Emotional? Me? Never…

I think I must just be tired, I have done 8 hours driving in total today – I have been up to Manchester to carry out an hour’s training with Collins that didn’t go very well to be honest. So that was 3 hours there and back. I was planning on going straight to the office but went home instead to experience some of the Halloween excitement and Trick or Treating – it was madness, so many people coming and knocking on the door. It didn’t take too long for the sweets to run out!

I then decided to come down to the office which is another 2 hour drive and was listening to some podcasts – listened to Vidal Sassoon and John Peel on Desert island disks and both were really good, very interesting and Sassoon was fascinating. Such a rich life and attitude he has.

Anyway, I then put on Jupiter from the Planets Suite and started filling up and crying! No idea what that was about…! Something just stirred and tears were streaming down my face.

See what you think – only need to listed to the first 3 minutes:

http://youtu.be/mfHnZOSyri8

Ian Rundle’s Funeral

It was with great regret that I heard last week of Ian Rundle passing away in hospital, I wasn’t aware that he was ill and I think it was a bit of a shock that the operation, and subsequent illness, took his life.

Ian was the manager to give me my first chance of men’s football when he selected me to play for Oxford City first team when I was only 17. He was a quiet and dry character but he was the one that I had huge amount of respect for, he reminded me very much of Derek in that praise wasn’t quick in forthcoming so any sort of praise or a simple ‘well done’ was a pleasing thing to hear.

Ian came back on the committee when I was in my second spell at City and it was always him that I would try and get recognition from regardless of who was my manager or other committee members, and I like to think that as I got closer to my retirement I got more respect from Ian for my playing abilities. He was also a firm supporter for the Veterans team so that was good to have him come along and cast his critical eye over us old ones every now and then!

The funeral took place at the Crematorium on Thursday 27th October and unsurprisingly it was packed out. I have never been to the crematorium and they have had to have car park attendants there. I didn’t actually get in and stayed outside with many others – a good few hundred and so many faces that I recognised, so many ex-footballers.

John Maskell made a good speech and it was interesting to hear Ian’s life story, the respect afforded him from Wycombe Wanderers was fantastic and there was good representation from them.

We then went back to City club and that was packed, had a couple of drinks with the intention of going home to work again but in the end decided to stay the rest of the night with the lads who were getting absolutely steaming drunk. I’d decided quite early not to drink so after a couple of pints I stuck to coffee and coke. Then quite a few of them wanted to go to town as we went to the Living Room – which was ironic – as it was  very dead in there, Thursday night definitely wasn’t party night! A few of the lads had a laugh though and eventually I did have enough so I took Wayne, Paul and Millar home – Wayne was absolutely hanging and I am sure all three of them would be delicate the next morning…sure enough….I was right!

It was a shame that it was a funeral that brought together so many old friends and faces but sadly that will be the case now, I am sure there will be more funerals than weddings to attend!

You would like to think that for your own funeral you’d get the sort of send off as Ian got today, maybe I will and maybe I won’t – I won’t really be there to know though will I?

Some of the people there included: Dale Thorne, Nick Dawson, Shaun Bradbury, Andy Leach, Phil Simpson, Eddie Inness, Rob Tutton, Justin Merrett, Mike Ford, Bob Pratley, Andy Lyne, Andy Sinnott, Jason Millar, Wayne Holden, Paul Holden, Terry Merriman, Tommy Moxon and even Mick Woodley. He didn’t look well at all.

My Birthday Weekend & Bruno Mars

Had a really good birthday which we dragged out over the weekend.

On Saturday, Mum took us out to 10 pin bowling at The Kassam and then we went next door to Frankie & Benny’s which was really nice, we had a good time. Lewis won the bowling but he had the barriers up so being a competitive Dad I couldn’t accept that he beat me! He also brought along his current girlfriend, Katherine, who’s really nice so we’ll have to see how long this lasts! Hopefully for a while as she’s intelligent and attractive..

Had a cake and candles and people singing for me which is a bit embarrassing as I am 43!!!

