Gosh, another 3 weeks passes in the blink of an eye and I am behind with the blog again.

Nikki has returned from Latvia where she had a successful week at the ‘ice trials’, particularly when paired with the GB2 driver Fiona… they were clearly faster than the GB1 team . There is a weight limit for a bob, and the girl who drives GB1 is a big lass, and of course Nikki is not small either. So, their combined weight means they couldn’t compete together. So, Nikki is paired with the GB2 driver, and they work well together. Nikki has been officially selected in the GB squad for the coming season, and will start the season pushing for GB2.

Nikki came home on Tuesday, and had her car booked in for an MOT…. She bought the car, a Ford Fiesta, in the early part of the summer, and it had been doing great for her getting up and down from Bath. However, the car failed the MOT, ‘excessive corrosion’ being the biggest issue, and unfortunately the repair cost far exceeded the value of the car, so there was no point in repair. So, on Wednesday Nikki and Tricia went across to Aylesbury and the car was scrapped, and then on Wednesday evening Nikki and me went to Chesham were she bought herself a replacement… a Fiat Brava. Then on Thursday morning she went off to Bath, and has been there training since. She comes back next weekend with her friend Serita, as they will be helping Tricia with the catering for the Waddesdon Ball, which Tricia is doing.

Nikki goes off to Winterberg in Germany on the 24th October, where the British Championships are being held. Then on the 31st Oct she will be of to Altenburg in Germany, then to Igls in Austria, for a training camp, where she will learn to drive a bobsleigh. The European Cup starts on the 14th Nov in Igls, before going onto Konnigssee, back to Winterberg and Altenburg. That would be 6 races in the European Cup, finishing on Dec 11th, when she will come home, before going back out on 2nd Jan. The upshot is, that barring injury, we won’t see Nikki from 24th Oct till 11th Dec…

Robbie is back in Northampton, all ready for his 2nd year at Uni. He has moved into his house in Northampton, his friend Jordan has also moved in, and the two girls join them later this week. Robbie seems happy with the house, and is looking forward to getting on with year 2. Robbie and Jordan are coming back next weekend to help Tricia with the ball, so we will have a full house.

I could actually do with a quiet weekend, but alas that is not to be. I am full of cold again. Before 2011, I had had a spell where I had been relatively untroubled by colds for a few years, but this year has made up for it. Today has been a quiet day, but yesterday evening we had a safari supper in the village. We hosted the start and finish of the evening so ended up having a late night, and what with poor sleep over the last few nights because of the cold I am rather flat today.

It was a good evening though…. a few piccies.. Not too hard to work out the theme was Mexican.

These pictures were with our next door neighbours Alan and Rachel.

On holiday recently Robbie had been talking about his flag obsession, and Tricia and I had been talking about getting a flagpole so that he could fly his flags. Well, on the safari supper I was talking to a friend called Dom. Now Dom has a largish house and has his own flagpole. He plays cricket sometimes for the village, as does Robbie, and they had been talking about flags. Dom let Robbie fly some of his flags. As we were walking to the main course last night I was telling Dom that Tricia and I were thinking of getting a flagpole….. ‘don’t bother he said, I’ve got a spare flagpole if you want it’… Now that is some bizarre conversation. The upshot of which is, it looks like we are going to get a flagpole…

Last weekend we had the official opening of the sportsfield and cricket pavilion. It was a splendid day, the highlight of which was Alastair Cook, the England Test opener, and 1 Day captain performing the official opening ceremony. Here is Tricia with friends Rachel and Sara and of course Alastair. Or Cookie as he seems to prefer to be called. Also, Ellies shoe… which he autographed, Ellie on stage with the school choir (the primary school she has just left), and me with some of the acting group.

Ellie is settling in well at her new school, and adjusting to life with a bit more homework She was a great help last night, after we went all went off in separate directions for our starter course on the safari supper, Ellie washed up the glasses we had used. She then made tea and coffee when everybody returned about 10:30pm. Today she went off with to a birthday afternoon with her friend Helena, who has just turned 12. Apparently, they all turned up, and Helena’s mother Lisa had purchased under 12 tickets. There were 4 girls of which Ellie was the youngest, although she was the tallest…. and they didn’t believe she was only 11. Eventually Lisa managed to convince the cinema staff she was only 11.  

With Ellie at the cinema, Nikki away, and Robbie in Northampton, Tricia and I had a very rare Sunday afternoon on our own !

