Oh dear...

Six months………who’d have believed it! Well, most people I guess.

I think I must try the incremental approach and look to bring the posting frequency down by one month at a time. A bit like nicotine withdrawal in reverse…only without the nicotine.

Summer was, for the most part, sunny and warm. Lots of WiFi activity from the patio - good job you couldn’t see me in my shorts. Rob’s at Durham now and Mark and I find the increasingly dark evenings much quieter here at the ranch. We miss her of course, although as small compensation the weekly food bill has shrunk somewhat :~)

Mark’s working hard in the 6th form (he tells me this as I dangle him out of the bedroom window by his finger nails and I believe him) and hoping to get a PT job at Kidsgrove’s new Aldi…as soon as they put the roof on and fit the shelving. I explain that the Audi A4s are mainly for the Area Managers and not for the trolley rounders-up but we shall live in hope.

As for me, they decided not to zap me so it’s rat poison and Atenolol for the rest of my natural. Damn it’s hard to grow old. *Being* old(ish) is fantastic fun…growing old is a total pain in every bit of the skeletal frame you care to mention.

Looking forward to:
Seeing friends again in Finland next month…it’s been too long
Passing on the spaghetti bolognese recipe to Mark to expand his Italian cuisine repertoire from 1 (pizza) to 2.
Finishing updating the virtual learning environment with the latest news hot off the environmental legislative presses (which seem to turn with alarming speed)
Seeing Ralph McTell next Saturday -- I go 25 years between guitar lessons from one of the world's finest and then get two within 12 months. I hope that he doesn't play First Song otherwise I'm liable to 'get emotional'; it really is a beautiful little song. I met him at the gig in February and he told me to yell out to remind him to play it...now then, should I or shouldn't I?