Mum & Derek then came back to our house after dinner and we vegged out in front of the TV and had cheese etc. Nice evening. She gave me some money which I spent on Sunday on a printer that we desperately needed and some choccies and a book.

Next day we had a normal Sunday, Jack’s football in the morning which as he won so that helped to make the day more enjoyable and then over to Sue’s in the afternoon and tidied up some of the garden for her. Had a cake and candles and Sue got me a lovely Gucci aftershave which smells fantastic, rally pleased with it.

Finally on the Monday, 24th, the kids and Tash are on half-term but I had to work and I have so much on my plate to deal with at the minute so wasn’t relaxed at all but we had our usual family in bed present giving and that was lovely. Charlotte got me some great new socks and Thornton’s toffee (she knows my favourites), very posh John Rocha ones, the boys got me Lynx smellies and a DVD and Tash gave me my watch that I knew we’d got from the States and also a Abercrombie jumper from the States that I had completely forgotten about so that was a lovely surprise!

We had a big fry-up and I then had a shit day’s work and got things done but signed off at 4.00pm as we then all went to London for a concert as part of my birthday. We went to the Brixton O2 Academy to see Bruno Mars. I must admit I wasn’t overly excited about seeing him, it was very much for the kids and for Jack especially as he’s not been to a proper concert and he also loves the Lazy Song so much. The warm-up act was a girl called Skyler Grey and she was great, I will be looking to download her album. We then had a wait until about 9.10pm until Bruno came on and he gave a brilliantly fun and energetic performance that was really, really enjoyable. He played to the crowd but didn’t seem arrogant or anything and I am so glad that we went. Jack, Charlotte and Lewis loved it and had a great time too so that was pleasing.

We left at the end obviously, found the car okay and got home around 12.20am so quite a late one but well worth the effort and a lovely birthday. Early start in the morning with work as Jason is picking me up at 7.15am to go into the office for a hard week full of hassles. Ah well…

I must admit I was nervous about being in Brixton because of it’s history and the riots that I obviously knew about, but as Nikki said to Tash, it’s very much like the Cowley Road. Not certain how that relates but she was right, it was very, very similar indeed.

So another year gone and another year closer to my death…hopefully I have plenty more years to come and share with the family, who knows, but that’s what I wished for when cutting the cake!

Jack’s County Schools Match & Summertown

Another good weekend of football for Jack, again making me very proud of him in his football achievements. On Saturday he played against Dacorum over towards Hemel Hempstead who are used to winning and had some very good players indeed, and after initially being over-run we got a break-away goal and throughout the rest of the game they held on and won the match. It was equally exciting and frustrating as the ref wasn’t the most honest!

Jack did well, he was played at left midfield and was against an incredibly good player but by the second half he’d got used to it and coped well. I found it hard to keep quiet and wanted to encourage the boys as much as possible but I was just another interfering Dad! What was nice is that chatting to some of the other days a lot of the boys will be going to Cherwell school next year so Jack will have made friends with lads he’ll be seeing next year.

On Sunday for Summertown we played at home to Ardington, I was down to 11 players and was a bit fed up that I didn’t have enough to make a decent match of things. In saying that Ardington struggled and we looked really sharp and we looked like we’d romp home. How little I know!!

I kept fairly quiet throughout the match because I wouldn’t have been heard over their coach who was constantly shouting at his team for the whole game, quite hard to deal with that I must admit. Anyway, they went a goal up and it looked like we’d lose a game we didn’t deserve to lose. The Max scored a fortuitous goal before Jack then got two quick strikes that he’s getting good at. They then got a last goal right at the death but it wasn’t a problem as I knew there wasn’t enough time left and we won 3-2 so that was really, really pleasing.

I found out afterwards that some chap of one of the parents that I’d not met before was very complimentary of my coaching style so that was a nice thing to hear. Not often you get positive comments like that.

But more importantly was Jack’s performance, I was really pleased with him, he’s a talent.

Jack & a great footballing weekend

A good weekend for Jack…he had trials for the Oxford Schools County squad on Saturday at Cheney School but didn’t get too much playing time or action which was frustrating and I felt he could have done better.

