Wednesday, 26 May 2010

Happy birthday to you....

The third anniversary of the blog passed while we were away. Gosh doesn't time fly. I started the blog to track the sale of the London property and would not have guessed that it would have taken two and a half years to complete that process, and at some cost. Still i got a very pleasant e-mail from the new owners this week enforcing how pleased they were with the purchase.

One is never sure what these old houses unearth once renovations start so it is good that no skeletons have been found in the attic. I must have done a good job bricking them up!!!

The place needed a new touch and I know they have done some alterations so good luck to them. They have kept my stained glass windows which they removed, so I will need to collect those at some stage, and may get a guided tour then.

So what else is new since May 2007....Tim , our oldest, got married, Emma, our youngest, produced our first grand child, Ava. I got to play golf with Tiger Woods (almost) in a Pro-Am, I managed to hang onto my job, although for how much longer is up for debate. Everybody had maintained good health given age and circumstances and all in all life has moved on in a reasonable and controlled manner.

In three more years I will have retired, my countdown clock says 1015 days to go!! I am sure we will have other grand children by then, and Ava can show them the ropes. England may have won a football trophy to go with the rugby World Cup and the World 20/20 cricket victory, but will the mighty Green Army bounce back into the Championship (that's the new Premiership for poor clubs who play British players in the team)?

So into year four we go, the blog at least gives my Google entry some credibility and it sits nicely with my named brick in the Olympic Park in Atlanta, the S Club brick at Twickenham Stadium and my fathers golf trophy at the golf club in Plymouth. A trail of discovery awaits anybody researching the Weathers clan.

Tuesday, 25 May 2010

Yeah man

I am back from a few weeks of sun in the West Indies, getting a tan and grooving my swing for the upcoming golf challenges I face. The hotel had one communal tele and that was it, no internet feeds, no newspapers and no children. Deep joy.

The ash cloud did its best to prevent us getting there, but all credit to the Virgin Airways flight crew who worked to within 30 minutes of their legal hours to get us there, albeit 7 hours late. We returned on schedule, and what a changed place we arrived back to.

A hung parliament when we left meant we had no idea who was ruling Brittania, so it was interesting to see 'our' Dave had jumped into bed with young Clegg to form a Lib/Dem/Con government. Grumpy Gordon has fallen on his sword I hear so it will be interesting to have a new leader of the opposition. I am still catching up on the other political ramifications.

Money markets continue to drop on the back of the uncertainty in the Euro zone and I see an indiscreet IBM executive has forecast that the IBM worldwide work force could reduce by 299,000 employees in the next 5 years. Wow. Our leader is denying this and describes the comments as ludicrous. Time will tell.

I see Chelsea did the league and FA Cup double this year. Gone are the days when this was a rare feat for any team to achieve. it is now becoming much more the norm. One piece of sports news I did catch up with was England winning the 20/20 World Cup. As it was in the West Indies while we were there we did manage to take in a couple of group games and the England semi-final. All a good craic.

The sun has blasted the UK while we were away but has now done the usual and disappeared behind the clouds up here in Scouse, no doubt it will rain on the Bank Holiday weekend!!

So welcome back to Blighty I say. I will search out my first pint of Pride later today.

Tuesday, 4 May 2010

Soap box superstar

I had a drink with Frank Field on Friday night. Frank is the long standing Labour MP for Birkenhead, and he was in my local with his campaign team relaxing after a long week on the hustings.

They are a weird lot, volunteer canvassers. I group them with twitchers, train spotters and the Greenham Common peace camp occupants as right up there at the top of the anorak league table.

His campaign leader, however, was an all together more rounded chap. In his early 30's he was up from Central Office in London to add some structure and support to the campaign. I did indicate to him that Franks seat must be one of the most secure Labour seats in the Country, but he was gracious enough to say that nothing could be taken for granted.

When he realised I was from his neck of the woods, the conversation quickly changed to a discussion about Anne Keen, the current MP for Hounslow West. He indicated that the seat had become a marginal now, in no little way due to the fact that Anne and her husband Alan, were an expenses scandal even before there was an expenses scandal!!

I shall watch all three candidates with interest to see what becomes of them on Thursday night, or Friday morning.