So, here I am on a quiet Sunday evening to write my blog. Tricia is watching Countryfile, Ellie is in the kitchen watching a re-run of the musical Oliver on the ipad, and has just moaned at the amount of singing…. I did point out it was a musical, but apparently the issue is not that they sing, but that the singing goes on to long

So, we had a fairly routine week, if you can call it that. Monday night Tricia did Brownies. Tuesday evening Tricia went off to do keep fit… I dawdled home in no hurry, because apparently I didn’t have to take Ellie to Guides because it was somebody elses turn to do the run…. except Tricia looked at the wrong date on the schedule, and I didn’t get home till she was meant to be at Guides… so she ended up being late. Whoops. But, she did win first prize for a cooking competition with her apple curd pie.

Wednesday I picked Ellie up from dance, and got home at 7:27. I had hoped to go to an Ash Wednesday service which was at 7:30… so that didn’t happen. Before dance Ellie played netball for the school… they lost unfortunately. Thursday I didn’t get home from work till 8:45pm

Friday I worked from home. I had to go to the school to chair a hearing into a permanent exclusion, and then in the afternoon the car was having a dent repaired. I don’t know when the dent happened, but it looks as if somebody had reversed into the car. Only minor, but needed sorting out. Friday evening I went across to Wargrave and went out for a curry with my two brothers. It was good to see them both and have a catch up. We don’t do it often enough.

On Saturday morning I admired the work the bloke had done the day before on the car… the repaired panel was gleaming and polished, and in stark comparison to the rest of the mud splattered coachwork. And so I spent Saturday morning washing then polishing the car, and then thoroughly cleaning it inside. I then went in to watch the football, West Ham v Crystal Palace. It was a disappointing 0-0 draw.

Later in the day I watched Wales narrowly beat England. England played well, in fact better than they probably have for 12 months… but still lost. In the evening Tricia and I went out to dinner at Pat & Clive’s… a thoroughly pleasant evening.

Today, Tricia and Ellie went off to church. I was lazy and stayed at home, but I did cook the lunch. This afternoon Tricia and Ellie went off for a ‘lent walk’ which is a series of organised walks around the local parishes during lent. They took the neighbours dogs and enjoyed the fresh air.

Robbie reported in during the week that his presentation had gone well, so he is hoping for a good assessment on it.

Nikki went off to Bath on Tuesday, then onto St Moritz on Thursday. Today she competed in a local event and had a good day, coming second. Seems she pushed well, and they had a good start time. I think that is probably the end of her season. Here she is just before her run this morning… Vicky is having spikes checked, Nikki is getting ready to push.

There you have it…. a quick summary of the week.

One other item of note…a few years back I borrowed a couple of copies of the eightlem news, 1980, and 1979.. I meant to scan them is so that I have a copy and we have ‘preserved’ the original. However, they are larger than a normal A4 and have never quite found a way to scan them, because most scanners are A4. However, I have just installed an iphone application that scans using the camera, and does it quite well. So this last week I have scanned 1980 in…. I can now return it to it’s rightful owner next time I am there.

In 1998 we purchased a Renault Laguna estate (R163 OMO), as the family car. Almost 14 years, and some 120,000 miles later, the Renault has finally been moved on. We had been considering replacing Tricia’s car for some time now. We don’t need two estate vehicles, it isn’t particularly economical, and in the higher car tax bracket. So, when we had it recently serviced, and it looked like we would have to spend a £1,000 just to get it through the next MOT, we knew the time had come.

And so we have purchased a smaller car, a Renault Clio. Tricia went with Nikki on Friday to look at the car, and traded in the old Renault and drove home the new(er) one. It’s three and a half years old, has 24,000 miles on it, and seems to have been treated well. Most of the time Tricia is only driving herself and Ellie, and so smaller and more economical ticks the boxes. Here is Tricia’s new motor…

Getting a new car for Tricia came in an already busy week. Ellie and I had rehearsals on Monday and Tuesday evening, and then performances of ‘One O’Clock from the House’ on Thu, Fri and Sat evening. We had a number of friends coming to see the Saturday night performance. Nikki picked up Robbie and his two friends, Jordan and Weronika from Northampton on Friday afternoon, and they stayed the weekend. We knew Jordan, who is a Yorkshire lad, as he came and visited last year. Weronika is a Polish lady who is doing the same course as Robbie and Jordan, and they all get on famously. Wendy, Rob, and Wendy’s father Derek came, Deb, Carlos and Yvonne came, Tricia’s Mum and Dad… and so we had 19 for tea on Saturday evening… something of a logistical challenge But of course Tricia takes all this in her stride, and fed 19 of us. As you can see, it was a little cramped.

