Well, Wembley, to be precise. I had my first visit today to the new stadium, thanks to my nephew Alex. He managed to get 2 tickets for the Championship play off final today between Reading & Swansea. The stadium is magnificent. And outside the stadium is a statue paying tribute to West Ham and Englands finest … Bobby Moore. Unfortunately, the result wasn’t the right one. The referee was a numpty and gave Swansea two penalties… they won 4-2. Reading were 3-0 down at half time, and a splendid start to the second half saw them get back to 3-2, before Swansea were given their second penalty of the afternoon. At 4-2 with 10 minutes left it was game over. Alex and I hope to get to a few West Ham games next season… which will include West Ham v Reading.

Tricia, Nikki and Ellie went off to Stonehenge and Avebury today, and came back wet. Nikki was off doing shot putt for the county. A rare venture into athletics for her. Last week the uni awarded her full colours for her sports contribution. Nikki did her final exam on Friday… she thinks it went ok. Fingers crossed.

On Sunday we went across to Wendy & Robs for their son Andrews 21st. We came back late afternoon so that Ellie could get to her confirmation class, before we all sat down to watch ‘The Kings Speech’ which I thought was terrific. I have no idea how close it was to reality, but the film was excellent.

This morning Ellie went off with Tricia to a dancing competition in Aylesbury. She came 1st in the Pairs, and in Rock’n’Roll, 4th in Solos and 5th in Street Dance… so she came home with 4 trophies, and was rather pleased with herself. This is the first time she has come 1st in any dance competition, and she managed it twice in one day. So well done to her.

Yesterday Tricia was competing for Aylesbury Athletics Club, in Peterborough. She was 4th in the 100m, and the shot putt, she also did the 100m hurdles… but the surprise of the day, was that Tricia, who is essentially a sprinter and considers running further than 200m pointless, stepped into the breach to do the steeplechase !!! Tricia has been doing some jogging in the mornings, and so knew doing the run wasn’t a problem, and she picked up 8 points for her team as a result. Mind you, her spikes are soaking wet as she couldn’t quite clear the water jump

After a haircut yesterday morning Ellie and I went swimming, and then on to Northampton to pick Robbie up from Uni. It only seems a few weeks since we took him back after Easter. Well, he has now finished for Year 1, and so we had to empty his uni flat and bring everything home, and move him back in. So Robbie is now back with us till September when he goes back for Year 2.

Nikki has now finished her placement in London. This weekend she has been in Bath training with the bobsleigh squad. She has come back here this evening, and is going out shortly to meet up with her boyfriend Chris. She goes back to Uni this week, and has an exam on Friday.

My stay in Houston with work was quite good… I enjoyed the steaks. The Friday was a beautiful day, in the 30c’s and clear skies. I took an evening flight from Houston at 8:45pm, which landed at Heathrow at 11:40am. I was then picked up by a driver, and was home at just after 1:30pm. I had managed to get some sleep on the flight, and managed to keep going through the day – I cut the lawn, and did some other jobs – then n the evening we went to a ‘whodunnit’ evening at the school where I am a governor, which was a fund raising evening. I was in zombie mode by this time, and really didn’t care who dunnit…

I was back into my sleeping pattern with no probs, but have felt lethargic all week at work. I suppose this is the jet lag, but its taken a week to get over it. Its only this weekend that I have started to feel a little more my normal self.

Well, after a 30 minute wait to get seated for breakfast this morning, I enjoyed a bowl of porridge and coffee. I then worked in my hotel room for a while, before going across to the data centre I was at yesterday to get an access card produced – so if I am back in Chicago in the future I can get in. I checked out of the hotel about 12, and the car came to pick me up to take me up to the airport.

I eventually worked out the system for automated check-in, and toddled off to security, then straight to gate… where I had to wait for 2 hours . And there was no wifi so I couldn’t work. Eventually we were all boarded…me sat next to a window, and a couple sat next to me… who, despite being on a flight couldn’t keep their hands off each other. Thankfully I could look out of the window. The woman was wearing a black dress that just about covered her…and it didn’t suit her. Blurgh. For this flight I was travelling economy, which apparently is the BP standard for internal flights. The captain said that there may be some turbulence, but there was hardly anything, a pretty straightforward flight.

I was greeted by the driver at Houston airport, who led me out to this large limo, with darkened glass for the back of the car… for me. It didn’t seem right, but he had my name, and so off we went. The drive to the hotel took about 30 minutes. It’s difficult to draw a judgement of Houston from the main interstates / freeways, it would be a bit like forming a judgement on London whilst driving on the M25, but Houston is a sprawling city, comparted to the more compact Chicago. Chicago accommodates by building up… Houston seems to build out. Space is not an issue. Houston is also considerably hotter. Mid 30’s celsius.

