in my legs, I wasn’t too bad. Monday morning however was different. The legs were so stiff, and the muscles really ached… I guess I felt 50 on Monday . A few friends hadn’t been able to get to the party, but pretty much everybody I wanted to be there was there. Lisa and Lorraine made it down from Leuchars and Newcastle respectively, Lesley came down from Todmorden with Daniel and Christopher, Mum and Dad made it up from Bracknell, as well as my two brothers, so some had travelled a good distance. Speaking of my two brothers, they gave me some quality presents appropriate for my age it seems… a walking stick, a bottle of just for men hair dye… and a box of male incontinence pads. I didn’t even know people made them. I have put them in the bathroom cabinet… after all, you never know. The theme had been a ‘50’s fiftieth’ and it was good to see the effort some had put in… of course my brother Mark (who else) took it all too literally and came in a dress. Oh dear.

Deb, Carlos, Matt and Simon helped clear up after the party, which we are grateful for, otherwise it would have been a very late finish. On the Sunday morning Deb, Carlos, Simon, Matt and Yvonne were around for breakfast. Lisa and Lorraine dropped in for a tea before heading back north, and then later in the morning Tina and Ransford came in for a cup of tea and a catch up. I knew Tina from 6th form in Bracknell… it turns out her husband Ransford knew one of our friends about 20 years ago. Small world! After finishing the tidying up from the party we ended up having a very late lunch at 5pm. After which Nikki took Robbie and his mate Jordan back to uni. It’s fair to say we were all a little tired on the Sunday evening. It had been a terrific weekend. I won’t have a 60th party like that… I just think it would be too much. But we will see . Some piccies… The first one, of Ellie, Nikki and Robbie is my favourite from the party, my three ‘little’ hooligans together having a good time. Then a reare piccie of Tricia wither her brother and sister. Then one of me singing (well, sort of), and then me and Tricia. the next one has my Mum and Dad, with my cousins Lisa and Lorraine, and me sporting a hideously loud drape jacket.

I had booked the Monday after the party as a day off, thinking I might need it as a day to recover. Well I wasn’t wrong in that, but it turned out to be the day that Nikki had her interview in London at the British Olympic Association offices. So I offered to go in with her, and then take her back to Hatfield after. So Monday morning we caught a train at Tring, which went into Euston, then hopped onto the Northern Line to Goodge street. Nikki was being interviewed by the Bobsleigh association, for some funded places they had coming up. Essentially this would mean a small yearly salary, but more importantly travel expenses to training camps and competitions would get paid. This would mean less of a burden on Nikki and Tricia and me to help fund her. I sat in the offices with Nikki before the interview started hoping to see a Lord Coe or a Stephen Redgrave, but no famous faces were on show. Nikki went into her interview, so I went off and sat in a coffee bar and enjoyed a coffee and a read of my book for a while. I returned to find that Nikki was just coming out, and it all seemed to have gone well. So, we went off for lunch, which was nice in itself. On the return journey, it became apparent from talking to Tricia on the phone that Nikki had left her trainers and her purse in North Marston… which meant that instead of going directly to Hatfield from Tring we had to go to back to North Marston first. Ho hum…

One of the stipulations of the Bobsleigh association was that Nikki would have to break with her existing coach. If she was to be under contract to the Bobsleigh assoc, they would want her to be under their coaches only. So, Nikki had to ring Brian and tell him. A difficult call for her to make as Brian has been coaching her for at least 7 years. Brian understood and took it all in good grace. On the Wednesday Nikki received a call to say she has been accepted onto the scheme. Excellent news for her. There is some work to be done shifting around her final placement as she closes out her degree, but hopefully that can be sorted, and in July she will go to the USA to attend a training camp at the Michael Johnson performance centre. To say Nikki is wildly excited by all this would be a mild understatement. At the moment Nikki is on placement at Luton and Dunstable hospital doing physio on the respiratory ward. In the first week there was some excitement when one of the patients she and her colleague were working with had a respiratory arrest and they had to call the crash team. Last week, a patient proposed to her But apparently he is older than me and not a rugby player so obviously not right for Nikki!

On the Thursday before my party, Tricia, Ellie and myself went to Wycombe theatre to see ‘Goodnight Mr Tom’. Ellie had seen the film a few times and loved it, so she read the book. When Tricia saw that the stage show was coming to Wycombe we got tickets so that she could see it. It was a very good show, and I take my hat off to the young lad who played William, and did it very well. Throughout the show Ellie would whisper in my ear and tell me they had missed a bit out in the book, or something like that This last Sunday evening Tricia and me, and some friends went to Oxford to see the ‘Bootleg Beatles’. I was a little unsure of what to expect, as some tribute bands aren’t always that good, but this lot were very good, and gave a very good show, covering lots of the Beatles numbers. It made up for watching West Ham lose in the FA Cup qtr final earlier in the day.