Driving home in the car we had quite a heated discussion because he was disappointed with me not telling him he’d done well. I hadn’t realised I hadn’t, I also hadn’t realised he was quite so touchy about praise and felt that I was critical of him.

So I had an insight into this thinking briefly. It shocked me as I thought I was always so supportive of him.

Next day on Sunday he played for Summertown against AFC Brightwell and he was superb. We won 6-2, he set up two goals and scored four! Two of his goals were exceptional, and his celebration for the last one was classic ‘Cantona’, he just stood there which his arms out by his waist as if to say, “What do you think of that then?” – brilliant.

So I made a point of telling him ‘Well done’ after that performance.

Today the school received an email from the Coach in charge of selecting the Schools County side and Jack was included. I was surprised after he’d not had a chance to shine so they obviously saw something. He phoned me whilst I was at work and he was bubbling and clearly thrilled to pieces to be selected. It was announced in assembly so he was Top Dog today.

Made me smile when he asked over the phone, “So Dad, do you have something to say to me?”

Yes Jack, “WELL DONE”!

Boston Trip

Had the best of times over in the States this last week (Wednesday to Sunday) and went a bit mad. We got swept up in the eating, drinking and socialising that Andrew does on a daily basis. We were obviously there for him to try and support him during the week he should have been getting married and I hope that we played our part with him.

Got there on Wednesday around 6.00pm and got the subway to his road and walked along just in time to find everyone else turning up, stayed up late drinking with all the family, about 21 people in the end which as we were five hours behind it meant we stayed up until about 6.00am (1.00am their time!) – this was the story of things to come and 1.00am was an early night!

We experienced quite a bit of the social scene, bars and restaurants all the time, it was great fun. Tash lasted really well which surprised me greatly, I was certainly expecting a few hangovers the amount she was knocking back.

We did manage a bit of shopping, and even during that we overspent in a big way – managed to justify some of it by saying it was for my birthday – nice new Fossil watch. I did stop short at a £150.00 Robert Graham shirt, it was gorgeous, but Tash said it was ‘too gay!’. It bloody well wasn’t, just priced out. I will certainly be checking out EBay for one though!

We went around Boston for a couple of walks, made it to Cheers bar and just enjoyed the City, it’s a great place.

So, the wedding didn’t take place but it was a good experience and we made some friends with all the family that we didn’t know very well and also one of Tuck’s work colleagues, a chap called Gerry who I’d actually met 2 years ago in Cardiff at the work’s Xmas party that I very much gate-crashed…

It was odd without the kids, but at the same time it did Tash and I some good to be together, will definitely try and organise something else for the two of us to get away from it all.

Came home on the Sunday morning, was up and out the apartment around 6.00am having not gone to bed before 2.00am and then a 6 hour flight home but that was quick.Back to Oxford by 10.00pm so quite a long day.

It’s amazing how small the world is though, to be so far removed from life but only a matter of hours away, incredible really.

Charlotte’s Birthday

Diary for 28th September – written on the plane to Boston.

Charlottes birthday today, 15! Presents in the morning which she was pleased with and then went downstairs and she had a bike. Big surprise as that's a Xmas present in our house!! Off she went to school and we got text updates throughout the day as to how things were going including all her French class singing to her. Hope she had a great day.

Sadly we're not there to share it as we're off to the States for Andrew's non-wedding. Jessica is coming over to housesit with them, they'll have a great laugh I am sure. Not sure Jess really needs to be there but she's excited to be so it won't hurt and it seems more responsible on our part to have someone that bit older there I guess.

Got to the airport fine and I am typing this over the Atlantic cramped up on a bloody tiny plane. We were definitely spoilt with BA as there is no video or free beer...not too certain which I miss most! Going to be knackered though. Bed at 4am, up at 7am and then about 2 hours sleep on plane. Boston are 5 hours behind so when we have a drink at 9.30pm with tucks it will be 2am for us.

Not certain what to expect this weekend, food, beers, shopping, walking and sight seeing I am guessing. Will be odd without the kids and just me and Tash. Looking forward to it though, had to write that as she's looking over my shoulder. :-)

Anyway, have had a fairly productive flight, have created a load of lists for when we return to UK to start working through ranging from getting a front door to decorating to reading more books and downloading a music album. Going to be busy!!!

