Rebecca and Jamie Start School

Oh my Goodness, it cannot be September 2011 already can it.... Jamie and Rebecca have gone back to school this week - Rebecca has moved up to the middle school / KS2 and now wearing a school tie!!

We have had a splendid August - I sort of took most of it off to look after them and be with them for some quality time and enjoyed almost every minute of it - absolutely fabulous. Had a list of things to do and didn't get round to doing half of them.

Anyway, back to work - and plenty of it to get through.

Greater Spotted Woodpecker

Got it at last - its so nervous it flies off at the slightest movement...


Went on an 8 mile walk with Cashman too - round the back of the Chiltern Open Air Museum but didn't see much wildlife - only a pied wagtail - which I caught beautifully out of focus.

Runner beans were lucky enough to be planted out in the afternoon.

New Music and Hockey

Made another trip to Amazon this week to top up my music collection. This week's new CD's are:

• Lou Reed - Berlin & Transformer
• Yazoo - In you Room (box set of everything
• Velvet Underground & Nico Deluxe
• Yuck - Yuck
• Television - Marquee Moon
• Adventure - Lesser Known

Off to see Adam Ant soon which should be a laugh. Yuck are playing at the Scala next Wednesday which is tempting though it is sold out, few tickets on ebay though.

Played for the Summer 1st XI on Tuesday which was a laugh - I was playing sweeper which was good fun. Achilles and more worryingly the groin were hurting - still hurting five days later - oh what an athlete.

Went to Robertswood Rangers fun day today and also to CSG driving range with R & J and S. Noticed a few PCSO's at the school event and then wandering home noticed that i'm assuming they'd booked a load of cars for bad parking - which is odd as I'm wondering why they don't do it more in central CSP or GX outside Marks and Spencer.

Also went to the Life Member's Evening last night at the Sports Club which was a good evening out and met a few old faces - I must confess that Cash and I did have the odd glass of port though.

Flat out with work as well recently hence not many new posts. Still waiting for my web host company to upgrade my control panel so I can move this blog again (blog.watsy.com) by updating the cname - was supposed to be completed by the end of April - bit frustrating.

First Swallow of Summer

Went out for a run this evening and I spotted my first swallow of the summer - just by brawlings farm. I think there were two of them. Anyway, enjoyable run, went over the fields to the Dumb Bell, felt great then was a bit of a labour on the way back. Only a couple of calfs and right achilles hurt this evening. Ready then for the tour of Worthing in a couple of weeks. Sent out a request for ladies a couple of weeks ago and not a single response - not even a no I cannot make it - i've still got it lol....

Had a busy week and weekend. Sarah's last game of hockey for the season and I ended up going down the Thames on a neighbour's boat - the weather was great and it was so relaxing too - popped in for a couple of pints to a pub on the river which also had a big children's play area. We also went to a beach and watched the youngsters getting absolutely soaked in the freezing cold water - it was absolutely brilliant.

The rest of the weekend was pretty much spent working - I did a five year business plan for Cater For You which was very interesting - but I'm basically planning to leave it alone and get back to web design. I'm also going to take most of August off to to chill out a bit... maybe. Speaking of web design, I launched a web site for a really nice person in Chalfont St Peter who is doing fruit bouquets and chocolate bouquets - Fruitful Blooms. I designed in CSS from scratch - and took almost all the photos in the kitchen and I have to say the designs were brilliant - the chocolate dipped strawberries were great to look at and even better to eat. Much better idea than bouquets of flowers - last as long and you can eat them!!

I took Monday off to look after R & J and really enjoyed it - they were still a bit tired after Saturday when we were out a bit late but they were cool. The added bonus was that Charlie and Annalisa turned up - brilliant to see them again and looking forward to spending quite a lot of time with them before they dash back to Aus.

Jamie's Birthday, Gardening, Chalfont St Giles Picnic

We had an absolutely fabulous weekend kicked off with Jamie's family birthday party. The Birger's and Tomlinson's popped round to celebrate. R & J are always thrilled to William and Olivia and build lots of lego toys together.

Saturday morning Sarah's penultimate game had been cancelled so we spent the day pottering in the garden with R & J. I finally managed to get round to clearing my veg patch ready for the summer. However, I'm not going to have a greenhouse from a few week's time as there is nowhere to put the existing one and there isn't really anywhere sunny enough in the garden.