Lent is upon us, and as usual I am doing something for the period. I was at a loss to what I should do this year, so decided to do lots… so, no crisps, biscuits, alcohol, cakes, puddings, tea, coffee, bread, chocolate or coca-cola is my challenge for this year. An extensive list, but I am having a go at it. The hard one is the tea and coffee. I do love a cup of tea, and normally have one coffee each day as well. The real problem though is coming off the caffeine… some people get headaches, I get leg aches. It has taken nearly a whole week, but I think my body has adjusted to the lack of caffeine. I am sleeping well! In fact for the first few days I was nearly asleep in the chair by 8pm in the evening. We had some friends for dinner on Saturday evening, and I would have enjoyed a glass of wine… but managed to do without… I would also have liked to have had one of the ginger sticky toffee puddings Tricia did for dessert… but made do without. Only 5 ½ weeks to go

I am also working hard training for the Swimathon. I upped the ante on Friday evening and moved from doing 70 length sessions to a 120 length session. This took 57 mins, which I was reasonably pleased with. Yesterday I did 120 again, but got the time down to 55 mins, so progressing well. Not quite as quick as I was last year, but getting there, and there is still 3 ½ weeks to go, so some room for improvement yet. The swim is 200 lengths, and I hope to do it in around 1h 35mins. Monies raised go to Marie Curie Cancer Care nurses, so a good cause. I hope that my lentern fast will also help, in that it may shift a few pounds over the next few weeks, which will help.

Tricia has recovered from her bout of bronchitis and is pretty much back to her normal self now. She has been in the garden when some of the recent good spring weather has allowed, and turned a patch ready for planting up some veg. Last week she also refreshed some of the paintwork in the kitchen, and oiled the wooden kitchen tops. Yesterday she went and collected a wardrobe which has been put in one of the spare rooms (the one Nikki will use). Today she went out for a run and did 5 miles… so it’s fair to say she is fully recovered .

Ellie has been accepted into Waddesdon secondary school, and starts there in September. This is the same school Nikki and Robbie went to. She is ready for a new school… and she has almost literally outgrown the primary school. As we are not in catchment area it was a relief to know that she had got in, even though I knew the odds were pretty good. I have just renewed being a governor at the school for a further four years. Ellie’s dancing is going well, and the tutor wants her to do more classes and competition. She is also starting confirmation classes, and will be confirmed on Sunday June 19th. She also still does Guides, is doing the clarinet, as well as other school activities… a busy girl.

Robbie has been busy at uni, he was part of a group project, and they had to do a presentation last week, apparently it went well, and he was relieved. He now has a spell working on personal projects, which he prefers. Rob likes to get his work done early, and he is always prepared to put in the extra hours that others might not when working in a group project.

Over the last year at work there has been a rebid of the current contract for the outsource of our Data Centres. BP decided to do a global rebid, as it would save costs, as opposed to having a UK outsource contract, an American one etc etc. The impact on me was that the job I do presently would disappear. On the upside I was told that new jobs would be created within BP to manage the contract, which I would likely be suitable for. However, if I didn’t get one of the new jobs I would likely be made redundant. In December we were told that HP had won the contract. In January I was told that my name was on a list to transfer to HP, but I could still apply for the new positions in BP… this was unexpected news, but did mean that whatever the outcome I would at least have a job, which was good news. The transfer to HP would have protected some of my terms and conditions from BP so didn’t look too bad. After a number of internal interviews, I learnt at the end of last week that I had secured a job as a Service Delivery manager in BP, which I have decided to accept. It has been a long and unsettling period at work with all this running on, but hopefully things will be a little more settled for a while. There is no such thing as a job for life, and all companies look to cut costs regardless of how well you have done, it just seems to be a fact of working life. I have been through similar situations at other companies, but it doesn’t make it any easier going through the process…. But as I said, all sorted for now. The new job is a global role, so who knows, I may even get to see some foreign parts of BP.

What with the job situation, the play going on, governor duties etc, it has been an extremely busy period over the last 3 months or so. I hope that things will get a little quieter now… well, you can always hope can’t you?

Waking the Dead is back on tele….whoopeee.

That’s it for now.