Sat waiting for luggage, been about 20 mins...where is it??? Oh. Here we go, conveyor belt moving.

The wedding that isn’t…

Off to Boston in the morning to see Tucks and go through what would have been his wedding. Really sad state of affairs and he’s so pissed off about it, can’t blame him of course.

Still up and it’s 3.53am, but have managed to blitz so much work before signing off. Not ideal but I will feel better for having offloaded so much of it.

Nice evening tonight as it’s Charlotte’s birthday in the morning, shame we’re going to be away but went to the Harvester this evening and spoilt her

Set the alarm clock..

I can hardly type…8 pints later I am ready for bed…interesting night with Jason but I am knackered!

First games of the season for Lewis & Jack

Busy weekend that’s for sure, have been working a lot of it, had John and Pauline round and I had a bit too much to drink so ruined things when they’d left with Tash which was a sour point that’s for certain.

Anyway…Jack had his first 11-a-side proper match today at home to Rotherfield Utd, yes I don’t know where that is either! They’d played last week and drawn 2-2 so were not going to be mugs and after our performance with Comets last week I must admit I was a little bit anxious.

The lads were nervous before the match but once we started they did fine. In fact they did more than fine, they had a good game, it was open and Rotherfield were a decent side but were the same standard as us so it was pretty even. Our defenders played well and Jack was looking lively up front but he wasn’t have as much joy as I hoped as they had a quick defender that we couldn’t get past.

Anyway, Jack scored a lovely break-away goal, running from the halfway line from Hal’s through ball and then slotted it home into the far corner. As the match went on into the second half then Rotherfield got stronger, but both teams had chances to score but couldn’t find that final touch. Eventually, with seconds to go we didn’t clear a corner properly and they scored to level the scores and before we could even get the ball out of the net the ref blew the whistle. Frustrating to lose the points right at the death but it was a fair result really.

Everyone enjoyed it and hopefully we can improve on things

Quick lunch break and then it was Lewis’s team to play Cholsey who are always sharp. After last week’s thrashing that the hands of the u18’s and the hap-hazard approach we have to games I was very nervous about this game. Thankfully that concern was quickly brushed aside as we played the best football I have ever seen us play, as a team they were awesome and worked so damned hard it was incredible.

Having a couple of new players with such talent such as Myles and Elias is always going to help but there was a real hard working team ethic today from every single player, it made me really proud of them. It was a very close first half in which we edged it at half-time 3-1 but the second half we destroyed them and the final score was 8-1. They did miss a penalty and had a chance cleared off the line but at the other end we carved them wide open and Thabelo missed so many chances it could have been double-figures.

So all in all a good day’s football really.

Caught up with Mum, she’s just got home from Norfolk for the week and had a great time and was chatting loads.

Had dinner at Sue’s afterwards and then did some chores at home before leaving at 9.00pm to come to Kent and the Encore Hotel for the night. Unfortunately there was a crash on the M25 which closed it off it was that serious which meant a few times of simply sat in the dark with the engine off. So my 2 hours journey took about 3.5 hours in the end – not good as I wanted to do some work in the hotel to carry out some final testing.

Hopefully this week I will get to bed at some better hours than last week because of my work load. Tues, Wed, Thurs I didn’t go to bed before 2.30am and on Friday night I finished working at 3.40am – ridiculous and unsustainable.

In saying that, it’s not 00.35am so I had better sign off now as I have Hodder coming in tomorrow for training, should be fun….

City Veterans back in action

Started the new season on Wednesday and played against Wantage. We have a very strong side again with some teams folding, Kidlington one of them, and their best players wanting to join us. It was good to see some new faces in the changing room but all the old ones from last season too.

I was really worried about playing as I have been struggling with my back lately and also have done no fitness work for about 8 weeks but actually I felt okay and had a good game. Went on a couple of my runs and enjoyed myself.

We have a game every week now for a few weeks which is good as it builds up the fitness.

