Congratulations to Sophie

Sunday ... Sophie ran her first marathon - yep that's just over 26 miles .. so a big well done to her - especially in this heatwave - a great achievement and I applaud you, if anybody wants to sponser her check out the link below:

www.justgiving.com/sophiecowan

Oh and a well done to Danny for keeping up with her ( in the car) and providing the water.

Sweltering in the heat

No doubt all bloggers in the UK this week will be going on about how hot it has been - so I will be no different - apparently it was a record breaker.

Earlier in the week I took a few days off of work, I remember 1976 when after the heatwave then ... I said to myself why did I not take more time off to enjoy it - so this time I have decided to enjoy theheatwave rather than being stuck in the office, and will be taking more time off to enjoy the summer.

Suri and I went to Southend on Sea - where it really was a bit of a scorcher and I got a little bit burned, as usual following my exposure to the sun, my lip swelled up a bit - but not as bad as previous experiences, as some people .... Alan... may remember it has a tendancy to do..

We are still trying to sell Suri's house but things have gone awfully quiet - with no enquiries for a week or so. We are thinking about revising our plans .. We are going to see the agent this weekend to hear what they have to say about the whole thing I will report back on progress in due course.

The highlight of the week ...

if you can call it that was on wednesday the 12th July 2006, my employer - MHT recognising my long service with them, for this I and others were invited along to a west end location for our very own BAFTA awards - yes it was held at the BAFTA building in Piccadilly.

Basically the CE - Tony said a little about each of us, and then we walked up and were presented with a long service certificate - in my case for 25 years - though I have completed over 27 but apparantly there will be no award at 30 years, so I am getting the 25 year award now, then a quick photo opportunity with the Chairman - Museji - shaking hands and him congratulating me (photo not yet available - will post later).

In addition though I have not yet received it I get £300 ... wow, but much more important is 3 weeks extra annual leave this year - so I can take a long and well deserved trip later this year - which looks like being to visit David in South Korea.

Hampton Court Flower Show

The weather was kind to us yesterday, we arrived early so missed most of the traffic, I decided to cut throgh London rather than skirting around on the M25 - good choice me thinks..

This is Suri behind some sculptures of plants designed as a water feature the picture was taken from the entrance side with the Palace on the right hand side, on the other bank you can see some of the main exhibitions and tents.

The crowds were a little less this year, but looking out of the window today at the rain I think we picked the best day of the weekend.

Overall impression was that previous shows, particularly the gardens, at Hampton Court that I have been to have been better, and it felt just a tiny bit smaller - but I may be wrong.

A Night at the dogs

Well last weekend my sister Sue and Alan came visiting and guess where they wanted to go on the saturday night 1st July 2006 - yep to Walthamstow Dogs. Dan and Sophie joined us, it was a hot night.

Although Suri had a couple of winners she did not have much on them, which is a shame really.

Alan decided to bet on the same forecast for the whole night and not one of them came in - though he did have a sly bet on one that came in and helped to make up the shortage that we all had though there was no sharing ... mmm..

All in all a good night was had by all, we hope for better luck next time.