Kids - Red Bull & Pro Plus – separately ? – fine , but don’t mix them.

Catch up …

I have so much to tell that if I told it all you’d be reading for days so I’ll try & limit myself to the basics.

I think the last time I wrote anything was when Lovely Angie came to the stables with me, that was weeks ago, so what’s happened in the meantime ?

The 3 Peaks walk didn’t materialise, which was a bit galling after all the hill-walking I did in preparation – never mind, I plan to do them mid-September.

I visited Yorkshire anyway as I had the time off & spent a lovely day with my brother & his family & a couple of days walking with Mum. We did an all day walk which took us along the Leeds-Liverpool canal, and despite the heat it was a lovely way to pass the day, perfect for Barley too, who I think was suffering a touch of sun-stroke from her exertions the previous day as she could drop in & out of the canal when she felt like it.

Favourite quote of the day came from Mum, who could barely look, whilst watching Barley happily swimming in a lock said ‘Will she be ok - that’s really deep in there ?’

I drove home in the huge storm we had on the 28th June, I don’t know if you remember but we had severe weather warnings for it. Mum asked if I wanted to postpone my journey home, reassuring her I’d be fine I set off into the scariest journey I’ve ever had down the M1.

The storm lasted from Derbyshire to Buckinghamshire, some 100 miles and I counted over 200 lightning strikes. Remember when you were a kid & you would count the gap between lightning & thunder to work out how far away the storm was. For most of the time I got as far as the ‘wu…’ in one before the thunder came. Absolutely terrifying & I was frantically racking my memory banks for the episode of Top Gear when they sat in a car during an artificial storm & trying to recall whether they said you were safer in your car than out of it.

At one point whilst crawling along at 40 in the middle lane, passing an HGV doing 30, I was flashed by Mr White Van Man who thought in the conditions given I should be going a lot faster. Whilst tentatively feeling for grip I was harassed by him sitting on Henry’s bumper for about half a mile flashing me to move over. The fact that I would have had to pull into the HGV did not deter him and he obviously couldn’t be bothered overtaking me by using the outside lane. I copped his number plate as he came past, seething at what a dangerous position he had put me in.

Imagine my joy some 100 miles later when the stationary traffic I had been in for 25 minutes finally revealed the same van stuffed into a 7.5 tonne Royal Mail truck. Deep joy.

‘Scotland’s for me’

A couple of days before the G8 summit started I received a request from Turbo, an ex Kingston guv’nor who now works for those lovely SB people.

He was scraping the barrel, he said, desperate for literate people to help with ‘stuff’ in Scotland. Would I like to come & help move feckless politicians around ? I saw myself in one of those WW2 control rooms, pushing counters on a flat-top with a long thingy with a flat scrapey thingy on the end ; who could refuse ? The Big Guy had been invited too so I said ‘Yes please’

Due to incidents beyond his control (for which read ‘management’) Stan was unable to join us which was a shame as he had already been designated oic morale & was supposed to sing show tunes for the duration of the 12 hour car journey from NSY to Dundee.

Jute, jam & journalism.

Luckily for my 3 other passengers I knew lots about Dundee from Trudy and was able to keep them all fascinated for the entire journey with snippets of trivia. At one point Turbo asked another of the passengers to confirm he was carrying a firearm, I told Turbo they had rules about shooting civvies in cold blood & if he went ahead & authorised it, he’s be up to his neck in paperwork. They made me fly back alone – I’m not sure why ?

My time in Dundee was a bit of a blur, a couple of 19 hour days, (or nights to be more accurate) a couple of 17 hour days & no more than 4 hours sleep at any one time. During my one hour’s down-time it was chucking it down, although needless to say, it was gloriously sunny during sleep & work time. What I did see of Dundee I really liked, some lovely old buildings, a trendy waterfront area on the Tay and a breathtaking dragon sculpture outside the Overgate centre which I’m sure you love don’t you Trudy ?

Please don’t think I’m complaining, I promise I’m not, especially in light of the hours worked recently by all the emer services. In a strange way I got used to the lack of sleep (nothing to do with Red Bull & Pro Plus – honest)

I found the work fascinating, I had no idea of the amount of organisation that goes on behind the scenes at an event of this nature and I don’t think anyone noticed that I bluffed my way through the entire week. Every time I answered the phone it was to someone speaking a load of gibberish, none of which I understood, no change to working in the Control Room at Kingston I suppose.

It was an eye-opening week & a refreshing change to work for an organisation who takes certain things as a given ie. literacy and initiative. It was also nice to be treated as a grown up, something which has been sadly lacking since I returned to my normal place of work. I’ll spare you the weary details, suffice it to say, my management thought the most useful place I could be was Kingston rather then Casualty Bureau and refused to release me.

I’m not gong to go into detail about the events on Thursday, I’m sure you’re all at saturation point anyway. I do have a question for Murray though. As someone who never makes unsupported statements I’m curious to know who you think planted the bombs ? You’ve obviously given it some thought.

I get some days off this weekend, I plan to spend them at a game fair in Blenheim, seeing War of the Worlds, going to a BBQ at Weeny’s, cuddling some neddies and catching up with normal life.

Cx