Sunday was another glorious weather day - I took Jamie for an enjoyable morning at hockey - he is really getting into it - he scored a goal too so was absolutely thrilled for most of the day. We then went to the swings via the Garden Club where I filled up on potting compost and mushroom compost!!

Great photo taken by Emma of Jamie at training a couple of weeks ago

Monday I took a day off to look after R & J for the first day of Easter holidays - I absolutely loved spending a day relaxing with them and not doing any work - doing it again next Monday cannot wait already.

We went for a lovely picnic by the pond in Chalfont St Giles - walking through the footpaths and the fields to get there. It was another great weather day and we saw some new ducklings - they were tiny, had an ice cream, pottered around and wandered back. A simply wonderful few hours :-)

Chalfont St Giles looking picturesque

Drinking, hockey euphoria and another tooth

What a week - I've been absolutely flat out with work and play. My objective for the week was to install a new server in c4u and have Sage installed and all linked in with Actinic and thus (eventually having live stock checking). I bought the server, but I'm afraid it took me too long to figure out anything so having to get a professional in to sort out the adding of computers and remote logging in. Hopefully I can set up the Sage ok from there. The expert said he'd also set up Exchange - which is interesting.

The financial year ended with C4U being up by about 55% on last year - which is encouraging but need to keep driving forward. Now working on the business plan for the next five years.

Apart from that I was also doing a stack of work on web sites and generally working all hours - except for a business luncheon function on Tuesday which was held at Missenden Abbey - a very nice location indeed and caught up with a few people.

Friday night was the start of a superb hockey weekend. It was the Junior awards evening held in the Marquee at the sports club. The extended Watts / Birger Tomlinson family were all present and correct and a very good evening of presentations and dancing was had by all. Unluckily we won on the raffle and Jamie took away a great big arrangement of lollipops. We were so tired we didn't quite get up at the same time as R & J on Saturday morning and their breakfast was .....

However, I'm pretty sure this had no bearing on this next picture.

Rebecca's second top tooth finally fell out swiftly following the other one. She also has two brand new teeth which have surfaced at the behind her current ones - quite a flurry. Amazing the trauma of them coming through only 4 years ago and then falling out seamlessly (almost). Rebecca's tooth fell out in the morning. However I was rather distracted by the afternoon's hockey game.

It turned out that although the 3rd XI were relegated a few weeks ago, the relegation line had recently moved and if, against the odds, we could snatch another 3 points against an always well organised Henley team we could unbelievable stay up. I've been playing for about 15 years now and am almost 40, the odd injury - surely it shouldn't be bothering me anymore. However, I was so nervous all morning and by the time of the game just stacked full of adrenaline it was absurd. Anyway, we only went and won 4-3 - a magnificent team performance from everyone on the pitch great passing defending and finishing. I was euphoric all afternoon and into the evening (and whilst writing about it now!!) - the evening of the end of season dinner dance.

The season's finale was a very very good evening - well done to Rowe for organising another great one. Didn't catch up with nearly enough people who I only briefly said hello's too - also thanks to Beanie and Bill for dropping Sarah and me off and picking us up - though I foolishly left my jacket at the clubhouse durgh.... I didn't take any decent pictures of the evening - but there are a load on Facebook from other people.

Sunday was a much quieter day, mowed the lawn, did some work, had a roast lunch and took R & J for a short walk.


Also managed to help out Martin for a couple of hours over the weekend who moved house - well done to him and Mel.

Two New Birds

Two new birds have ventured onto the new bird table today - one is a greenfinch, not 100% sure of the other one but think it is a lesser redpoll which is quite rare according to the RSPB web site.

I was thinking today how different the species are even just down the road from where we used to live. We used to have flocks of starlings and sparrows in Cross Lanes, but not a single one of those at the edge of the village. Fairly similar environment too maybe slightly more woody here...

Lesser Redpoll??

Chaffinch is a regular visitor

My first sighting of a Green Finch in this house with a Great Tit

Spring is Springing - 3 points

Came home from Trading Depot on Thursday evening, and spring was definitely in the air - the rest of the Watts family were having a bar-b-q!!!! As you can see a disposable bar-b-q was burning brightly with chicken kebabs next to the garden rockery and the beautiful Cherry Blossom on the tree at the bottom of the garden - it really is stunning at the moment.

