big things are afoot...

It has been quite a while since I have written of what we have been up to. We have been busy but much of it has been in the planning stages.

Sue
Sue has finally decided that the company she works for are not going to get their act together any time soon so, after many weeks of soul searching, she has handed her notice in. Anyone who knows Sue we understand that she doesn’t like being a quitter. The job has become too much of a burden and it was actually making her sick. Anyway, with the other things that are happening she will find plenty to keep her busy.

Jamie
It was Jamie’s 18th birthday last week, a big deal here in the UK, as important if not more so than a persons 21st. Jamie is not one for big parties or being the centre of attention so he opted for a family dinner at a local Chinese restaurant, and a family barbeque at home on the evening of his actual birthday. He has had his first ‘A’ level exam on Friday and so he has been studying quite hard in the hope he make up his grades to get into the University he wants. This didn’t stop him from accepting an invitation from his cousin to go out for a few drinks on Friday night.

Mark
Things are pretty much the same for me. Work is still just work, though I do have an opportunity to go to one of our companies head offices in California at the end of next month. They are in the process of designing a new software tool to help in the pricing of quotations for one of our product ranges, and as I put together most of these quotes in the UK I have been asked to join the development team for a week. On the creative side I have still been writing my children stories each month for the discussion group I belong to and I have also submitted an end-of-story for the BBC 3 competition. I chose Sue Townsends story to complete…

end-of-story

Holiday, My Folks and Joyce & Terry
Another big thing in the planning has been a family holiday to Italy. As many of you know my Aunt Joyce has been dealing with cancer for some time now. Well, she has had to go back onto chemo and radio therapy treatment as it has returned, so plans for a holiday to their favourite destination of Italy were scheduled around the treatment. We have been on several holidays with them abroad including Italy and we have found that we have very compatible interests – a little bit of culture and a large helping of good food and wine. We had also talked with my folks who were interested in a holiday abroad and wanted to get together with us so we put it all together and we are off to a lovely farm stay in Italy for a week…

Montebello

My folks are also going to see other family and friends while they are over here in the UK.

The House
We have finally had the decorators in to fix the water damaged dinning room ceiling, but the carpet is waiting until we have done some more work on the rest of the house (well, by ‘we’ I mean mostly Sue – she has volunteered to decorate after she leaves work). In fact as I write she is in the bathroom cleaning down the paintwork with sugar soap. We have managed to do some work on the garden at home though again it has mostly been Sue as I spend a great deal of my time down at the allotment.

The Allotment
It is all go at the allotment at the moment, the sunshine and intermittent wet weather are making everything grow, mostly the weeds which take a great deal of time to keep down. We only have a few spaces empty on the plot and for these the small plants are either growing in the greenhouse or on a seed bed.

Music
I haven’t bought any new music for some time now, though I do have quite a few on my Amazon Wish List. I did get the D12 CD for Jamie’s birthday which is a collaboration by Eminem and friends. Sue did find a new group called Keane, they are very much from the same mould as Coldplay – very good background music…

Keane

Just For Fun
I know this is quite old but I don’t know how many of you have seen Bush and Blair sing Gay Bar…

Bush & Blair sing Gay Bar

If you are interested in the Games Workshop table top game called BloodBowl, a friend of mine has found this on-line version…

BloodBowl on-line

Ok. Now I think you are all up to speed with what we have been doing.