So, it’s a long time since I blogged… I keep meaning to, but just seem to always have something else to do. So, here is a catch up blog. I last blogged on March 15^th. The following week was busy of course. I had a full Governing Body meeting I had to chair on the Wednesday, and on the Thursday it was my Dad’s 79^th birthday. After work I met Rob at Hatton Cross tube station, and we went down to Bracknell to wish him a happy birthday, and to give him a present… a rather nice cap to keep his head warm! On the Saturday evening Tricia, Ellie and me went to the Aylesbury theatre to see ‘The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time’. This was terrific, well acted, funny and poignant in equal measure. A good evening out. The following week, my Mum and Dad celebrated their 55^th wedding anniversary…. Well done to them! Unfortunately Mum celebrated it incorrectly by having a fall, and acquiring some nasty bruising, in particular to her chin. At least nothing was broken. Not to be outdone, on the Friday, Dad had a fall, going over on his ankle, which subsequently became very swollen… My brother Steve took him to A&E to get it x-rayed, fortunately nothing was broken… but it meant that both Mum and Dad were somewhat incapacitated by their falls. On the Friday, which was March 27^th, we had a curry night at home with the usual suspects. Being Lent though, no alcohol for me, I had to sit and watch everyone else drinking :-(. Saturday morning, Tricia and I went to York for the weekend with Pat and Clive, on a ‘Tricia’s Tours’ expedition. We had a good drive north, Tricia driving, Clive navigating. We had a brief coffee/tea stop before arriving at Beningbrough Hall, which was near our B&B. A pleasant lunch, then a walk round the house… looking at the gallery, which had paintings from the National Portrait Gallery. We couldn’t look at the gardens as it as was a bit wet outside. No surprise really as we were in the north. The B&B was on a farm, and very comfortable. Sunday we went to a WW2 museum, at Eden Camp. This was an old PoW camp, where the old huts had been converted into the museum. It was cold (no heating in the huts), and wet… so we had to move quickly between huts, but it was an excellent display. There was more information than you could take in, and we were there from 10 till about 4:30pm. We lunched in the onsite café / restaurant which was very reasonable. In the evening we ate in one of the local pubs, the food was excellent, so we booked for the Monday night as well. On Monday we went into York, and visited the Minster. We had the guided tour and then looked around, and all of a sudden found it was past lunch. So a quick lunch, then Tricia, Clive and Pat walked the city wall, whilst I went to the York museum to see a Richard III exhibition… which was pants to be honest, and I would have been better off going with the others. Still whilst I waited for them I went to a few bookshops :-). Monday night was very windy, and so was Tuesday morning. First off we went north to see some lavender fields, and a lavender shop – something Pat specifically wanted to do. And then it was onto Castle Howard. A lovely house, Brideshead Revisited was filmed there. We had lunch.. well, when I say, ‘we’, there was nothing on the menu that would accommodate my Lentern promises, so I just had a fruit tea. The weather outside was windy, and sleeting… We then set off on the trip home. Some piccies…. First a pic of the daf’s coming up in the garden, then some Easter cakes Tricia did for the local shop, and a picture Rob took of the early morning sun coming up at Aylesbury Parkway station.

Here we have the gardens at Beningbrough Hall, the huts at Eden Camp, me with Pat and Clive at Eden Camp, Pat with the horse at the B&B, Pat and me on the York walls, the inside of the Minster, and the Minster from the walls, then the four of us in our Tricia Tours caps, then Castle Howerd, and finally another one of the Minster.

Tricia and I split the driving and we were home at around 6:30pm. It was then that we got to meet Trixie. On returning from Bobsleigh tour Nikki managed to get herself a job at a local ‘eco’ farm that was open to the public. Mainly working livestock, but occasionally in the kitchen. She loved the livestock part of the job, and it was lambing time. From time spent at a nearby friends farm when she was growing up, Nikki had seen lambing and even helped. So she was quickly adept at helping. One lamb had been abandoned by its mother, and so Nikki tried to save it. That lamb was named Trixie and became part of the family for the next three weeks. Nikki would get up in the middle of the night to bottle feed her, and sometimes take it for little walks up the road. Trixie spent three weeks with us, during the day she would be at the farm with Nikki, but she would bring her back each day until she could go through the night without a feed.