On Friday night I went down to the Waggon and Horses for a quick drink with John where we had a very productive board meeting - made some exciting decisions for Cater For You.

Saturday morning, my missing screws were sent by IKEA for my final CD rack - and I'm delighted to say I just had enough space for all my CD's. So my study / working environment is just about complete with good desk and PC and all my music surrounding me - superb - just like Cross Lanes was.

Saturday afternoon I went and played another away game (seems to be all away games this year) at the beach in Slough - Herschel School against South Bucks - and we only went and bloody won it - the first points of the year in a game of hockey I've been involved in. We took a team photo which I'll load up to the hitsports site later this week if I get a chance (though doubt it completely and utterly overloaded with work this week).

Saturday night I went along for Mark's 30th birthday party in the Village Hall - after a couple wandered back down to the White Hart and then sloped off for a quick chicken kebab for the walk home - haven't had a kebab for years and years - it was horrible!!

Sunday we decided on the spur of the moment to go to Eastbourne and see the rest of the Watts family - R & J wanted to see Grandma and Grandpa Watts and also go to the beach. They had (and I) a fabulous time. Some great photos of them on the beach with their cousins (see below. Sarah (sister) also had a look at my feet as I was hobbling a bit on Sunday and her official podiatrist diagnosis was the achilles are swollen. So came away with a few exercises to stretch the back of my legs. Just one more game though - away to Henley next week.

Rebecca and Mummy searching for Shells

Two tinkers building a sandcastle

The finished article with sea defences

Milton Keynes, Ikea and new music additions

Very quiet weekend this weekend after the busy previous two. I was a last minute call up to the 2nd XI on Friday evening, a mad dash to Milton Keynes for a 2pm push back after Sarah had finished her game and returned at 12.30. It was my first game for the 2's - just the 1's and Vintagers and I've managed all teams in half a season of hockey!

Anyway, we lost as usual but I popped into Ikea as I required some more CD racks to house my newly repatriated CD and record collection from garage to study. I bought five more and a bookcase which all fitted with ease into the capacious Honda Jazz (which also managed 55mpg on the way home still - best ever!). So i now have room for over 1200 CD albums and CD singles. To celebrate I went and purchased some more which are now currently being ripped for the phone:

• The Vaccines - what did you expect from the vaccines?
• Duran Duran - All you need is now
• The Strokes - Angles
• Ministry of Sound - Clubbers Guide 2011
• Thompson Twins - 4CD box set remastered thing
• Human League - Credo
• REM - Collapse into now
• Queens of the Stone Age - debut remastered
• Male Bonding - nothing hurts

I bought some 'tights' to wear on my legs a couple of weeks ago, so my hamstring hasn't gone now for two weeks - though I have had to suffer some verbal abuse 'watsy you've got sarah's tights on pal' etc etc Current injuries are painful feet, both achilles, left calf, right hamstring, right groin, knackered shoulder. I think they are all down to my pair of Adidas astros I bought a year ago think they are too tight and I knock my whole body out of line. oh to be half my age....

Speaking of hockey, uploaded a new sports club web site last week - now moving on to the hockey one - hitssports version.

Also uploaded a new V10 Actinic version of Cater For You's main web site - interesting to see what will happen with the rankings on it. At least the weather has turned warmer - the warehouse will be bearable for another couple of months before it becomes like an oven...

Top Front Tooth

After weeks of wobbling, grimacing and non apple eating, the top baby tooth has finally wobbled free. It happened last week at 8.30 - the lengths they go to for delaying tactics is very impressive these days. The bottom two have already fallen out last year and grown through - the other front one is also wobbly.

Jamie wants his teeth to fall out now.

Cup Cake Boxes / Packaging

Whilst I had the giant photo booth at home, I did some photos for Cater For You which is unusual these days as Mark normally does them. However, we bought some cup cakes from the village to show off our new Cup Cake Boxes which we've brought in by the pallet load.

Anyway, Rebecca and Jamie decided this would be good fun to join and next thing I knew they were balanced inside the booth on top of the dining room table .... what could go wrong...

Grand Union Canal / Ash & Debs

No hockey this weekend, so my side may not have lost - well they probably did as most of them did loose! Sarah played and won - though their big game is this weekend again the run away leaders.

