Tricia and I had a prompt start on Monday morning. We were all packed from the night before, so we were up and away by 7:45 am, heading for Stansted airport. We arrived at the check-in desk 2 hours ahead of the flight to Pisa, and went through check-in and security quite quickly. We then went down to the gate for departure, only to find that the plan was delayed… however, only by about 40 minutes in the end. It was a good flight to Pisa, and then when we had collected our luggage it was onto the train to Florence… we did have a quick ice cream whilst waiting for the train (and it had to be quick as it was in the mid 30’s and if you didn’t eat it quickly it melted !). Off the train at Florence, and with the aid of a map, we walked through Florence to the hotel. All had gone swimmingly so far, and as I had booked the trip I didn’t want any problems, but when we arrived at the hotel, it seems the travel agency I used hadn’t booked a room for us. After a little time sorting out paperwork, we were allocated a room (we were fortunate they had a room!), and it was better than the one I thought had been booked…it had a terrific view over the river, which Tricia was pleased with. Once we had refreshed ourselves it was out for an explore and to find somewhere to eat… a little restaurant on a piazza. Here is Tricia with her ice cream, the view from the room and when we sat eating in the evening.

Florence is a beautiful place, a lot of it’s originality seems to have been maintained, what with it’s cathedral, churches etc, there has inevitably been a creep of modern shopping outlets but it is a still a charming place. Tuesday morning we set off on a bus to Siena, and being August 16th it was ‘Palio’ day, where the famous horse race in the market square takes place. Siena itself is gorgeous, but add the carnival atmosphere of the Palio race and it made for a special day. Ten horses can be run in the race, each representing a ward or disrict of Siena. Each of the wards has to present their flags and team, all done with medieval pageantry. One of the wards – Torre (Tower) – had claret and blue colours, so I had to support them of course, and bought a small scarf and cheered them when they came through (I shouted out ‘come on you irons’, which of course only I understood). We could have stayed for the actual race which was set for 7pm in the evening, but we would have had to sit in the square from 2pm to ensure we had a place… and the temp was over 35 C and there was n protection from the sun, so we decided against that. Mid afternoon we sat and had a glass of chianti to acknowledge our 25 years. We caught the bus back and then went out for a meal in the evening. Before we did though, we found a tv channel showing the palio race. These photo’s are from Siena…

Wednesday we went to the Ufizzi musuem, which is a large art musuem, with a massive collection of religious art with work by Raphael, Michelangelo, da Vinci, Botticelli etc … there was so much it was almost overwhelming… so many pictures of the Madonna, Madonna with child, Adoration, Annunciation, Crucifiction… we must have been in there about 4 hours. I was glad I had pre bought tickets as that saved more hours in a queue.

Thursday we want to the Palazzo Pitti… which is a place to get neck ache as you look at the painted ceilings as well as the paintings on the wall, and then into the gardens. The temp was in the high 30’s and of course the gardens were on a climb – there were beautiful views – but it was a workout in that heat.

Some pics of Florence… The cathedral, The Palazzo Pitti, a view of the bridges on the river, and the inside of one of the many churches.

Yesterday was home time… we left Florence on the 8 53 train to Pisa. We had hoped to check in early at the airport and then go and see the leaning tower, but the check in wasn’t open for our flight, so got a bus anyway, carrying our bags and went to see the leaning tower.

Back at the airport, there was a long wait to check in, as various idiots arrived with over weight bags etc, and then a long queue to get in the security check, then a long queue and wait in the chaotic departure area… but eventually we took off, and had a good flight home.

Nikki had cooked us tea, she had her bobsleigh friend Richard with her, and he stayed over. They are both off to Bath this morning. We have managed to unpack, wash, tumble dry and iron all we need in order to re-pack and then drive off to Devon later. Ellie is looking forward to her holiday.

Whilst all this has been happening West Ham won two games of football in a row…. highly unusual.

 Tricia and I reach 25 years of marriage on Tuesday. In advance of this, we had a celebration of our 25 years together, which included a renewal of vows, and a blessing… including a blessing for the replacement wedding ring I am now wearing. Unfortunately I had passed on my cold to Tricia and Robbie, and so they were both under the weather this week, at a time when we were busy with preparations. But we got there in the end. Pretty much all those invited turned up, so we had the family and friends we wanted with us.

We had a splendid afternoon, and I even got a little choked up as I reflected how lucky I have been to have Tricia with me, and for my three wonderful children. A special moment for me. As the afternoon drew to a close, we were taken off for a meal by our friends Deb and Carlos, and Wendy and Rob. This was something that had been pre arranged. But neither Tricia or myself realised there was subterfuge involved… Nikki and Rob had organised for an evening party as well. So when we returned from the meal, we walked down to the paddock to find a load of our friends back again to continue celebrating… there was music and dancing till midnight. Nikki and Rob had done brilliantly and managed to get people along that we hadn’t seen for ages, such as our old neighbours from Buckingham. It was a very special day.

Nikki was up early today and off to Bath for a series of bobsleigh tests. She is back this evening, then down to Hatfield, for another week of placement at St Albans hospital. A big team effort this morning saw us clear the paddock, and then a mammoth wash up… now Tricia and I have to pack, as we are off to Florence on Monday morning. Robbie is in charge for the week, he can cook some, and so can Ellie. We return Friday evening, and then go to Devon on the Saturday morning. Have to say I am looking forward to some relaxation.