New kit as well because Steve Tavinor who got badly injured has received some compensation and wanted to thank us for the support we gave him so that was a really good touch from him.

Jack’s first 11-a-side match

We had our first 11-a-side match on Sunday for Jack’s team now that they have become u11’s. It was only a friendly against the Comets but it was still important for them to get used to the differences of playing and also the offside rule. They did well, it was very congested and they will need a lot more coaching but it was encouraging.

What was really pleasing is how quickly Jack adapted to it, he appeared to be quicker than everyone and was certainly really sharp and scored a good variety of goals. We drew 4-4 in the end and Jack scored all 4!! He missed an open goal and a penalty so could have had a hat-full. I seriously think he could score 50 goals this season, that will be phenomenal if he managed that. We’ll have to wait and see.

Lewis had a friendly against the Summertown u18s and got thumped, the less said about that the better. Seriously lacking any sort of fitness which we will have to address.

A new student arrived, she’s called Bella, is from Switzerland and should be with us until Xmas. Seems nice enough so hopefully she’ll stay. That will help with the various expenses we have on our plate at the minute

On Saturday night we went over to Jason Millar’s as it was his birthday celebration and that was nice, James & Melissa were there as were Wayne & Kerry and the girls and Paul & Pauline. Went over to Didcot club to watch Man U stuff Bolton 5-0, all over after 25 minutes, they’re too good at the minute and we ended up have 5 pints in a very short space of time, James drinks too quickly for me! I was very drunk by the end of the night but I think I was okay…

Have been at King’s Lynn today with work to see Learning Resources and Pandora Books, finished a bit early so went to the beach (Brancaster) and then Mum called to say they were at the holiday cottage they’re staying at this week with Grandma, Sue & Roger and Sue & Simon. It was nice to see where they were staying and see them all, I only stayed an hour and then left for a the 3 hour drive to the hotel as I am staying down in Rochester tonight. I think they were pleased I went and saw them.

Curry at the hotel on arrival, needed it but didn’t need it if you know what I mean. I am so very overweight at the minute, but I simply can’t be bothered to work to get rid of it. We have a Veteran’s match on Wednesday and I really think I am going to injure myself. Bit worried about it, but not so worried that I have bothered to do anything about it. Shame really. Not sure what’s wrong with me. Work seems to be affecting me at the minute which I need to fight against.

Not looking forward to being in the office tomorrow, it’s going to be a long day!

St Giles Fair

Every year the families of Oxford get to attend the biggest fair you’ll ever see in St Giles. Fantastic event and well attended and dates back to Victorian Times, although what they’d make of the rides these days is anyone’s guess. I haven’t been for a few years and won’t be going this year but Lewis is there now and Charlotte had been down there earlier in the day. Jack is going with William tomorrow so he’s looking forward to that.

Having just come back from Florida I am not certain the fairground rides will thrill enough but it’s a good experience and you see so many people from Oxford

So, today was another very busy day but thankfully it wasn’t as stressful as it could have been, loads of changes and emails from OUP again but I had to focus on the Capstone upgrade that I am conducting over the next two days. It was pleasing to get some closure on nearly all the points they raised but this evening when kicking off the build for the databases I experienced loads more issues which I was able to sort out – am I starting to learn something?!?!

I got my timesheet emailed through this morning for last week and my 37.5hr week turned into 73hrs instead. I was shocked and even though this week will be busy I am definitely not doing that sort of time of work again for a very long time – that’s just mad if you ask me.

It’s been quiet around the house today, just me working and the kids have been out, or reading. Tash has been at work and got back late and went bowling as well so not see much of her.

Another weekend over..

Tired this evening writing this, was about to go to bed but I want to try and keep on top of things with this diary, get into a habit and all that.

So, the saga with OUP continued…I was up and out at 9.00am down to their offices, Tash dropped me off and Lewis cycled down so he has the flexibility to come and go as he pleased – Taurus training and all that. Got in and I was really impressed, he was positive and confident and organised and thrived. It was a side of him that I haven’t really seen and I was very proud of him.