The weekend got off to a good start as on Thursday night we thought that the fireproof sheets I'd smashed up in our bedroom and fragments and sent dust flying everywhere(I discovered they were fireproof as they didn't burn in a bonfire) might be Asbestos Insulating Board - and subsequently didn't sleep Thurs night in our panic that we'd have to get a professional deep cleaning / remove people in. However, Sarah went to a place in Watford with a piece of it to have it analysed at a lab for £40 and was told it was Superlux - an AIB asbestos free product - what a massive relief.

Anyway, a great weekend ensued after that with Ash and Debs and family coming down to visit us on Friday afternoon. We just stayed in on Friday night cooking a chorizo and chicken risotto (chorizo seems to be in every recipe at the moment but credit to a Mr G Brown for my inspiration for this) which was very good. Saturday morning was raining so we stayed in but when Sarah got home we tripped off to London and the London Transport Museum where we whiled away the afternoon. R & J loved it - r seems to be fascinated with maps at the moment. As always, the train trip was almost the best part of the day.

Saturday morning we went down to Harefield / Coy Carp and had a walk down the Grand Union Canal in glorious sunshine. It is such a beautiful little spot and a great haven for wildlife and just a generally relaxing walk. We managed to get back to the car just as the heavens opened with rain.



In the afternoon I (with Jamie) put up my birthday present bird feeder. I'm hoping it is squirrel proof but will soon see I suppose. So far in three days (and not being there much) i've seen the long tailed tits, blue tits and nut hatches. I also spotted another bird which I'm not sure what it is - a Dunnock maybe - hopefully someone can help with the ID.



I've just finished a web site which was genuinely interesting from a new / green technology point of view : www.hdgeothermal.co.uk

Hamster vs Popeye

Tremendously busy at the moment. Picked up three new web sites last week - all very interesting and varied - I worked out on Sunday night i've currently got over 20 live projects bubbling around which is good fun.

My being busy wasn't helped by I.T. 'issues' - I was trying to re-install an old Dell machine and bring it back into service but could I a. find the original disks and b. reinstall XP from another disk - tried everything - the final straw was when I finally dug out a later copy of XP it couldn't find the keyboard - upgraded load of bios stuff still couldn't find it, found a PS2 keyboard, to no avail - then another old Dell I recently brought back gave up the ghost and so I just bought two PC's later on Wednesday night!! Also bought a couple of Windows 7 licences - just going to give that Dell one last go...

I've been going back to Trading Depot on a regular basis again - they've really grown in the last couple of years - I've been working on the project for four years now - though its only been launched for around 3 years. Its just great being able to just sit down and concentrate on one thing all day - then listen to voicemails on the journey home!!

Finally got round to booking Martin's stag do - I swore I'd never fly on Ryanair again - and I really don't trust them. Cocked up a name slightly so went to do name change - £100 - phoned up the premium rate number and explained it was a time out error as making calls as the cost kept going up so had to check with Martin and hence why spelt wrong - she put it right. Still haven't had a confirmation email yet.


Saturday was hockey day as usual. Played for the 3's and I was really looking forward to it. However, there were 14 players and lets just say I didn't enjoy it - we went to the sports club quiz night in the evening and think I bored the pants of my team of why I didn't enjoy it - apologies for that. Better not explain too much here. Not playing this week as Ash and family are down - but after the game I just wanted to put on my hitsports 'not available' for the rest of the season.

Good news on the hockey club front though - it was announced at the quiz that some sort of planning has been given for Newland Park and more specifically for the double astro - it was either conditional or outline or something like that... Very exciting and something I've personally worked on and off for for over 10 years. I can take no credit for the current project though - a few club individuals have worked unbelievably hard to get us to where we are now - though the journey is now only just beginning.

Sunday was by contrast a great day. Got up and after a full english breakfast (bacon, mushrooms, fried egg, fried potato, tomatoes etc) got out into the garden and with Jamie's help moved the greenhouse back to where it was a year ago and began smashing up the decking ready to bury the mountain of rubble you can see in the photo above. Speaking of which we had a lovely afternoon with Al, Catherine and Cash. Al has opened a book on how long the new hamster 'dusty' will survive in the house with Popeye. She arrived on Monday and is living in her new home in the hallway. Tried to Skype Annie but wasn't there - sorry about that Annie - thought it would be fun to all catch up. Also got some good photos of us playing pin the tail on the donkey - after a bottle of port of course...

