She goes by Mum, Granny or Jean… and now she is 70. Her birthday was on Sunday, and so Sunday evening we took her out for a meal. When I see ‘we’ I mean Tricia, Ellie and me. David and his other half Manda came along as well with Faye and Sarah. Before we went out we ‘skyped’ Nikki and Robbie in so that they could to talk to Granny and pass on their birthday wishes. Tricia’s sister and family did likewise. We went to a restaurant in a village called Adstock… a pleasant evening.

There I am sat with my bald head… but if you look close you can see the hair starting to come back. Here I am on Tuesday evening, with it last having been shaved on Friday evening, and there is a good amount coming through… a couple of weeks and nobody will be any the wiser. Deb and Carlos came to see the play on Friday evening, and came here for a meal first… Carlos was determined to capture the fact that he had more hair than me!

The play itself went extremely well, standing ovations for all of the nights. And we raised £1300 for leukaemia research as well. Last night I had to go back to the hall to help take the stage down, and put everything away. I am glad it is over, it was great fun, but very time consuming. Here are the cast. Me with the Santa hat on… aw I had to dress as Santa in one scene.

Speaking of which, the other day it occurred to me that Christmas isn’t far away. Normally I think good grief, but I was actually looking forward to it. Plenty to do before that though… autumn has arrived. As I walked out of the office tonight, and walked to the car there was that autumnal smell you get in the evenings… damp leaves I think , but it took me right back to my childhood. In those days I had the time to notice the seasonal changes on an almost daily basis… these days I seem blinkered to it all. I must make more effort to take some time and look around me occasionally. The garden is pretty much put to bed for the winter. Tricia and I have some plans for the garden for next summer, but it will be six months before we get into that. It was harvest festival in church on Sunday… always a sure marker for the onset of autumn.

Nikki and Rob are both home this coming weekend. Nikki goes off on tour on the 20th, so on Sarturday evening we are off for some early birthday fun for Ellie with some of her friends, and some of Nikki’s friends.