The hotel room is nice. I went to the restaurant and had a steak fit for desperate dan ! And now it is 9:30pm, and I am very tired. Early start tomoz, I need to be in the BP offices by 8am for a meeting. So, lights out for me…

Its 6:23am here in Chicago, and I am writing this whilst still in bed. I have the curtains open, and I have a view out onto Lake Michigan. Yesterday, after a fitful nights sleep I went off to the BP Data Centre here, which was literally a hundreed yard walk from the hotel. Despite staying awake and trying to get myself onto US hours, I had woken up a number of times as if the body was saying ‘come on you should be up’. At about 10am, we went off on the tour of the data centres, the one which was close to my hotel, and one about 25 miles the other side of Chicago.

It was whilst travelling across Chicago that I had my ‘who the heck wants to hire a donkey’ moment. (Some blog readers may understand this reference). I saw a sign saying ‘Lingerie Football’… I had to double check the sign, and then said to my colleague who was driving, ‘what the hell is lingerie football’… he just laughed. Apparently, there is a televised league of women playing American football in their… well, lingerie. Beggars belief really, but it seems there is an audience for it.

We finished the tours at around 3:15pm, without having had a stop for lunch. I had been restrained at breakfast with just porridge and a piece of toast, so when I returned to the hotel I was very hungry and ordered myself a panini, which is normally a toasted flat bread, but which turned out to be just a toasted sandwich. I did some e-mail / work, and stopped about 6pm. I was starting to get quite tired, but knew I couldn’t go to bed just then. So, I went for a walk, and walked to ‘Soldier Field’ where there is the Chicago Bears American football stadium, then I walked to the shore of Lake Michigan… I was quite surprised how lively the water was. Then walked back to the hotel. Isuppose I could have got a cab and gone ‘downtown’ for a looksee, but I was really quite tired, so went to the hotel restaurant for a meal, and returned to my room. Lights out about 10pm… I awoke at 4am feeling refreshed… doh… so went back to bed and dozed till about 6am. Hopefully I won’t feel quite so tired today. A few piccies taken with my Blackberry…

The first two are from the hotel room window. The third one is the old building containing the larger of the two data centres I saw. Lovely old building, gutted to convert into data centre space. Then one of the skyline, one of the Chicago Bears stadium, and finally the Lake side.

I have the morning working, and then go to the airport to catch my flight down to Houston late afternoon, getting into Houston about 6pm.

In other news, Tricia tells me Nikki has bought herself a car.

As a family we often watch a series called Biggest Loser USA, which is a weight loss programme… it is interesting to see the contestants go through a kind of boot camp, with lots of exercise and eating the right foods. Over 16 weeks you can see some dramatic changes. Of course in the USA there are no shortage of possible contestants… So, as I have been in Chicago for about 3 hours, and feel pretty slim by general comparison

I am out on the States for a week, first of all Chicago, then later in the week Houston. It’s my first trip abroad with BP, and it seems they like to look after their staff. A car was arranged to pick me up from home this morning, and take me to Heathrow. The driver was a nice guy (abdul was his name), but he had his sat nav switched off for some reason, and got lost in Aylesbury and then Amersham, and I had to redirect him. My flight was booked as business class travel, and so I was able to enjoy the business lounge whilst waiting for the flight (well when I say enjoy, they had football on one tv screen, and Wolves were beating West Brom, which was bad news for my team West Ham, almost certainly relegated now). The plane was a fairly new Boeing 777, and the business class travel area was pretty good. Loads of legroom and a reclining seat. I was given a glass of champagne getting on… in fact the alcohol was pretty much on tap. And some people seemed to take advantage. I held back, I had a small glass of red wine with my meal but that was it. I sat and watched the new version of True Grit on the inflight entertainment (which I enjoyed), and then put the seat back, had my feet up, and dozed / slept for a few hours. The flight was very smooth and landed in Chicago at 5:40 pm local time, 11:40 pm UK time.

It took ages to get through passport control. The queue went on for ever. Eventually I emerged, and called the car company to pick me up and take me to my hotel where I am presently writing this blog from. Hotel room is quite nice. Tomorrow morning I get to look around a couple of our American Data Centres.

It will seem a quiet week in North Marston, as it is just Tricia and Ellie at home this week. Having said that, Tricia is going to be busy with a couple of catering jobs.

Friday evening Ellie and I went to an evening reviewing our last MADS production. Then on Saturday evening Tricia and I had some friends over for dinner.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROB

Robbie turned 19 on Thursday, his first birthday away from home.. he is home next weekend, so we will catch up with him then.

Nikki was on her placement for the first part of the week, which seems to be going quite well. Then Thu and Fri she was with the bobsleigh squad at McLaren F1 team hq in Woking… and got to touch Lewis Hamiltons car ! Sounds like she had a great time. She has her final exams coming up, and is revising hard…

I should also note that Ellie was very pleased with getting 20/20 in her mental maths test this week.

 3 days working and 4 day weekends… seems like the way forward to me

After a reasonably relaxing Easter Bank Holiday Monday, it was back to work on Tuesday. I say ‘reasonably’ because I found it difficult to relax, always feeling I should be doing something. Nikki worked Monday, was then in Hatfield for the rest of the week. Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday slipped by quickly enough at work… there was plenty of work so time certainly didn’t stop still. Tricia had a crown fitted on Tuesday, which was straight forward, and she says it feels better. Ellie was back at school on Wednesday, and Thursday, starting the summer term, and her final term in the primary school.