Last week, knowing I was going to Buckingham, and there was a jewellers, and that I needed to get a new wedding ring, and would therefore be going into the jewellers, I took along the pocket watch my Mum and Dad got me for my 18th… to have a new battery put in. I took it in, asked the nice lady behind the counter to put in a new battery. Yes sir, no problem she said, come back in 15 minutes…. And I did. She greeted me with a smile, and said, ‘it’s in very good condition sir, I took the back off and it is very clean inside, there was no battery, I have wound it for you and it seems to be working fine’…. er…. my first proper senior moment. I must have been getting mixed up, because when I thought about it, I knew it was a wind up watch.

So, onto the next thing… ‘anything else I can help you with’, yes I said, a wedding ring. It was at this point I thought she hadn’t heard what I said properly, as she proceeded to put her hand down the front of her top. To my surprise she produced a set of keys… which opened the safe where the rings were. Strange place to keep the safe keys. But without casting disparaging remarks about the lady, also probably the safest place if you know what I mean.

The idea is that I have a new wedding ring on account of losing mine some 20 odd years ago. Now, I am not a jewellery sort of person, never worn it or taken much interest. I just assumed I would get a gold wedding ring… but it isn’t that simple. There is white gold, which looks like silver to me. Tricia thought this might be a nice idea, on account of it looking silver… but what is the point of gold that looks silver. Somebody please explain. On Saturday I was tasked with getting myself a new suit so I could look smart for our 25th on this Saturday coming, so whilst walking around Milton Keynes I also looked in the jewellers… of which there were plenty. Which is surprising considering there is a recession… you would think these guys would struggle more than Woolworths wouldn’t you. But there were loads of them… white gold, yellow gold, rings with white and yellow gold, titanium ones even, white gold with diamonds etc etc. I gave up. Today I just went straight into Aylesbury, spent 5 minutes in a jewellers and bought a silver ring. After all it is our silver anniversary… and it is cheaper than gold. Job done.

We are all on schedule for our upcoming celebration this Saturday. However, what hasn’t helped is ‘the cold’. This would be the rotten, stinking, sneezing, streaming cold I have had for the last week and now passed on to my lovely wife and son. . Last Wednesday morning I woke with a sore throat, but otherwise felt fine. I thought I had probably picked up something at the swimming pool the previous day. Wrong, on Thursday the cold kicked in… and it was an unpleasant one. Being a gentleman I moved in to Nikki’s room (as she was away) and slept there for a few nights so that Tricia wan’t interrupted by me constantly nose blowing… I awoke with cramp one of the nights, with my nose streaming, and of course in a different bedroom. In a tv sitcom it would probably looked funny as this confused man tried to get out of bed and find some wall to hold onto so he could stretch out the cramp, which wasn’t where it was supposed to be on account of being in a different room, whilst also trying to retrieve a hanky to stem the running nose, and at no point could I seem to settle on what was the priority, the nose, the cramp, or trying to work out where the wall was….

Anyhow, come Monday I rang the boss…. explained that I was going to be a little late, but was feeling better and was on my way in. He suggested I work at home and stay away from the office… mainly on account of him going on holiday soon and not wanting my cold. So the last few days I have worked from home, but will be in the office tomorrow. Tricia and Robbie have not had a good day today… look on the bright side I said, having the cold now means you will be fine on Saturday … this didn’t seem to be appreciated.

Talking of holidays, Tricia and I are off to Florence next week. Some culture, sun, good food, and a relaxing time (well, hopefully). We arrive back in the UK on Friday the 19th in the evening, then on Saturday the 20th we are off to North Devon for a week with Ellie and Robbie. The thing is, I then go back to work after the bank holiday… and its nearly September. Our calendar is already chock-a-block to the New Year. Blimey… I had better enjoy the holiday because there seems little respite between now and Dec 27th. Except for my trip to Cork with Carlos in October… we are off to meet Brother Barry (Antonio) and catch up with our old Maths teacher and Form tutor.

Nikki is living life at a 100 miles an hour as usual. Her trip to Dallas was successful, and she had a great time. I picked her up from the airport on the Sunday morning, on the Monday morning she started her final physio placement at St Albans hospital, where she seems to have got on well with staff and patients. Last Friday she was in Bath, where she had her quarterly review with the bobsleigh management – they are really pleased with her progress, and believe she is starting to show her potential. They agreed some new targets … one of which was to improve her 30m pb from 4.08 to 3.99 seconds by September…. sounds like a big ask, but in the afternoon she did a track session and recorded 4.00. The coach immediately revised her target down to 3.96. These fractions of a second sound small, but running at speed are quite large margins, going from 4.08 to 4.00 was a big pb, but shows how hard she has been working. Nikki has some technical improvements to make, and the coaches think that if she makes the improvements in technique she will make more good progress. On Saturday Tricia was at the track in Hemel Hempstead coaching her athletes, where the main GB bobsleigh coach sometimes works out, and he happened to be there, he spoke with Tricia and said if was really impressed with her work ethic and progress. Lets hope it all continues on a positive manner…Today she in Loughborough for on a 3 day training camp, she text earlier to say she was training on the track with Lisa Dobriskey (came 4th in the 1500m in the World Champs a few years ago).

On Friday the home computer decided that it didn’t want to play anymore, that it wasn’t fair and changed the rules. Well, in other words it corrupted the registry… which meant I would have to reinstall the operating system etc etc. Last time I had to do that it took days and days as I am on XP and it it is donkeys years old, and there is so many patches, fixes etc that need to be installed it takes forever. So, I bought some more memory, installed it and upgraded to Windows 7… and so we are now up to date, and the computer feels so much the better for it.

Ellie has had her ears pierced… and has grown a new limb attachment… a mobile phone. Groan. Oh well, all part of growing up.

West Ham have shown that despite getting relegated they haven’t lost the knack of playing nice football but still losing.

Here are some piccies of Tricia and Robbies recent Hadrians Wall trip…