In her final event of the European season, Nikki came 12th in the Junior World Champs. She travelled out to Igls in the early part of the week, where she teamed up with some of the youth squad who had recently competed in the winter youth olympics. Nikki pushed well in the race offs, and was fastest. She was paired with the driver for GB2. On Thursday, they had two excellent starts, and were 0.15 seconds quicker than GB1 on both runs, and came 12th overall. Nikki was a bit miffed not to be pushing GB1 as they may have finished 5th or 6th, but it was a good performance.

Nikki travelled back from Austria on Friday, and stayed over at Wendy & Robs on Friday night, I went down and picked her up with Ellie yesterday. She was delighted to find we had bought a new mattress for her bed when she got home (she didn’t wake up till 11:30 today so it must have been ok). Nikki will be with us for about 4 / 5 weeks, and then is likely to go to Canada for a final competition of the season. Then it will be a months rest before starting back on getting ready for the next season. She is still seeing her Italian boyfriend, Roman, and it seems she is planning to go and see him, and he is going to be visiting us here….

I picked Robbie up on Friday evening, he has been working hard on illustrating a fairytale as part of his uni work. Ellie has enjoyed having her big sister and brother back for the weekend. We all sat down to roast beef with the trimmings at lunchtime today. The washing machine has just about finished catching up on all their laundry

Tomorrow we are all off to Tricia’s Uncles funeral, so it will be a sad day.

Yesterday evening we had one of our ‘safari suppers’, 15 couples joined in. The theme was ‘tramps’…. here are a few pics, me with Clive, Tricia and me, and Tricia. It was a good fun evening…. albeit somewhat late. It was a slow start to Sunday.

This afternoon we were invited for tea at one of Tricia’s friends. Then all of a sudden it was 6pm an I was wondering where the weekend had gone… Tricia and I will settle down shortly to watch a couple of Sunday evening programmes, and then it will be off to bed. Nikki and Robbie are off to the pictures to see Mission Impossible 23, or however many it is now.

A sad week. John Cook was Tricia’s uncle, and he was a farmer in Purton near Swindon. For many years in the family he was simply known as ‘Biggy’… a name he got from one of his grandchildren. John passed away on Friday. He had been diagnosed with stomach cancer at the end of the summer. Due to other issues he couldn’t be operated on, and unfortunately he detiorated last week.

This picture of Biggy with his wife Sue was taken at the end of last August, when we celebrated Tricia’s Grans 90th, before the cancer was diagnosed. John looked quite well, and was still working the farm even though he was in his mid seventies. I would describe him as a ‘salt of the earth’ type, and he will be missed.

Of course Tricia was quite upset, when she was a young girl she used to go and stay on the farm in the summer, and loved the time she spent there, and has always had an attachment to the farm and family in Purton. In fact, not long after Tricia and I started dating, she took me down to the farm to meet her relatives there, and we used to often stop in to see them on our way back from holidays or weekends away in the west country. Our thoughts go out to Auntie Sue, and John and Sues children, Emma, Lucy and Johnny.

Nikki hasn’t had a particularly good week. She had been retained this week to be with the squad for a World Cup Race. She had a race off against another brakeswoman to see who would actually be selected for the race – she was up against a woman called Kelly who Nikki had been easily faster than the previous week in another race off. This time however Nikki was slower than she usually is and missed out by 1/100th of a second… meaning she missed selection for what would have been her first World Cup Race. Upset isn’t the word to cover how she felt. But it’s competitive sport, and that is how it goes sometimes. A bad day at the office for her so to speak.

During the summer, Nikki had stayed on the farm at Purton, as it wasn’t too far down to Bath where she trained daily with the bobsleigh squad. Nikki enjoyed being at the farm when not training, and often helped out around the farm, and had enjoyed helping out ‘Biggy’. So it was a difficult phone call on Friday to tell her that Biggy had died… she was upset again. As a Dad I just wanted to give her a hug, but you can’t do it over the phone… Friday was a difficult day, coming on the back of a phone call with my brother Steve the evening before, with some bad news about his problem foot.