As March ended, April began with a few hospital appointments. Tricia took Nikki down to Gloucester for an appointment about her stomach / acid reflux issue. Then on the 2^nd April I took my Dad to Windsor hospital for an eye appointment. Nikki was referred to a surgeon, but after another appointment in late April, they have decided not to do surgery, and instead go for a different course of treatment. My Dad meanwhile is now waiting a further appointment for his eye. On the 2^nd April, Tricia had a day out in London with her water colour painting friends, to visit the London Mall gallery where there tutor had an exhibition. Good Friday came, and it was another ‘Tricia’s Tours’ trip, this time to Hampton Court. We picked Pat and Clive up on Saturday morning, and drove there. After tea / coffee, and a trip around the maze, we toured the palace. It was an excellent day, plenty to see, lovely gardens, and plenty of Tudor history. But the highlight of the day was supposed to be the evening 500^th anniversary celebration we had tickets for. We left the palace at normal closing time, and went back for the evening event about an hour later. We hadn’t eaten as we knew there would be food at the event… except they sold out everywhere before we could get anything. Disappointing as they would have known how many people they were catering for from ticket sales. Still, there was always the main event of the evening to look forward to. The fire dancers the programme said. Well, there were two, and so I suppose they were technically correct by saying dancers, but we only caught a fleeting glimpse of one. Then there was a video beamed onto the outside of the palace, telling it’s story, which was pretty much a rehash of what you could see inside. Finally, the fireworks. They lasted about 5 minutes, and you would probably see a better show at a local bonfire night in November. We made our way home, damp from the weather, hungry from the lack of food, and a little disappointed in the 500^th event, although we had enjoyed seeing Hampton Court.

Easter Sunday came. I had been exceptionally good in Lent, kept all my promises, and lost 10lbs as well. Tricia’s Mum and Dad came over for lunch, I cooked roast lamb. I enjoyed a glass of sherry, I enjoyed a pudding, and even a piece of cake later in the day, but I still stayed away from the caffeine, not wanting to overload the system with everything all at once. At the time of writing this blog I have yet to go back to caffeine. I did try a cup of tea a week back and it tasted awful, so I have stayed with the red bush. I daresay I will find my way back to caffeine, but at the moment I am not missing it. Tricia’s father had seemed in fine fettle on the Sunday, so it was a bit of a shock to get a call at work on the Tuesday after Easter to say he was having a heart attack and had gone to hospital. Fortunately it wasn’t a heart attack, and Tricia and I were able to collect him later that evening. He was told to rest for a few days, but when Tricia went over the following day he was gardening, and on the Friday he played golf! Oh well, he seems at the moment. Tricia spent a lot of that week making and decorating a wedding cake for Lynn and Richard, Lynn is sister of our friend Wendy. The cake turned out well, and Lynn was pleased.

Ellie was back to school after the Easter break, and she started getting some results for mock exams she had before Easter. Overall she did very well, had a good report, and some very nice things said about her at the parents evening we went to last week. On Friday the 17^th April Tricia Nikki and Ellie went to see Spamalot which Nikki and Ellie in particular really enjoyed. On the Saturday I was off to Wembley to see Reading play Arsenal in the Cup semi-final, courtesy of my nephew Alex who got hold of some tickets. I used to watch Reading play a lot in the 70’s, and always thought of them as my second club. I went wearing a Reading shirt, and cheered them on, but it didn’t feel quite right somehow, as if I was cheating on my first footballing love, West Ham. Anyhow, it was a good cup game, Reading pushed Arsenal all the way, and only lost in extra time. A good day out. And of course Wembley has a statue to England’s finest, Bobby Moore… my boyhood hero!

On the Sunday, Tricia, Ellie and myself went across to Deb and Carlos and other friends for lunch. Nikki was working, and Robbie doing airsoft so they didn’t go with us. We met up with Wendy and Rob in Mkt Harboro’ for a coffee first thing. The lunch was great fun, catching up with everyone. After lunch, most of the men settled down to watch the other cup semi-final, Liverpool vs Villa, and with Carlos and his sons being Liverpool fans they sat in expectation… and ultimately disappointment. Liverpool played poorly, Villa played very well and won. That Sunday morning at 7:30am, Tricia and I went out her a brisk two hour walk. It was the last day of a BP event called ‘Run-a-Muck’, 28 days where you had to log any exercise you had done up to a max of 2 hours, and Sunday was the last day. Each team had ten people, Tricia was in our team and logged most minutes. Overall we came 17^th out of 260 teams competing worldwide, and best in the UK, not a bad effort. Here is a view from up on Quainton Hill around 8am 🙂

Last weekend, on the Saturday (24^th April) we had a celebration service for a Wellington bomber crew that crashed on the edge of the village and all perished. There were 3 NZ lads in the crew and 3 from England. We had a full church, with family representatives from those who had died, including some from New Zealand. The RAF & RAF NZ were represented. Tricia put on an afternoon tea for 150 at the village hall afterwards. She had been prepping all week with cakes, and then Sat morning was a mass production of sandwiches, with Nikki and Ellie helping. The last few weekends I have been refreshing the paintwork in the kitchen and dining room. No new colours, just smartening the rooms up. I have also been busy rehearsing, ‘Coarse Acting Strikes Back’. I have two roles, and been struggling with my lines, but am just about there now. First night is Wednesday. I had a rehearsal last night and have a double run through later. Last night we had a family roast, Rob had been at airsoft during the day, Nikki and Ellie working (Ellie now has a weekend job at the Eco farm thanks to Nikki). Nikki’s new young man Matt came as well. I was ready for a sleep after the meal, but instead had to go to rehearsal. Some photo’s…

A cake (not made by Tricia) for the tea, then Ellie and Jess serving the tea, Nikki with the NZ RAF, and another of the tea. Then Robbie in his new ‘Starlord’ outfit… he is wearing this at a convention soon, and then one of Ninja.