The play itself went well, and was received well. Sometimes when you have rehearsed a play to death you start to doubt whether what seemed funny at first is really funny. It’s a bit like hearing the same joke twice a week for 3 months. But we got plenty of laughs, and people enjoyed it. Ellie didn’t have a big part, but she never forgot or fluffed her lines. I am pleased it is over though, it takes a lot of time, particularly the last few weeks, and I am looking forward to getting some evenings free again. Here is a pic from last night… you can just make out Ellie with her silly hat on… we are all ‘wetting the corpses head’ as one of the characters put it!

Today Tricia, Ellie and myself were doing the prayers in church. I then cooked lunch for 9. With Nikki and Rob at home, and Robbies friends, and Tricia’s Mum and Dad coming to lunch as well, we had a full table again. We had a splendid piece of beef, and the yorkshires turned out well… Not that Jordan ate one, a Yorkshireman who doesn’t like yorkshire puds… there must be something wrong with him

Nikki took them all back to Northampton this evening, they are all going to watch a film, and then Nikki is coming back. On Tuesday this week she is off to St Moritz for more bobsleigh. We will be back to a quiet house again! One extreme to the other. It’s been a good weekend, if a little hectic, it was nice to meet Robbies friends, it’s good to know he has made some good friends at Uni. He has to do a presentation this week, he seems all prepared, he has shown me his material and it looks good, so good luck to him.

Ellie has enjoyed the half term, and is back to school tomorrow. Tricia took her to Swindon to see Auntie Sue at the farm. She seems to be doing well considering the recent bereavement. Ellie fed the pigs, but she doesn’t like cows and stayed well away from them. Tricia also took her to Ikea, Ellie has her eye on some new bedroom furniture. I feel a big bill coming on….. I have provisionally agreed to it, if she promises to use the wardrobe and chest of drawers for actually putting her clothes in.

And of course, I haven’t mentioned that on Monday, Nikki, Robbie and myself went to Burnley to get a dinner service. We set off just after 8:15am, arriving in Burnley around mid day. I drove from home to north of Birmingham, when Nikki took over and drove to Burnley. The couple selling the dinner service are moving to America, and were pleased to sell knowing it is something we would use. And so we have increased our collection of Royal Doulton Somerset substantially. Once we had picked up the set and packed it carefully, we went and had some lunch before returning south. We got to Northampton to drop Robbie off around 5pm, and then we drove to a place called Hockliffe to look at a car that may have suited Tricia. As it turned out we didn’t go with it. We got home at about 6:45pm, I had a quick tea, and then it was out to rehearsal. A long day, but worth it.

It’s back to the usual schedule this week…. Ellie has netball practice on a Monday after school, then it’s brownies for Tricia and Ellie. Tricia does fitness training on a Tuesday evening and Ellie has Guides. Wednesday it is dance for Ellie, and weight training for Tricia. Thursday Tricia is coaching, and on Friday Ellie has dance….. Me, I have nothing in the diary for any evening this week. I may go to an Ash Wednesday service on Wednesday evening, but I will see how I feel when it comes along.

Right, time to sign off, feet up to watch Midwife in a minute. I want to watch Uptairs Downstairs as well, but think I may record it and have an early night instead.

Next week on Thu, Fri and Sat evening, Ellie and I are in the local production of ‘One O’Clock from the House’… Ellie is just pleased to be in the play, but doesn’t have a large part. For me, I have had a largish part, with quite a few lines, which as usual I struggle with until it comes close to show time, when the mind gets a little sharper… either that or the fear that I am not going to learn them in time. Rehearsals have started to become a chore, and time consuming, so I am glad the performance week is here. We rehearsed Friday evening, and this afternoon. We rehearse Monday and Tuesday evenings… but is all countdown.

Last year Robbie was asked to paint a significant backdrop for the play, this year it was a smaller request. He was asked to paint a scene from a window. So, I went and got Robbie on Friday evening and brought him home for the weekend. On Saturday he painted the view…. and as always I am just amazed at how he works… he pencilled an outline and then went to work with the paints, and in 4 hours produced what you see in the photo, all from his mind. I take my hat off to a skill I can’t comprehend.