So whilst he was organising things I was Skyping with Darren and then testing his fixes and we got it all sorted by about 10.30am so then Lewis and I could get on with him setting up all the syncs and then passing over to me to sort out the testing. Charlotte came down at 11.30am and Lewis showed the ropes and she too was identical, really business-like, I was doubly bowled over and proud, she was really good as well.

We had a break at 2.00pm and went to the Jericho Cafe and had a nice meal and then back into it and she wanted to carry on with me doing it and we eventually got completed at 6.00pm.

Will say it again, they both really, really impressed me. Jason was pleased with our work and said I could take everyone out for a meal, couldn’t take him up on it this weekend but will try to later.

So home and something to eat and then it was round to Kay and Gordon’s for the bi-annual piss up a their place. All the usual suspects were there and it was a really enjoyable evening. Both Tash and I were pretty drunk, I’ve not had a drink for what seems like ages. Nothing much to report but home around 2.30am and spent much of today struggling with a heavy head.

However, there was football training at 9.30am so I was up for that and it went well. 9 lads there and they look good. Hopefully we’ll have a good season.

Home and lounging around, went round to Sue’s for dinner and I sorted her bathroom door with a new handle as she got locked in the other week and needed rescuing!

That’s it I think, quite worried about the coming week with the OUP upgrade and also the Capstone one to deal with, I can see a few more late nights ahead of me!!!

I’ve gotta feeling…

…this weekend is going to be painful as hell.

Moaning once more, not good, or interesting to read. It’s now 1.00am and I have been working since 8.30am on this OUP project either in their offices or at home, still not sorted and found more problems this evening which I can’t deal with but Darren and Guy I hope will tomorrow. Lewis and I will be going into OUP offices tomorrow to carry out the work that I was hoping to do today in terms of syncing all 90 laptops that we’d installed databases on.

Jason has given me £50 to give to whichever child helps me with the work so Lewis and Charlotte were fighting over it! It’s going to be along day though as I can’t see it being completed in less than 10 hours.

I’ll be so glad once this is all completed.

Not much else to report really. Just Charlotte and I in the house as Tash went out with Pauline Bampton for a drink, Lewis shut himself away upstairs and Jack stayed the night at William’s house.

Celebrity Big Brother is on at the minute and Charlotte is completely hooked. I sat working in the front room for a while and it was on and Jedward have been quite entertaining throughout and I’d be surprised if they don’t win it actually. It’s poor quality TV, that’s the problem!

Right, 1.06am, might get a beer and forget about work for a bit before going to bed…wishful thinking

Macbeth and shit day at work

What a day…

Was at Philip Allan in the morning doing Communigator training and it went fine. Intelligent people who picked up what I was covering really quickly so it was a pleasure to be involved in that and away from the hassles of other work going on. Although I was dipping in and out of emails when possible to see what was going on whilst I was away. As suspected, it wasn’t good reading.

Went home after PAU session and caught up with things and planned for the Raintree Offline upgrade I need to run next week and then worked with Guy/Paul to get updates for OUP conference call. Nothing I want to talk about on here so let’s leave it there shall we?!?!?

I had to finish at 5.00pm today because of going over to Stratford-Upon-Avon to see Macbeth at the RSC. I really wasn’t in the mood, so stressed with this OUP crap that I was miserable company for Tash, Charlotte and Jack which is a shame, I really need to find a way to switch off from it all and not take it so personally. But then I have always known I am like that but never been able to detach myself from the emotion and responsibility.

Anyway, got to Stratford and parked up and went to the new(ish) RSC theatre which I think is a year old now and it was fantastic. Really, really impressive. That was just on the outside! Within they have basically mocked up what the Globe would have been liked 300 years ago, or however long it was in Shakespeare’s time and it feels so good to be within it.

Whether I was distracted because of work, or tired or whatever, I don’t know but I found it tough going to begin with. Luckily Tash had printed off a detailed synopsis which meant having read it we were able to piece together the scenes and what was happening. The dialogue is a pain to be honest and that’s why I perhaps can’t get enthused over Shakespeare. In saying that I got into it and enjoyed the performances and it was an unusual adaptation – would still be better in current English if you ask me…call me a Philistine should you wish…just saying!

