Third isle down on the right sir.....

I have got myself a few months work in London at the moment, which is a welcome change from being on the bench since the Edinburgh gig finished. It may, however, be my last engagement with my current employer, as they propose to pull the plug on my, and others, pension scheme in April next year. If the porposals go through unchanged, I would have to work until i am well into my 62nd year to reep the benefits which I can walk away with now. That kind of seems a no brainer to me and alot of other people in a similar position.


The house situation is possibly improving with a couple of second viewings this week, but if it is still unsold by September then I think I will rent it out and use the income to supliment any pension I choose to draw down.

The golf club membership probably won't move much before the end of the year, but I have got holidays planned through September, October and November, as well as Camp Pete 2009 which is scheduled for the upcoming Bank Holiday. We are Vikings this year and will be looking to retain our 'most imaginative raft' title, won by the pirates last year.

Now where did I put that orange B & Q overall?

The Tufty Club

I have had a couple of firsts recently. One occurred while we were at 'Camp Pete' I saw my first red squirrel, hopping along the fence of the farm. It is something of a mystery why I have never seen one before, given that my in-laws live very close to the Red Squirrel reserve in Formby near Southport. The reserve there is one of the most famous in the Country but is under severe threat at the moment as the grey squirrel population is starting to infiltrate the reserve. 70 or so reds have been found dead in the last month , as rangers struggle to eradicate the greys.

Local residents are required to report sightings of greys but I suspect as the population changes and houses gain new owners, the messages are not always passed on. I know I am barred by our kids from shooting the ones in our garden, as they are 'cute' . Rather a dead cutey than the eradication of one of the most precious natural species.

...because we aaarh!

Loads of things to report, but so little time, so lets start with 'Camp Pete'. Pete was unable to attend the very successful 'Camp Dick' in Yorkshire last year, so he decided to host his own. Luckily my mate Sham has a cottage near to Petes farm so we were again snuggled in the warm while the rest of the crew pitched tents and did the nature thing......

It was an action packed weekend though. after a Friday evening meal at Petes farmhouse, and a mega breakfast there the following day, we headed for Ullswater for a short, flat walk, designed to be acceptable to my dear wife, who struggles with hills a bit......well, if this was flat, I would hate to do a hilly one!!

So suitably knackered we returned to prepared for another excellent slap up meal at 'Camp Pete' cooked by the host and his family, which made us all read for bed and dreams of the daunting task ahead on the Sunday....

Yes, its village raft race day, and we have put an entry in.......Sham and Stu are dab hands at knots so it takes them and Katie no time at all to lash four oil drums and some wood together, add a flag and away you

.......only problem was it needed five people to drive it for optimum performance, and the lads had decided to enter their own raft, and 'off the record' Dick was late arriving......anyway, we gave it our best shot, and came a creditable fifth, beaten only by rubber tyres, which aren't really rafts are they?

The village then had a b-b-q and a duck race which finished the weekend off in style, a defo good camp......