Well the evening is drawing in, I am full of cold, and feel a cup of tea and a soft chair beckoning…

Nikki completed her final hospital attachment at St Albans last Friday. She was awarded a 1st for her work at the hospital, now we wait to see what overall grade she is given for her degree. She had a final essay to submit on Monday, and for old times sake Nikki asked me to read the essay through at 10pm Sunday night

Anyway, she is finished as a student now, and out of the education system. Her graduation will be in November, but sadly she is likely to be somewhere in Europe pushing bobsleighs… speaking of which, she is now a full time athlete, and so has been back down in Bath this week working with the GB Bob team. She called to day to say she ‘pb’d’ and managed 3.966 seconds for a timed push, which makes her the fastest brakeman on the squad… needless to say you can almost see the smile on her face from here. She was set a target of 3.96 for September, and has got there. This weekend they have team trials in Bath, before flying out to Latvia on Monday morning for a week of ‘Ice Trials’…

So, one out of the education system, but we have one stepping up. Ellie started at Waddesdon secondary school today. Here she is, standing proud in her uniform. She was quite excited and nervous last night, but really enjoyed the day, and is looking forward to tomorrow.

Robbie completed the largest painting of his life last week… he was commissioned to paint a Star Wars mural on all 4 bedroom walls of Freddie next door. He worked exceptionally hard, spending well over 25 hours working on it, and produced a wonderful finish. Needless to day Freddie was ecstatic at his unique bedroom.. Here is some of the work.

Rob goes back to Uni next week…. he is looking forward to moving into his house.

Tricia and I went across to Cold Ash near Thatcham on Saturday, where we meet with friends at Wendy & Robs, for the Cold Ash ball… a good evening was had, but boy was I tired on Sunday. Cracking evening though.

On the Saturday after we got back from Devon it was a frenetic day of washing, ironing, cutting the grass etc. Tricia and I were pretty determined to get on top of everything quickly.

On the Sunday we went to Swindon, where we had a lunch to celebrate Tricia’s Grans 90th birthday. Physically she is doing well, but the memory slips sometimes. But on the Sunday she was in fine form as her family gathered to help her celebrate. It was good to see some of the family we hadn’t seen for a while, and Tricia really enjoyed catching up with cousins and relatives she hadn’t seen for a while. Nikki had been in Bath with the Bob team, but drove across to join the lunch. Tricia did the cake of course…

Having returned from Florence, we spent a frantic evening and Saturday morning unpacking, washing, ironing and re packing. Around 11 am on the Saturday morning, Robbie packed the car, and off we set. Tricia driving, we made good time down the A3, then the A420 to Swindon where we picked up the M4.  We stopped at a service station for a leg stretch before continuing till we ran into a backlog of traffic on the M5… which held us up a few hours. By the time we arrived at our chalet, it was nearing 5pm… it had taken the best part of 6 hours. After unloading the car, we went off to Combe Martin, where we bought fish and chips, then parked up overlooking the sea. On the Sunday, Tricia and Robbie did a long walk along the coastal path, while I took Ellie to Minehead. The beach was ok, and it was reasonably warm, but quite windy.

We met up with Tricia and Robbie in the evening at a place called Porlock, where we ate at a pub… excellent food, and reasonably priced. Monday and we set off for Woolacombe beach. It was sunny and warm, Robbie dug an almighty great hole in the beach, Ellie put her wet suit on and disappeared into the sea. I followed shortly after and had great fun playing in the waves. Tuesday and the clouds started to gather. We went for a walk on Exmoor and picnicked on the moor. Wednesday brought more cloud and a visit to Barnstaple… where we ended up getting Ellie some school shoes, a new blazer, and shirts etc. Not what I wanted to do on holiday, but there was little else to do in between showers. Rob and I did manae to get to a musuem of mainly WW2 militaria which was quite good though. In the evening we headed back to Porlock for an evening meal.

Thursday, Robbie took Ellie into an adventure park for the day, whilst Tricia and I went off around North Devon, again dodging showers. The adventure park was mainly indoors so Rob and Ellie were ok. We had the same pattern on the Friday, we had planned a walk, which because of the torrential rain turned into a drive. Thank goodness we weren’t camping. Come Friday evening with the forecast for Saturday sounding decidedly pants, we decided to pack and go home. We drove via Porlock for what turned out to be the finest fiah and chips ever before driving home in the torrential rain. Arriving back at around 10:30pm.

The chalet had been clean and comfortable, it was on the site of a large house, where there were loads of ducks and geese, and chickens and peacocks, which Ellie took delight in feeding. They got very excited every time they saw her. It was a pleasant enough place…. but the weather made the stay frustrating as we had wanted to do more then we could. Oh well. Some photo’s from the week…