Nikki sets off for Igls in Austria tomorrow, where she will compete with the Junior team (under 26’s) in the Junior World Champs. We wish her better luck this coming week. Tricia had hoped to travel out to see her this week, we had been looking at flights and accommodation and was going to book something this weekend. But as we are likely to have a funeral to attend now we haven’t booked anything. Nikki understands.

I spoke with Robbie as well on Friday. Rob is ok, and busy with uni work. Ellie was pleased to find out this week she has been selected for the ‘A’ Netball team at school, and been named as captain. They have their first game on Tuesday. The ‘highlight’ (not) of Ellies week was having her braces fitted on her lower teeth. They were quite sore and a little painful for the first 48 hours, but she is now used to them. She will have the braces for her upper teeth fitted in about 7 weeks. During the week my phone was replaced, instead of a blackberry I now have an iphone. The picture on the left was my first use of the camera on the phone. The other one shows Ellies braces if you look close enough.

We have had a relatively quiet weekend. Ellie and I had rehearsal on Friday evening for the village production which is on in mid Feb. Saturday morning Tricia went to do a coaching session, whilst Ellie and I went to the swimming pool. Ellie would like to do the swimathon with me in April, we will split the lengths, 50 for her and a 150 for me, so she needs to get some practice in. In the evening Tricia and I were at a Burns supper in the village hall. I had been asked to do the ‘toast for the lasses’… sounds simple enough but it took ages to get the speech put together. It seems to have been recieved well though, and got plenty of laughs. Some piccies from the evening…. First off Tricia, she was wearing her new dress, which not only fits well, she looks good in it. Then me speaking, and one of me sat next to Clive. The bottle of whisky in the foreground was not full at the start of the evening. Honest. Finally a picture of the haggis being played in by the bagpipes.

It was a fun evening. There was dancing at the end, but we didn’t stay late as Ellie was at home on her own. This morning Tricia and I went up to church, I was doing the reading. We had a Sunday roast, and for pudding we had the rest of last weeks apple pie. Tricia made an apple pie last Sunday… and of course with no Nikki or Robbie around half of it was left. So we put it in the freezer and then got it out again today, so it lasted us two weeks.

Looking back at the blog I seem to have neglected putting up some pictures…. so here are a few. First off, from pre Christmas when we went for a lunch at Deb and Carlos’s. Good times.

Then… a cat (Ninja) in the Christmas tree. Happens at least once every Christmas, and then the tree itself.

Then the Jolly Roger flying at the church just before Christmas… that will teach the church warden to tease Tricia about flying the ‘Jolly Roger’ (it was his nickname for the cross of St George flag), so she did exactly what he had asked.

And finally a picture of Nikki and Rob when we were having breakfast on Chrsitmas morning, Boxing Day lunch, some old bloke, sat in his grumpy old man chair, who still can’t help but pull a face when the camera is pointed at him, and a picture of a rather lovely recent sunset. Most pictures courtesy of Tricia… which explains why she isn’t in many of them.

Oh well, Sunday evening… Last Sunday Tricia and I watched a programme about a midwife in the east end of London, which we enjoyed, so we are looking forward to the next episode later… with cheese and biscuits and a glass of port , then afterwards there is a dramatisation of a book called Birdsong, by Sebastian Faulks. I read the book last summer and it was an excellent read, I am hoping the tv version lives up to it. Tricia is already in front of the tele for Countryfile, so I had better get to and do the cheese and biscuits…

It was a big week in St. Moritz for Nikki. There was a Europa Cup race yesterday. At the begining of the week, there was a ‘race off’ to see who the fastest brakeswoman was to push GB1 in the competition. Well Nikki won out, and proved herself as the fastest brakewoman, but it was necessary to follow that up with a good performance in the competition. And she did. Her and the driver Vicki got a 7th place finish, which is the best Nikki has had in competition. They were 3rd fastest off the top in the first run as well. So, naturally Nikki was pleased, and to top that, Nikki and Vicki have been scheduled to run in a World Cup race next week, so she gets a third week in St Moritz… hard life for some ! After that she is off to Igls in Austria to be in the world junior champs. We are hoping to organise for Tricia to go out and support her.