Went to the parent's evenings, sorry consultations last Thursday - pretty good overall. Rebecca is improving which is good news and Jamie is kind and considerate. Rebecca is on the verge of losing her top two teeth which means she can't eat apples any more, but strangely manages sweets...

Interesting that this blog post will appear within about 15 minutes in the Blogger RSS / atom feed, but takes almost 24 hours - normally around 17 - to appear in Facebook. Automated the Trading Depot twitter feed and blogs into their Facebook last week - so they don't have to touch Facebook. I have got a Twitter account but have absolutely no time to do anything with it.

We Scored Three Goals

Very quiet weekend comparatively - Martin was in bed ill all weekend so didn't go out to play on Saturday evening so just stayed in and worked on Fri and Sat night. Just as well he was really, I played for the 3's on Saturday again, up in Witney this time (who said I only play home games!) and at centre half. Rather fatigued by the end of it - don't worry we lost though, 6-3 - my jinx on all teams is still in tact. We were 4 down in about 10 minutes until Pete Westaway moved to centre defensive midfield and took control of the game. We got it back to 4-3 down at one stage but alas they broke whilst we were trying to find an equaliser. Good fun though and looking forward to this weekend's game. The injury was slightly worse on Sunday morning than it has been since I returned - but fine by Monday so think I should make the end of the season which is good.

On Sunday we had a very pleasant day, a meal in Chesham round at an old school friends - Jon Dyas. A beautiful old house next to the Chess river and Chesham Moor and a lovely roast lamb :-) Went for a rather wet walk round the chess - where apparently there are a few kingfishers. R & J loved getting wet and muddy in the stream surrounding banks. Here the four tinkers were playing pooh sticks under a bridge.

I've been agonising whether to stand for Parish Councillor again - I would absolutely love to do it again but the reason I gave up last time was I didn't have enough time - and as Sarah pointed out - if anything I have less time now. Agonising over whether to put myself forward or not. Been asked to an interview Wed evening so will have to decide by tonight I suppose.

Sarah's birthday last week too - had a lovely meal with the Birger family all popping round for a take away Thai - very nice evening indeed. Photos will go up on Facebook soon.

Port & Brandy

Someone told me last week - sorry forgot who - that I should try this drink especially as port is one of my favourite tipples - full bodied wine as I prefer to think of it. I can't stand brandy (and pretty much every other spirit in the rack) so was rather dubious about how good this drink was going to be.

Anyway, I had a tentative sip from a glass of the stuff and I have to say it was rather good. The port was still as smooth and full with the brandy only really kicking in as it goes down the throat and creates a warm burning (but pleasant) sensation.

Probably not an everyday drink me thinks though...

Hockey, Junior Hockey and Meals Out

Busy weekend as usual. Friday night John and I had a c4u board meeting - in the Waggon, it was very productive too ... probably. Bumped into quite a few robertswood dads who were on their way to the George. It was quite a relief to get in the pub as had to work rather hard all week in C4U then CWD in the evenings - half of the workforce were on holiday. Decided we are going to double our personnel count so interviewing this week.

Saturday morning struggled out of bed as was so tired after previous week actually having to work hard (!) but we popped over to Amersham to do some shopping for Sarah's birthday. Didn't actually see much for Sarah but bought some bits and bobs for R & J - lego books, dinosaur books and A & C hockey kit (see photo).

On Saturday afternoon I played for the 3's again - and again I was on the losing side. I did score a goal at last though which was good - had another disallowed - no advantage - had to laugh. The game was against Sonning.

Saturday evening Sarah and I celebrated my sister's arrival by going out for a delightful meal at the Crown in Chalfont St Giles - great service, great wine, great food and very enjoyable evening out. A group next to us had a few too many glasses of something and managed to knock the moose's head off the wall - the landlord didn't appear too impressed. We had a glass of wine in the Fox and Hounds before going in there - a real traditional pub - might try there for home cooked food next time we go out together.