Anyway, enjoyed it in the end and drove home and then worked this evening from 11.30pm until now – it’s 2.00am. Not good, tired and pissed off, not a good combination for working tomorrow. Going to go into the OUP offices to sort out the mess which I think will be covered simply by syncing, but it’s 90 laptops…bugger!

I think I could well be working in their offices on Saturday as well.

On top of that I also got the Summertown Stars season up and running in terms of organising training sessions this week, haven’t focussed on that at all, we’re going to struggle I reckon this year. Players dropping out and others not being reliable. Who’d be a football manager eh?

Busy again..

Second day at OUP today doing the installations and seeing people. Has gone okay and thankfully the two temps working with me are on the ball and could deal with lots of the queries once shown. Typically, nearing the end of the pile we said how well it was going and then hit a purple patch of failures…nightmare! Mostly sorted and should be possible for John to finish them tomorrow. Just as well as I am out with another client training Communigator and Data Mining, thankfully only up the road in Deddington.

Came home and collapsed, it’s been hard work and as expected I then received an email from someone who’s testing the install and everything was wrong! That was hard to take, and very frustrating, it can be reversed but when you’ve been working your nuts off and it appears for no good reason then it’s a little disappointing to put it mildly. Something to sort out tomorrow then!

Everyone was in a good mood at home, Jack had William round and they were on the PC all night, they’re asleep on the sofa now as William is staying over the night. Jack made me laugh as he warned William that he (Jack) needs to get up at 7.00am to do his paper-round so is he(William) sure that he wants to stay the night?

Charlotte and Jack are delivering the Oxford Mail every day for this week only as they’re covering the usual lad’s Summer Holiday – it’s not good money but they do have anything else coming in so need anything that can come their way. Especially with St Giles Fair coming to town next week.

Lewis is off to a party tomorrow night with his girlfriend, Georgia, hopefully. She’s let him down a few times recently so it’s not definite that he’ll go I suspect. It does mean that there is a ticket free for me to go with the family to Stratford tomorrow to watch Macbeth. Haven’t seen that since I was at school, and even then that was at the Young Vic and was a modern adaptation of the play. Looking forward to it as it’s one of his better ones I reckon.

Finally, today is Transfer Deadline Day – it’s the day in the year when gossips and rumour-mongers have a field day texting into the BBC website all sorts of crap. It’s a bi-yearly event that grips everyone, but I must admit I forgot about it until getting home and then decided that the best thing to do is simply wait until the morning so that the actual transfers that took place can be reported – saves a lot of wasted time.

Anyway, another busy day tomorrow so best get to bed…

Lewis Exam Results, Bank Holiday & Work

Have been flat out with work at the minute so still haven’t got round to updating this blog with my holiday diary, it’s going to go all over the place when I do upload it. Ah well.

Have been installing databases all day today at OUP, went okay and got about 40 completed but it’s tough work when there is so many variables…admin privileges, passwords not provided, syncing not working, etc. It did mean that all the work I did yesterday, which was a Bank Holiday by the way, was worth it otherwise this really would have been a calamity. It was disappointing that I did have to work and I won’t say that I did. In the back of my mind though is the thought that it would have all been pointless as there is something that’s not going to be right and complained about next week when it’s released.

Aside from that weekend was nice. We treated Lewis to a night out for doing well in his exams, 4 A’s and the rest B’s so that was pleasing and they were all in his subjects that he wants to do for A-Levels so great result. We went to The Trout as the kids have been complaining we’ve lived in Wolvercote for 12 years and they’ve never been there. Lovely meal and a really nice evening with them all – they’re good fun.

We also went down to Canford Cliffs on Sunday for the day, took Brendan and again had a good time. Rained after a couple of hours of getting there which meant we gave up on the beach idea and wandered over to Bournemouth, got some chips and went back again and home.

Managed to squeeze Brendan into a wetsuit and he had a go and body-boarding – he did well.

