Serious War Games…

When Marc was last over I went with him to Salute, a table top miniatures war game convention hosted by the South London Warlords gaming club at the ExCel centre. We met plenty of his old ex games-workshop colleagues and an old friend of ours from New Zealand, Nick Hughes who I went to school with in Howick. There were some fabulous games and models on show including some impressive competition entries.

Later a few of us got together and had a meal at GBK and then evening drinks in town. I stayed with Marc at the Goodenough College where Marc & Heather lived for a while. Sue came into town the next day and she and I went to see the map display at the British Library and the Viking exhibition at the BritishMuseum (it was not as good as what we have seen elsewhere, but then we have been spoilt with visiting Sweden and Iceland).

Surprise Birthday…

We went along as guests for Jill’s 80^th surprise birthday at the Chipstead, Coulsdon and Walcountians Cricket Club. There were a large number of people there and it was a real surprise to Jill who enjoyed herself catching up with friends and family.

All Play and no Work…

Sometimes you work at a company where your colleagues become great friends and you share memories, laughs and tears. GPE was one of those for Sue and I. It was where we met and fell in love, where I was working with people who I had worked with in NZ, where many couples got together and where the social side of the company was as important as the work. Now many, many years later I have moved companies and am still working with some of the friends I met there. We regularly get together (usually around Christmas) for a walk, a drink and a meal.

Recently we had a meal at ours with Bill and Linda, Rob and Sally, Yendall and Sally with Hannah. There we had good food, good drink and plenty of cheerful banter. We shed a tear for our dear friend Lee who passed away unexpectedly in South Africa and we share many a tale or two.

It was a fine afternoon.

Shaken not Stirred…

One Saturday recently we got talking to our neighbour over the fence and he asked us around for his famous Vesper Martini, so we confessed we had not had one before and agreed to meet at Howard and Tracy’s later on. Well we were converts to the drink favoured by James Bond but with so much alcohol in it we were limited to two glasses lest we note be able to stagger back next door afterwards.

The Stork Cometh…

Congratulations go out to our friends Marc & Heather in Sweden who have announced they are to be parents to a girl. We are over the moon for them and wish them health and happiness to come.

Green Fingers…

Spring brings us back out into the garden and we have been busy on those rare days where the weather was nice working in the vegetable plot. Now we have more land available we have been setting up a fruit cage, burning cut down tree (I abandon Sue to be fire monitor when I went out with the lads down the road on our semi regular visit to the local curry house). We have also been planting seeds in a propagator, planting garlic and broad beans outside, moving the compost bin (when we roped in Sue’s sister Deb to help) and generally preparing the land. We also jet washed the patio and cleared out the shed so all we need now is for the weather to continue to improve.