Rob has been quiet this week, we haven’t heard too much from him. Tricia has booked the walking holiday that her and Robbie plan to do though, they are starting off at Webury near Plymouth, then walking up through Dartmoor, onto Exmoor, and up to the coast at Lynmouth. That will be in July. Tricia and I have been talking about where we are likely to go this year, and we think we will probably go and have a look at Northumberland up in the North East.

Ellie got some excellent feedback and comments on her castle. Tricia put her car in for service, and the garage where she has had it serviced for the last 14 years have said that we should probably get Tricia a new car and have the other one put down… and so we are starting to look at cars. Last night Tricia and I went and had a meal with some friends in the village, Bob and Caroles… and Pat and Clive, and Peter and Jane were there, and our firends from Newbury, Wendy and Rob came up. It was a cracking good evening. This morning Ellie played clarinet in church, and then we went to Aylesbury and visited Carphone Warehouse. Ellie’s phone had died and so it has been sent off for repair. She has a temporary phone, so she is happy about that.

It’s not a manic week ahead, although I will be busy enough with work, and rehearsals and line learning… and actually I have to speak at a Burns supper next weekend and have to finsh writing my speech… so it’s starting to look busy…. and I need to get myself in the gym and start working off some of the excess poundage I have gained over the last month.

It’s snowing ? Hard to believe I know, but Nikki was due to race today, and it was cancelled beacuse there was too much snow. As my brother Mark observed … ‘mmmm. Winter sport cancelled due to snow, can’t wait for the cricket to be cancelled this year due to sun’. Made me smile. Nikki seems to be having a whale of a time in St Moritz. She has had a cold, but has got in plenty of bob work in the morning and been going up mountains in the afternoon. We have ‘skyped’ the last few evenings to keep in touch, and skype on the ipad is so much better and easier than on the pc.

Robbie went back to Northampton on Friday. Uni starts again on Monday… Friday evening he put a reflection on facebook…’Permanent grey clouded overcast, the scream of a 16 year old single mother in the distance, the sound of a mumbling drunken homeless man, the constant ambulance sirens… I must be back in Northampton!’… which sums up his view of Northampton.

Before he left Rob helped Ellie get started on a school project… building a castle. As with most things Rob gets involved with it has to be ‘epic’, and so the castle isn’t small. They constructed it out of cardboard, Ellie then used paper and paste to add to it, she spray painted it grey on Saturday and put the finishing touched to it today. Now there is the small challenge of getting it into school !

Ellie went back to school on Wednesday, and has slipped straight back in. I was back at work reluctantly on Tuesday. Whilst like most people I would rather be enormously wealthy and not work, I am not and so have to work. I am pretty happy at BP, and whilst it has ups and downs I pretty much enjoy it… going back to work on Tuesday was not what I wanted however. But, we get on with these things.

Tricia has removed all signs of Christmas, and it feels like it never happened! It is just the three of us in the house again for a while. This week all the usual activities kick off… Ellie is doing netball after school tomorrow, then will help Tricia with Brownies after. On Tuesday evening Tricia starts the fitness class she runs again, and Ellie is at Guides. Wednesday evening Ellie has dance, Tricia goes weight training, I pick up Ellie, then we both go to rehearsal for the village play. Thursday evening Tricia coaches at Aylesbury athletics club, Friday Ellie has dance and then we both have a rehearsal. Phew.

Thankfully Sat and Sun don’t have too much planned… yet.

 I spoke with my brother Steve in the week after reading this on his facebook, ‘So a day spent at the University College hospital for neurology detected the existence of a brain….. And a day spent doing other tests in the same place has detected blood flowing freely through it all unobstructed……. pity the radiographer injecting dye into me failed to tell me that a side effect of the dye is a sudden feeling that you have parted company with the contents of your bladder when actually, you haven’t really parted company with the contents of your bladder….. scary or what !!!

He has been having a series of tests … and the results indicate that not only does he have a brain, the blood is flowing nicely round his body. Pity that his foot op has been delayed though…

Here are a couple of pics of Nikki, one up a peak with two other members of the ladies squad, and one with the men.

