A good weekend

Had a good weekend. We went to Birmingham to see Nicola's parents, then went on to Cheltenham to join Birmingham SAGGA on a checkpoint at the Cotswold Challenge. We ate lunch in the Rising Sun, on arrival, and then with everyone from the checkpoint at tea time, while we watched Henman get through to the last 16 of Wimbledon.

Yesterday I spent half the day in bed, Nicola says I must need the sleep. In the afternoon we went to a 16th Century house in Birmingham. We thought it has been spoilt by too much lottery money being spent with too little thought.

Currently going round my head is Mark Knopfler's "Why Aye Man" and I'm wondering how many of the Auf Wiedershehn pet cast I can hear in the chorus.

Have identified Tim Healy and Jimmy Nail so far.

Last night the Explorers did service work at the church where we are based. I was impressed as they made somthing of an effort, although I did need to finish up after them.

Found a stash of stolen documents behind one of the gravestones, and took it to the police. Exciting eh?

Harry

Had a glimpse of the first few chapters of Harry Potter and the Order of the Pheonix. Nicola won't allow me to own a paper copy and the Cover to Cover version won't be out till September.

One thing I've learned through blog surfing, you can't control who reads it. I've learned one or two things about friends which have made me a little more guarded.

So I'm afraid you're not going to read any sepcifics about work related matters, or when the wedding date is before it's announced.

So there.

The weekend was great. It was the wedding of our friends Karen and Simon.

On Friday we joined Claire and Phil who were celebrating 5 years of marriage. At midnight we all wandered in to Tesco to watch Claire buy two copies of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. One for herself and one for the bride who was banned from doing anything other than prepare for her wedding on her wedding day. Tesco wasn't overflowing, but about as busy as it is on a typical weekday afternoon. The main difference being you don't see kids in pyjamas clutching books on weekdays.

Next day was an early start to get to Sussex; we shared transport (Claire and Phil’s main car being diesel and the biggest car we naturally used that one).

Saturday was an excellent day. We stayed in the Inn in a medium sized Sussex village. The sun shone. It was a very traditional wedding, even down to using an out-of-date translation of the bible for the "Faith Hope and Love" reading.

The only downside, for the guests that is, was that being in a vineyard, there was a lot of pollen around the reception and even those dosed on regular antihistamines had streaming eyes. But for Karen and Simon it must all have been so perfect.

People were asking me and Nicola about our wedding and she has been saying we will be announcing the date around the end of August.

My unit trust ISA broke even today.

Which was nice.

I think I’ve got the plot for my novel now. It’s a story of pain and suffering, of a death in a family at war with itself. The working title is “HELLO!! I’M ON THE TRAIN”.

People find other people with mobile phones irritating, but unless they’re loud or obviously showing off it doesn’t bother me: it’s no different to having a conversation with a fellow traveller. No what gets me is how indiscreet people can be; they will discuss intimate details and company secrets in a full compartment, safe in the knowledge that they don’t recognise anyone else in the compartment so no-one will give a stuff. And hey they’ll never see you again anyway.

Except you do. If you use the train every day you begin to recognise the faces. And if it were a pub in Golders Green you’d maybe feel able to strike up a conversation with those familiar, yet unfamiliar people. But you don’t know how they’d react so you don’t.

I find travelling by bus and train everyday preferable to driving. It’s cheaper if you buy the right ticket (and contrary to some surveys finding the right ticket isn’t rocket science), and less tiring. Most busses on the roads are modern and clean, as are trains, so you have to be really unlucky to catch a genuinely unpleasant one. The only downsides are it is a bit less flexible, and does take slightly more time.

Kids can be, well kids basically.

Last nights meeting was a nightmare, a game, a 15 minute map exercise, then a wide game. We had no time for a wide game as the Explorers either wound’t or couldn’t do a route plan.

Oh well that’s the Sun Run off this year.

OK the sun run is off because I’m down to be out of the country- but I may as well have some leverage.

Oh dear, was up far too late sorting out the paperwork for GaSCiT and thought it wouln't be such a bad idea to stay up another half an hour to do this. Bad Move!

Still, at least I now have the right atihistamines for my hayfever after getting the prescription from my Doctors. My eyes feel sooo much better.

It's scary to surf all these blogs and see what people are you to- you thing you're the only one your age listening to Radio 4, reading this, watching that, when all the time friends 5 or 10 years younger are doing likewise.

The beginning

Well you see it's like this.

I like writing. I'm OK at it I think. I read books and newspapers and I see other people do it, and in a number of cases I think I can do better.

Trouble is I don't have the patience to do it properly.

So here's my 'blog. Lots of people I know have them so why shouldn't I.