Well yet again I am guilty of leaving it far too long to blog. What can I say… I am useless.

Anyway, I will start this blog catch up with the 12th birthday of Ellie. Goodness knows how she has reached 12 so quickly. As Nikki was going away to Europe shortly and she would be away at the same time as her birthday, and we wouldn’t be able to celebrate Nikki’s birthday with her, Nikki and Ellie decided to celebrate their birthdays together. So last Sunday we all went out to lunch. Ellie brought along her two friends Jess and Helena, and Nikki brought along her friend Shawn from Uni, and Serita, her friend on the bobsleigh team. Robbie came home for the weekend so he could help his sisters celebrate, and of course Tricia and I went along. We had fun over lunch, before going bowling. Some piccies… Ellie with Jess and Helena, the Nikki and her friend Serita, and then all of them…

And some from the bowling… Robbie with Serita, Nikki, and Ellie bowling.

We managed to get the flag pole up and running on the same weekend, and so of course Robbie ran his Prussian flag up. We will fly a Prussian flag when Robbie is in ‘residence’.

I took Robbie back to Northampton (or Prussian HQ as he calls it) on Sunday evening, and so replaced the Pussian flag with an English cross of St George flag. I had wanted to fly a Union Jack this last Friday as it was Trafalgar Day, but didn’t have one till I managed to buy one yesterday. So today I put the Union Jack up.

On Wednesday Ellie opened her cards, and had a good day. It’s half term this week so Tricia will take her shopping as she wants to spend her birthday money on clothes. Ellie has enjoyed her first half term at her new school, the work is going well, and she is in the school production of ‘We Will Rock You’, and she has also played in the hockey team. Tricia went to watch the first game and said she played well. She had to miss the next match because of an appointment with the orthodontist… the good news is that the teeth that are coming through are coming down ok, and Ellie only has to wear her ‘spacer brace’ at night now. She will get her braces (or tram lines as they seem to be called) put in after Christmas.

This morning I took Nikki down to Folkestone where she met up with the Bobsleigh squad as they went to Germany for the start of the season. It means that we are unlikely to see Nikki until just before Christmas now. Unless she injures herself and has to come home that is. Next week are the British Bobsleigh championships in Winterberg. We set off at around 6:40 this morning and was comfortably at Folkestone services in time to be picked up. They travelled in a fleet of mini buses and vans carrying bobsleighs and equipment, through the channel tunnel and then on road through France, Belgium and into Germany. Nikki text us about an hour ago to say they had all got there safely.

A few weeks back Nikki had some professional piccies taken of her at no cost … ‘friend of a friend’ stuff. Here are a few of the pics..and also one of Nikki in a Leicester Tigers (her fav rugby club).

Nikki is a big Leicester Tigers fan, and last week she ‘tweeted’ them to say she was off on tour with the bobsleigh team and would be taking her shirt with her… they tweeted back and wished her luck etc… and it all ended up with them wanting to do a feature on Nikki. So, she will be in the home proramme for the next Leicester Tigers rugby match. Needless to say she was / is rather excited by all this. Nikki has been brilliant with Ellie these last few days, Ellie will miss her big sis, and Nikki has spent lots of time with her, and took her to the pictures last night.

Yesterday Tricia and I went out for the day with our friends Pat and Clive. We went down to Shaftesbury (Hovis Hill place), then onto a town called Wilton which had a fantastic church with a bell tower reminiscent of Italy, before finally going to Salisbury and going to the cathedral. We had a lovely day in the good autumn weather, and I even benefited from a new shirt and jumper that Tricia bought me. Here are some pics… one of Hovis Hill (I hope they didn’t make the poor lad do too many takes), then one of me and Pat, then Wilton church – you can see the ‘campanile’ (Bell Tower) on the left. The church was only built in the 1840’s but is magnificent. The next picture is of the altar and the wonderful stained glass, then finally a picture of Salisbury cathedral. I love going into the churches in Italy and France… but it is easy to forget we have some wonderful ones here in England. Salisbury cathedral is magnificent.

We had intended to staop off somehere and eat on the way back, but found the place we had in mind was full, and so we came back to the village and then went round to Pat and Clives where we had Pizza and Champagne whilst watching a fim. Such classy people

A few weeks back I went off to Cork with Carlos to meet our old Form and Maths teacher Brother Barry. Barry was brilliant, picking Carlos and me up at Cork airport on the Friday evening an taking us to our hotel… where we wasted no time in drinking some pints of Murphys and catching up. After getting up early on the Saturday morning and watching Ireland lose to Wales, and then England lose to Frnace, Barry picked us up and took us out and about for the day…. a light lunch (with a pint of Murphys) was followed by a trip to the Jamesons Whiskey distillery, where not only did I learn about the differences in the making of whiskey (Irish, Scotch, American etc) I got the opportunity to taste them as well. In the evening we went to a mass which lasted 25 minutes… now when I was a kid I seem to remember mass taking a lot longer, the Irish priest absolutely rattled through the service. As Bro Barry expalined, ‘the Irish like their services to be short’… he’s not kidding. Afterwards Barry took us to a restaurant and treated us. I had some sea trout which was done to perfection… along with some Murphys

On the Sunday, Carlos and I walked down into Cork and had breakfast in a coffee bar, before Barry picked us up and we went for a light lunch (with a pint of Murphys)! Then we went down along the coastal area, stopping at places like Youghal… which is where Moby Dick was filmed. In the late afternoon we went into the bar. Now the previous day Barry told us that his father would sometimes put a shot of Jamesons Irish Whiskey into a pint of Murphys. Now Carlos was keen to see what this was like, so whilst we sat in the ‘Moby Dick’ bar in Youghal, we drank Murphys with Jamesons in… and, well, it was delightful. So we had another It sure relaxes you! We then went for a meal at the ‘Sir Walter Raleigh’ … where the portions were large, and what with the Murphys I was starting to feel rather bloated! We then went back to Barrys house before going to his local for a few more Murphys. Monday we had a nice lunch at a golf club (with a final pint of Murphys) before heading back to the airport. It was a terrific weekend, lots of laughs, leg pulling and reminiscing. We mustn’t leave it as long to go back. Some piccies…

Bro Barry and Carlos putting the world to rights over a Murphys, Bro Barry and me, and Bro Barry telling Carlos about Cork harbour.

I have run out of steam now…. I am sure there are items I should have put in the blog that I have forgotten. Oh well. It was a lovely afternoon today, I spent some of it in the back garden cutting the grass, and some of it reading a book. It’s just Tricia, Ellie and me in the house for a while, so it’s very quiet here. Off to watch Downtrodden Abbey.