On Friday it was of course Royal Wedding Day… now I hadn’t planned to take much notice. Tricia and Ellie went to watch it at a friends house (Champagne was on offer, so no kore incentive was needed for Trish). I sat down and had a nose around 10:30, and have to say watched pretty much all of it… I am not much of a royalist. But, it was interesting to see how organised it all was, and I have to say I thought they did it brilliantly. Rightly the focus was on William and Kate, and I thought they went through it all with dignity and poise, and looked to be enjoying the whole day. At the end of the service, as they were all leaving the cameras focussed on the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh… he was trying to get into the carriage, and it wobbled and he almost fell backwards… quickly the cameras went elsewhere. Pity, I wanted to see him trying to get in again. On Friday afternoon Tricia and Ellie went onto the village hall where there were some royal wedding fetivities… I stayed home and cut the grass. And just in time, as we had a terrific thunderstorm, with hail, shortly after I had finished. The garden needed it. Early evening we went up to a small street party… till it got cold and we came home.

On Saturday morning, Tricia and I packed our bags and went off to Ludlow for the weekend. We left Robbie in charge at home with Ellie. Tricia has wanted to see the area around Ludlow for some time, and about 6 months ago we earmarked the May Bank Holiday for a weekend away together. We arrived in Shropshire early afternoon, and went and visited a place called Croft Castle’. The sun was shining and it was very pleasant. Croft Castle wasn’t really a castle, but more a manor house with turrets. Here is a pic.

We then went onto Ludlow for a look around, with half an eye on somewhere to eat in the evening. There were some lovely buildings, but there was also a street fair in for the weekend which meant we couldn’t really see the town at it’s beat. And it also meant that it would be very busy in town in the evening.

We went and checked in at our hotel, which was just outside Ludlow, and decided to eat there in the evening… good decision. The food and service was excellent.

On Sunday we set out to go to Ironbridge. On the way we went to Stokesay Castle, not a big castle, and only sieged once during the Civil War. Here is Stokesay.

We then drove up to Ironbridge, and went to the Victorian Town musuem. This was built around an old foundry with Victorian styled houses and shops. We were there till late afternoon, and enjoyed the time there… in lovely sunshine.

We then went back to see Ironbridge itself…

We then went and had an evening meal in the Charlton Arms in Ludlow. The food was good, and we were given some unexpected entertainment, in the form of three couples at a table nearby, who all sounded like refugees from Chingford, and who had too much sun and drink. We couldn’t help ovehear their conversations as they boasted and bragged to each other about what their cleaners did, how good they were at skiing… etc and so on. Honestly, it was better than watching tv

This morning we wnt into Ludlow and visited the castle, which was fantastic. We are lucky in this country to have such a rich history… you can only stand amongst the castle and marvel at what life would have been like 300 year ago…

We then decided to go for a ‘walk’ before coming home…. of course with Tricia this is not often just a ‘walk’… Tricia chose Clee Hill. The highest spot in Shropshire. We were able to drive part way up and park, and finish the rest on foot…. boy was it windy up there ! As you can see from the way Tricia’s hair is blowing… but the views up there were magnificent. The picture of the two of us was taken sheltering amongst some rocks

And so homewards. We took the scenic route, coming down through Worcester, to Stratford Upon Avon, to Banbury and eventually home. It has been great just spending some time with Tricia this weekend…. we must get away more often.

The house was still standing… the kettle had blown but that was it. Nikki had come home on the Saturday evening, and they had a bbq, so it could have been worse.

Robbie has gone back to Uni. He enjoyed his Easter break, and worked hard doing various painting (ceiling and fences) jobs, house sitting, baby sitting etc, to earn himself some cash… but he was keen to get back to Uni and catch up with his friends. He is 19 on Thursday, and we won’t be seeing him… the first time on his birthday. Oh well, better start getting used to it… He will be back in a few weeks with some of his uni friends so we will catch him then. Nikki is back in Paddington on placement tomorrow for the week. Ellie will be at school… the house will be quite for Tricia.

Sadly Henry Cooper has passed away…. I always liked Henry. A fair sportsman, who said it like it was…. In his day there was ‘Light Heavyweight’ up to 12st 7lbs, and anybody over that was a heavyweight. Henry was around 13 st 7lbs at times, which is light for a Heavyweight so he was often disadvantaged. These days, a division called ‘Cruiserweight’ has been introduced for fighters between 12 and half stone and 13 stone 9lbs… It would have been perfect for Henry, and he would undoubtedly have had a good chance at a world title. Never mind. RIP Henry.

Not so sadly, Osama Bin Laden has passed away. I do feel slightly uncomfortable though with all the celebrations that seem to have taken place… I suppose he was killed in a ‘war’, but I don’t think we should rejoice the killing of anybody.