I celebrated my birthday last week, turning 52. I am not really happy about being as old as 52, but I can’t do anything about it. On the upside, 52 is an even number, and I always prefer to be an even number. 52 is better than 51 in that respect. It was a funny old day.. I stayed around and had cup of tea with Tricia and Ellie, who gave me cards and pressie. I left for work at 7:30, and promptly got caught in traffic, and it took me 2 hours to get there. Now, knowing that later in the day I would be going to a school governors meeting, and that I would therefore be leaving work early I would have normally worked from home, but I had a meeting at 12 that I said I would attend. So, you can imagine how miffed I was to get into the office, only to find that the meeting had been cancelled… oh well. I drove back after lunch, and started to work from home, only to get a call from the school to say Ellie had poked herself in the eye with a piece of paper, and it might need to be checked out. So, off went Tricia to get Ellie. I followed on shortly afterwards, to go to the governors meeting, which ran on till nearly 9pm. At 9.15pm, I sat down with Tricia and had a glass of wine… Ellie’s ok was ok, just a bit sore.

The day before I had done the school assembly… now, I regularly do acting, and speak at dinners, but I found myself a little nervous about doing an assembly in front of 960 11-18 year olds. I did it on diversity and inclusion, and it was well received. So a tick in the box, the downside is I might get asked to do another one !

I had a couple of particularly early starts at work on Thu and Fri… on the Thursday I was at my desk by 06:45… and ended up working late both days as well. So come Friday evening I was quite weary. But, it was a case of getting up early and getting to Heathrow and picking up Nikki, who was returning from Lake Placid via New York. Nikki had come 2nd in her race and she proudly showed Ellie and me at the airport. Ellie came along for the ride… we went from Heathrow to Bracknell to wish my dear old Mum a Happy Mothers Day. It was then back to North Marston, with Nikki snoring in the front seat. A quick lunch and then I was off ‘go karting’ with about 20 others as part of our friend Peter’s 60th birthday party. Tricia was working at a food fair so she missed out. It was good fun, but it took till nearly the end before I understood how to drive them into the bends – pretty much accelerating through some of them. Back home, a cup of tea, a bit of a doze in the chair, and then changed to go to the local, where about 30 of us celebrated Peter’s 60th. It was a lovely evening, but when we left at around 11:30pm, I was worn out.

It was a restful Sunday for me, I cooked lunch and that was about it. Tricia took Ellie to her two dance exams on Sunday morning. After lunch Nikki went off to visit Wendy, and then Tricia and Ellie went off to Wembley Arena to see Olly Murs. The tickets were part Ellie’s Xmas present. She absolutely loved it, she enjoyed the experience, bought herself an Olly Murs hat and t-shirt, and apparently sang throughout the concert. They got home about midnight.

On Monday, it was my turn. Tricia bought me tickets to see Caro Emerald at the Royal Albert Hall for Xmas. I had a terrific time. I had not been to the RAH before, so loved just going there. For my birthday Tricia had booked for a meal for us in of the restaurants at the RAH. So a nice meal before hand, we saw the support band Zaz, then went back to the restaurant for pudding and tea / coffee, before going back for the main performance. I first heard a Caro Emerald song on Radio 2 about a year ago, I liked it, downloaded it, and then got the album… which I thought was brilliant. A mixture of Jazzy, Swing numbers. The live performance was excellent, the lady has a terrific voice. It was 1am when Tricia and I got in. So this morning was a slow start. I worked from home till going off to catch a train at 11am, to go to a meeting in Canary Wharf.

In the meantime Tricia and Nikki went to Aylesbury. Tricia was having a crown fitted. After the appointment, they drove to Gatwick, where Nikki was dropped off. She has gone across to Germany on holiday, her season has finished, and they have all been told to rest. So Nikki has gone off to see Kevin, and is staying with Kevin and his Mum until April 2nd. Tricia then drove back, and picked up Ellie from the school… she had been playing for the netball team. They won 11-7 so she was pleased.