Something odd happened when we parked, Charlotte opened the door and the window simply shattered, no hard pressure, or extremes of temperature. So that was hassle that we could have done without and it was just after we’d been saying that money-wise we were almost up straight and Florida hadn’t wiped us out…not good timing!

So, back to OUP tomorrow to complete the rest of the installations and deal with the problems that the changes Guy and I made have caused…

Florida Holiday – Day 17 - Friday 19th August 2011

Last Day..

We had the re-scheduled snorkelling to go to in the morning so we packed up the last of our things in the morning, checked out from the hotel and made our way over to the harbour.

The weather looked pretty good and there were a few people waiting, bang on time the captain came out and gave us the chat that we didn’t want to hear…we’d heard earlier in the week about jelly fish causing problems with previous excursions and sure enough, the captain told us they were out in force and we could cancel if we wanted to. He couldn’t confirm if there’d be loads or none and it was our choice. Out of 21 people waiting everyone agreed to go for it and see what happened

So we got our snorkelling gear…goggles, breathing tube and flippers and clambered aboard the catamaran that was going to take us out to the reef. Got there in about 45 minutes, other boats were there, just in the middle of nowhere at ‘Coffins Reef’ – sure enough, Purple Jellies were everywhere and floating past the boat. Everyone was wary of getting off and eventually a young German lad went for it and most other people soon followed suit.

I was about 5th into the water and once away from the jellies near us it was clear and no problem at all and Jack followed me and swam round me and then Lewis, Mum and Charlotte came in. Charlotte wasn’t keen, not surprised as it was rough out there and the constant worry of the jellies wasn’t too far away.

It was all worth it though, soon there were yellow fish everywhere and the views were brilliant, managed to get some photos which hopefully will come out okay. Slowly the see started getting rougher and it wasn’t long before we realised a squall was coming in. I was getting used to the breathing gear (it’s not easy) and accepting the odd mouthful (or lungful) of salt water but soon the jellies were closing in again and it was time to get out.

I’d got stung a couple of times but admittedly it wasn’t too bad and with vinegar sprayed on me it was okay. The captains (Freddie & Jason) turned the boat around and got us on the move just as the squall started to catch us up, we outrun it but the view from the back of the boat was impressive as you could see the line of the rain, quite scary but exhilarating all the same

I must admit the diving was brilliant and Jack and I loved it, I’d certainly have liked to have stayed longer and explored further but there wasn’t the time and it was right that we’d cut it short, but I will look to do that again and perhaps still look to do the scuba diving as well. We’ll see.

Anyway, got showered off back at the harbour and then jumped in the car and headed home to Miami, stopping at Florida City for the shopping outlet and got some more clothes. The rain all the way for 90 minutes of driving was like nothing we’ve experienced all holiday, really hard to drive in but we made it to Miami in the end and had the best burger I’ve ever had at an Italian restaurant and then onwards to Miami airport. Managed to run the petrol down to 14 miles in the tank…not bad?

Nothing to report from the airport, pretty boring and then on our flight at 9.00pm – watched two films, Paul and Battle: Los Angeles (Paul was funny, the other was crap really!)

So, arrived in Heathrow at 10.00am (BST) and I only had about 2 hours sleep but met up with Sue and then I drove us home.

No need to go on about settling back into things here in Oxford, just to reiterate again what a brilliant time we had, it really has been a holiday to remember, we’d loved all of it. Quite a bonus in fact this evening as Tash went through the Credit Card statement to find that the exchange rate has been quite favourable to us, so our calculations in restaurants and shops has worked our better that expected. Not by much but enough to be pleasantly surprised.

Florida Holiday – Day 16 - Thursday 18th August 2011

Quietest day of the holiday.

After breakfast we spent the time swimming and then wandered across to the harbour for our snorkelling trip but when we got there the guys said that a storm was coming in and they’d have to cancel the trip. Really disappointing, but they said we could go tomorrow morning instead. Not ideal because of it being our last day and leaving but I agreed…wasn’t too sure how Tash would take that!

Anyway, we decided to take it easier and stayed by the pool

More swimming, drink, food, dark swimming, thunder storm, packing