Whilst we were ploughing through our second bottle of rather tasty Sicilian wine, we thought it would be a good idea to take Jamie up for hockey with the under 8's in Milton Keynes (Rebecca was rather ill on Thurs so not a good idea for her to join in). So we duly got there for 10 next morning - and of course Jamie was too shy to join in. However we bumped into their older Cousins William and Olivia and they had a great time playing hockey up there.

After that we thought it would be a good idea to visit Wolverton church St James. There are supposed to be some relatives of mine in there - but we wandered round several times and couldn't find a slab with Charles Watts marked on it. Hey ho.

So we made our way back home ready for Sarah's birthday...

Not great tits

Had a great weekend, very busy as usual. Had a good game of hockey on Saturday for the 3's against Maidenhead - lost as usual - don't think I've played for a winning side yet this year - but a good old scrap. Some of the youngsters playing are astonishingly good, sublime stick skills just need to pass a bit. I was surprised by their strength in tackles against players twice their age.

Saturday night was very good - had a quiet drink in the Dumb Bell - the highlight of the evening being whilst we were just chatting away, there was a massive crash next to us - Martin had missed the stool and was looking blearily back at us all from underneath a table - very amusing indeed. Then had a very coherent conversation on Skype with Mr Wooler.

Sunday morning we put some food out for the birds on our bird table and had loads of visitors - including four 'long tailed tits' - no great tits or blue tits this time. Also just behind the fence in the back garden there was a whole flock of Redwings turning the leaves over looking for grubs - must have been 20 or 30 of them. With my appetite whetted, Cash and I went and took Mylo for a walk round Hedgerley where there is an RSPB wood. As you can see from the photo we knew where we were going as usual - great countryside, fabulous views but not as much wildlife as the back garden!!

Birthday weekend

'Celebrated' another birthday in very enjoyable fashion this weekend. First off was a lovely meal with Sarah's mum and Dad on the Friday, then on Saturday had a good game of hockey with the fifth XI vs Marlow 3a's (I think) - we lost 4-0 but I just about managed to keep going at centre half for the whole game so was a very good run around. Went back to their club house after the game - good team spirit in the 5's and some good characters coming through the ranks. Groin knackered on Sunday as usual.

Saturday night was a very enjoyable evening with Cash and Beanie and bumped into Banner in the Waggon. We did make one critical error though and decided not to bother with the curry instead filling up on nuts and crisps! Not to worry we thought until we had a text from Zoe to go to the George. Ended up there until it closed d'oh.

Anyway, went to hockey training to watch Jamie play hockey on Sunday morning, unfortunately he was too cold straight away and wouldn't play. So back the house to cook the big lump of beef Sarah bought for our meal - 16 of us round the table. Very enjoyable afternoon it was too - and good banter. The port was delicious too - the most popular present of the day for some reason.

New Phone and Builder 'Finished'

I've decided to take all my friends advice - and go for an Iphone. It was either that or an HTC but the vast majority of people said get an Iphone. It arrived at 11 this morning - and seems pretty good except it isn't registering / activating - i'd have though 12 hours later it would have done it by now. Itunes seems pretty slow too - especially importing my 100gb of music on my network. I'm also trying to figure out if my laptop on its docking station can take advantage of the 5.1 surround sound rather than the stereo it is pushing out at the moment - there doesn't seem to be an option anywhere - a shame as i've a brand new 7.1 waiting to be installed but pointless if only two speakers work...

Terry has moved out today - his last official day building here since starting in September - he's done an absolutely fabulous job. We now have a pile of rubble move in the back garden for the landscaping and some painting inside. The last thing is the kitchen floor which is being put in at the end of January.

Played hockey for the 4's last weekend, at left back - rather out of breath to start with but got into it by the end. Unfortunately the adductor muscle was hurting on Sunday morning - good job I've taken it easy for the last 12 months then ...

Loads of work on at the moment, but i'm also working on a new version of watsy.com - the home of this blog...

Longest Walk in a While

Had a splendid weekend though I was feeling a bit under the weather on Fri and Saturday. On Friday night we had a lovely evening with the family Birger, 11 of us round there for a very tasty meal and the odd glass of wine then straight to bed!

Saturday was a delightful day with Rebecca and Jamie, we went to the swings, the library to choose a few books and DVD's, the bakers for a very tasty doughnut then off to watch R & J's cousin and uncle play for the Badgers at Newland Park and take a few photos. Saturday night early to bed, ready for the mammoth walk on Sunday!!