Tricia is sat in the living room with her feet up, watching a recording of Countryfile. She deserves the rest! Tomorrow night she has some friends around (what is called ‘girly night’)… Thursday evening we are at Ellie’s school for her ‘options evening’… apparently we are due a quiet weekend though. We will see! I am just wishing that it would warm up, I am fed up with stepping out of the house into God’s freezer!

Last week I auditioned for a play called, Death in High Heels… a murder mystery, and I have been given the part of Inspector Charlesworth. Looking forward to that

Some pictures… first off Nikki in Lake Placid. On the podium getting there silver medals, and a couple of Nikki.

Then we have go karting…. me in number 8, followed by me in my race suit, with a hair net… which we wore before putting the helmet on.

Then Tricia and me enjoying our pre show meal, a view of the stage, and Tricia sat in our box.

Then some of Ellie and Tricia at the Olly Murs concert.

Well that will do for an update… better get to bed, lots of work to do tomorrow.

The title refers to two different items. After a manic couple of months, I had a whole Saturday free to myself. The only thing I had to do in the whole of the day was pick up some dry cleaning. Tricia was at Brunel doing some coaching. I had planned to spend the day on my latest project… converting old vhs video to dvd… In the last year I have converted all my old albums and singles, and passed them on to a better home. Now I am planning to do the same to the two boxes full of old tapes in the loft. I have done a few over the last month, but on Saturday I was planning to do quite a few. I got up Saturday, switched the computer on, and …. it wouldn’t load. I spent the best part of the day trying all sorts of recovery and repair options. It seems I had a corrupt boot record. But to no avail. In the end today, I just decided to de a rebuild, so reinstalled Windows 7, and have been applying patches, and software all day. I have lost a little e-mail data, but nothing major. What a waste of a perfectly good weekend.

Tricia benefitted slightly from the situation… Ii took some time out from the manic mutteriing at the computer, to wash and polish her car . The other good thing yesterday was Stoke 0 West Ham 1. A much needed win.

As for the ‘pain in the bum’, this refers to a pain Tricia suffered. On Thursday evening she was doing her athletics coaching, and was working with the athletes. One of the routines they do is to wear a harness that has a bungee (strong elastic rope) attached to it, the sprinter runs off wearing the harness, whilst the other end is held by an athlete who holds it to help creat the resistance for the athlete. Tricia was wearing the harness, sprinted off, and the bungee became taut, and snapped and effectively whiplashed Tricia across her backside. The bruising is incredible…. she wouldn’t let me post a picture, I suppose it is only reasonable, Tricia doesn’t want a picture of her bruised bum on the internet… but as I say, the bruising really is something. Of course this meant it has been painful for her to even sit down. Unfortunately for Tricia she had to drive acoss to Northampton after athletics. She was staying at Robbies overnight. On Friday morning she took Robbie to Leamington Spa, where he was attanding a graduate day at Blitz gaming studios. So she didn’t sleep well, because every time she moved in the bed, the ‘discomfort’ woke her, and then had all the time in the car.

Friday evening Tricia got back in time for us to go to some friends on a curry evening… having explained her predicament, there was loads of laughter, and not a lot of sympathy. Poor Tricia. It seems a bit easier for her today. She went to church with Ellie this morning, Ellie was doing a reading… and rather than sitting on the wooden benches, Tricia sat on a softer ‘kneeler’… much to the amusement of others. It didn’t stop her going off and doing the ‘lent walk’ this afternoon though, between Oving and Granborough.

Not much news from Lake Placid, what we have heard Nikki seems to be doing ok. I have to pick her up from Heathrow next Saturday morning. By which time I will be 52…. strewth. I am really not sure how that has happened. I have been back in the swimming pool this last week, I am doing the swimathon at the end of April, and need to get some work in. I had a good session on Thursday when I did 70 lengths in good time. Back in the water tomorrow morning.