I am taking Robbie back to uni tomorrow as part of a long winded trip. He then comes back next Saturday with a couple of uni mates to see the play. When Tricia and I got married, as part of our wedding gifts we got a dinner servive – Royal Doulton – Somerset. We love it, and have pretty much preserved it over the years. A few breaks, but despite the set being discontinued in 1990, I managed to source replacements on the internet. A few weeks ago, after Tricia and I had been talking about the dinner set I did a search – there was a small meat plate we had never been able to replace – and so I started looking on the internet. Well I ended up buying a plate for the gravy boat for £8, but I noticed someone selling a complete dinner service on ebay… starting bid was £50. Well nobody bid and I have been able to secure the service for £50. The only drag was that it has to be collected…..from Burnley. So tomorrow I have a day off, and will be going to Burnley to collect it. It will mean we are have plenty of extras to cover breaks, but we can alos use the same service when we have a large dinner party… and it has the small meat platter we were looking for. To us it’s a bargain. Nikki is coming along to split the driving… and Robbie to for the trip, and we will drop him back in Northampton on the way back.

Last week I was a little under the weather with a cold, but still had a full work schedule, and a governors meeting. Tricia was busy with chutney’s bit also spring cleaned the kitchen, clearing cupboards, cleaning them out (thoroughly). Ellie had a netball match which they lost, but she played well. Ellie is now on half term, and looking forward to a break. My car was serviced this week, and a tyre replaced. So, that’s all in good order.

Nikki and her Bobsleigh team mates, including Serita, who fractured her back in October, were guests at Bath Rugby Club yesterday. They gave them a box to watch the match from, and had to go out onto the pitch at half time and were interviewed. Nikki found the whole thing very exciting…. particularly answering questions in front of 12,000 people.

Yesterday Tricia and I went across to some friends who live north in Banbury, Trevor and Jan, where we were joined by Deb & Carlos, and Wendy and Rob…. great friends, and a wonderful evening.

Well, signing off for this week…

It has been a strange week. Monday came with us all getting up early and heading out to Purton for Tricia’s Uncle Johns funeral. It was scheduled for 11:30am, but we had been forewarned the church was likely to be packed and to get there by 11. Well, we were there for 10:50am, and there were very few seats remaining! The church was jam packed, with over 400 present. It was a good service, good in the sense that people turned out to remember a well respected man. Even the local MP was there. After the church service we walked up to the cemetery, where he was buried. Not many dry eyes amongst us.

We all then went to the Pear Tree hotel. It was good to catch up with a number of the family on Tricia’s side… just sad that it was a sad occasion that brought us all together. We travelled back late afternoon, and stopped at a pub/restaurant called the greyhound, where Tricia’s mum and dad, her sister Lesley, her brother David and his other half Manda, and all five of us, sat and had a meal. When we arrived back home, Nikki volunteered to drive Robbie back to uni, which I was thankful for, it had been a long day.

Of course, back at work, Tuesday felt like Monday, and I felt like I was chasing myself all week. I resented the biting cold of the week, I am dead keen for spring and longer, warmer days to arrive. Winter never used to bother me when I was kid… but as an adult it is a case of clenching teeth and getting on with it. We had been promised snow, and I had been hoping the weather men were wrong, but unfortunately not. And so Saturday night we had a dump of snow. Fortunately the roads seem to be reasonably clear this afternoon, so hopefully shouldn’t be too bad tomorrow morning.

This afternoon Tricia, Nikki, Ellie and myself went next door, where Elizabeth and Don were celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary.

Yesterday I sat down to watch West Ham v Millwall on the tv. Last year Nikki bought me a West Ham shirt, with ‘McSweeney 50’ on the back… I wore it on a few match days and it didn’t seem to bring any luck, we kept losing. So, I stopped wearing it on match days. Yesterday however, as I was sitting watching the first few minutes of the game, I thought ‘what nonsense, it’s only a shirt, can’t make any difference’, so I went up and put the shirt on. As I came downstairs I could see that West Ham had just had a player sent off. Damn, I thought… the curse strikes again. But I perservered, and so did West Ham, winning the game 2-1, despite being down to 10 men for 80 minutes.

Not much news from Robbie since we saw him on Monday, although he facebooked ‘Finished story-boarding Iron John! 55 sketches in total!’, which is his curent project.

Picture of Nikki with her team mates from the Junior World Champs.

Time to go…. be safe everyone.