Doesn’t look like hard work to me

I can’t really use the ‘sory I was too busy to blog’ excuse this time. I certainly was up to Christmas, but the last three days I have had time, just got out of the habit. The week leading up to Christmas was busy, but it was great to have both Nikki and Robbie home, and have a full house.

Nikki came back early in December. She spent some time at home, some time in Weymouth visiting her injured friend Serita, and some time training. The weekend before Christmas Nikki had been out on the Friday evening with her old friend Jade, who had just returned from travelling. Nikki got home (so she tells me) at about 3:30am Saturday morning. At 5:55 am there was a knocking at the front door…I, thinking it was still the middle of the night, staggered down stairs thinking Nikki had locked herself out, wearing nothing but an old t-shirt and my underpants….. I opened the door to… not Nikki, but a lady who had arrived to do a random drugs test! Nikki had to drink 4 pints of water before she could produce a sample. After an hour she produced a sample… the lady was happy and off she went. Nikki then had the problem where she couldn’t stop going to the loo because she had had so much water.

The Friday evening before Christmas, Robbie, Ellie and myself met up with Nikki in Bracknell (on her way back from visiting Serita) to visit my Mum and Dad (Nan and Grandad), we then went on to visit Mark, Carol, Carmen and Scott to wish them a happy christmas, before going over to Wargrave to see Steve and his family. It was a long evening, but well worth it just to see everyone.

Tricia had been busy in the lead up to Christmas with TLC work… she finally ‘closed the shop’ on Dec 22nd, but had also managed to get all the present shopping done, and all our provisions in for Christmas, so it was quite nice to have a relaxed Christmas Eve. At 6pm Ellie and myself went to the local church for the carol service, Ellie was doing a reading. Nikki and Robbie went up to the local pub for some drinke with old friends who were back from uni etc. Then Tricia, Nikki, Ellie and myself went to midnight mass – my first one since Nikki was born, and I really enjoyed it. Tricia, Ellie and myself did the family prayers.

Christmas day was a slow start, we were all out of bed by 9am. Stockings were opened, then a late breakfast, before presents under the tree were opened. It was an enjoyable slow pace to the day. We finished Christmas dinner at 4pm, tidied up and all sat and watchd the last Harry Potter film.

On Boxing Day Tricia’s parents (Granny and Grampy) came over. Again a relaxing day, after lunch we sat and played the ‘Logo’ game, which was good fun. The following day, Tuesday, Tricia’s brother Dave and his family came over. On Wednesday Nikki had to go down to Bath for mid season testing, whilst Tricia, Ellie and myself went down to Salisbury to see ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’. A long way to go for a panto, but Deb and Carlos’ son Simon was part of the stage production team, so we went to support him.

On Thursday I stayed at home whilst the rest of the family went off to the sales in Milton Keynes. After a hectic period leading up to Christmas and then a number of days of cooking and entertaining it was very nice to have a ‘down day’… and to be honest I have enjoyed a few since.

Nikki started her travelling again on New Years Eve. She is now in St Moritz in Switzerland. They had an 18 hour drive to get there. On New Yeras Eve we spent the evening with some friends in the village. I was asked to do a quiz which ended up being some fun. On New Years Day Robbie and I went to see a film called ‘The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo’. I had read the first book in early December. Robbie then get me the second book in the trilogy for Christmas. So I was keen to see the film, there were some good actors in it, Daniel Craig, Christopher Plummer, etc… and it was very well done, but didn’t have quite the same ‘hold’ as the book. 

Tricia bought me a Kindle for Christmas. I now have the last book in the trilogy downloaded and I am finding it very easy to read on the Kindle. I am very pleased with the present. I got the family an iPad… which has been in constant use since Christmas Day. 

Tomorrow is the return to work… groan. I could do with another 3 months off work

Here are some photo’s from the Christmas period.

 The last one is Ellies castle… her Christmas homework, to build a castle. It will be a Bavarian one. She is doing very well, with a little help from Robbie !