After a hearty breakfast, Cash and I left at 10am and returned at 4.30 in the afternoon. We walked via as many footpath's as we could - past the Dumb Bell, down to West Hyde, round the lakes and then along the Grand Union Canal to Rickmansworth Aquadrome. The main purpose (as well as a very pleasant walk) was to test our cameras and take a few photos of the wildlife. I'm convinced I spotted a Kingfisher near the lake at the Coy Carp pub. The nature reserve we specifically went to see we managed to bypass!! We also spotted a few other birds - if you click the title or here that will take you to a few photos of the day. The heron was magnificent in particular. We then went through Mill End and the edge of Chorleywood via the Swillet pub (?) a very nice real ale pub and then back home through Newland Park. It was extremely enjoyable, but Mylo still wasn't tired and kept pulling us along - i'm aching today (Monday) including my groin which is rubbish - miles away from playing hockey I think. We were planning our next walk though - maybe round Ley Hill - I also fancy wandering down a footpath on the left of the main drive of Newland Park - we've only gone right so far.

Speaking of hockey, I'm tempted just to play once every few weeks but want to be fit for the tour to Hong Kong in April - especially as Charlie might well join up with us from Australia (must mention that to Gary and Mark)...

Apart from that - not a lot else going on at the moment...

October Half Term

It is half term this week so I decided to take two days off work. As it turned out, I went for a meal at the Milton's Head in Chalfont St Giles with the family and have worked for the rest of it. We had a very pleasant meal there and very reasonably priced indeed.I had a chicken breast and seasonal veg - including brussel sprouts which were very tasty!

Sarah has been very busy with R & J and took them to Windsor on Tuesday to a full royal procession to welcome a Middle Eastern entourage - apparently Jamie was enthralled by the whole thing - including the machine guns on display!! Here is a photo Sarah took of Prince Philip:



Speaking of Prince's and Princess's, Rebecca went to a party on Saturday afternoon - and here is a photo of her getting ready - I think it dawned on me she is no longer my little baby but is growing up extremely rapidly:



Sarah has also taken them to a steam railway the other site of Aylesbury - they had a real fire at the front of the train Daddy :-) The only thing hampering us all is a sore throat, temperature and cough which is doing the rounds.

The extension is going extremely well - the study is almost finished, windows are in and the plaster is drying just need a bit more plaster, door, painting and carpet etc and I'll be able to move in :-) The major part of the extension is also coming along nicely - the steels are the major bit now which are going in early next week:



Had a fabulous evening on Saturday night, a few drinks in the Greyhound and then over to the George for a few more drinks and a knees up - well done to Sarah D for organising it - it was just like the usual Saturday night about 10 years ago at the hockey club - loads of people down there having a laugh. Still not playing hockey... really hoping the final bit of pain goes away soon and I'll give it a try - not been on a run to help it recover - though the way I was dancing to Come On Eileen on Saturday night might not have helped it ...

Work is going well at the moment - plenty of it. Had an interesting meeting with an ERP reseller at a client's this morning - I'm still working on Sage 50 and linking various web sites and various quantities of product into it. As part of this upgrade I launched my second Actinic V10 web site over the weekend - www.cater4trade.co.uk received the treatment. Single page per product instead of the old pop up page with images that can be enlarged and on a couple of pages multiple images on one page.

The first Actinic V10 site I launched was a revamped Grant and Stone web site. That also features extended pages for some of the products - there is quite a lot of work to do on it still which is done every week!! As part of it I recently took hundreds of photos of the TD Line Switches and Sockets - which need to be cut out and uploaded. Took photos of the back as well - see if I get round to doing those ! I have another V10 ready to launch but not heard back from the client recently - shame as it is the best yet... Two others in the pipeline which will hopefully be out in the next two months.

Spending Review?

What Spending review - hardly worth the media drama - real spending is going up over the next few years - surely the point of the exercise was to get in back in line with the growth it should have had post 2001 before labour tried to buy their way back to power and then ramp up even more with a poisened chalice.

A Weekend With Cash

We all had a lovely weekend in the beautiful sunny weather. I principally spent the weekend with cashman, who only popped round to measure up the kitchen!! We took Mylo for a walk on Saturday afternoon and went via the back of Newland Park over the edge of Maple Cross over the M25. What a beautiful walk give or take the rubbish dumped in various places.

On Sunday we took the rest of the family on the walk - it was in hindsight way too far for R & J - and I have subsequently been feeling rather guilty about that. We did stop halfway though for a lovely meal in the Dumb Bell. I cannot believe what good service they gave even though they were flat out - nothing was too much trouble - very highly recommended indeed. The food was very good too.

Spotted a few birds on the walk (including Ostriches behind the Dumb Bell!!) on Saturday before Mylo surprisingly and we talked about maybe walking to a nature reserve in Harefield and also a quick walk to Chorleywood one day. The farmer at the back of Newlands isn't particularly friendly though, took a slightly wrong turning and he fired up behind us in his Land Rover and gave us some advice. With I'd known about how much crap he'd dumped in the wood (Bottom Wood) and mentioned that to him whilst he was lecturing us about trespassing by a few metres.

Museum of London

Rebecca and Jamie have started really well at school - Jamie is now well into his first term in Reception. Rebecca who is notoriously dificult to arouse the attention of and keep interested but she has been particularly interested in a study of the Fire of London.

So.... a quick scan of the Internet revealed that the (Free to Visit) Museum of London has a dedicated section to the 1666 fire. Rebecca (and Jamie) were thrilled with it and we spent a while looking at the paintings, video documentary and items from that time - this photo is of them trying on different fireman's helmets.



Just like our previous visit to the Science Museum there is so much to read and absorb - great for children and adults alike. They had a complete spectrum of information from the beginnings of London right to the current day and the future.

After visiting the museum we went and had a Pizza Express just round the corner - got to say the service was pretty poor and we left rather late. However, on the way to the restaurant I took this great photo of Rebecca and Sarah - in front of part of the original London Wall in amongst the brand new state of the art city buildings.



Speaking of state of the art buildings, our extension is coming along rather well - our builder is managing the whole thing brilliantly and we have total confidence in him - the only thing he cannot control is the weather which has held up the actual bricklaying which is a shame. If you are interested for the overseas friends this is the study and the kitchen:




Chris (Cash) at KBS in Holtspur has been very helpful (and patient) with sorting the kitchen out.

I'm still not playing hockey yet, groin is still knackered - though a lot better it was painful just messing around on the astro with Jamie the other Sunday morning - wondering if I'll have to write off the season until January now. Jamie is enjoying playing football on Saturday morning too - though he ran out of food / energy on Saturday I think so became a bit unsettled. Anyway, we bought him some £1 astro shoes from Ebay which he was particularly pleased about. Football boots start at size 10 - he's size 7 so a while to go yet!!



Rebecca is keeping active with gymnastics which his jolly good.

A long update, as none for ages everything else the same - busy with work, busy with life and generally coping - not had any problems with arthritis for a few years now which is great news. Hopefully start posting shorter but more frequents posts soon.

Gardening and Wildlife

What a fabulous bank holiday weekend we've just had, I even managed to do a few things I meant to do. Saturday was a bit of a wash out but we did chill out - I even went for a run - and then went out for a swift pint or two with an old hockey mate.

Sunday I spent most of the day in the garden, cleared and enlarged my vegetable patch and half built a 'cage' for my brocolli - what a waste of time as it only held four plants - I managed to plant out my runner beans, french beans, brocolli, peas and other bits and bobs by Sunday evening. On Saturday I managed to get the photo of two swallows seemlingly talking to each other - they were on the house down the hill on top of the TV aerial. They then flew right overhead a number of times catching flies I assume.

Sunday we popped down to the 'Water Splash' just past Chalfont Park. Rebecca and Jamie cycled down there - reminiscent of when my sister and I used to cycle down there. They are both cycling fairly well now - Rebecca attempted to cycle through the fjord - did really well but took her feet of the pedals as they might get wet - she slowed down and retreated back into the fjord, fell over and got very wet - hence why she is wearing my jumper in this photo.

We then went to the main water splash bit which I love - I was just taking a photo or two of some swans and Canadian geese and heard a splash - Jamie didn't realise that the water was covered in blossom and thought it was water and was up to his thighs in the 'lake' - good job Dad was paying attention - whoops...



Round to Grandma and Grandpa's for early evening tea in the evening.

An extremely busy fortnight coming up - dreading it really as way too much to do...