Its good news week.....

Well, its started in that vein. Our eldest, Tim, proposed to his lovely girlfriend , Lili, while on holiday, and she said yes....good girl.....so on Monday night we went out to Joe Allen in Covent Garden for a bit of scram. Tim thought he was about 7 the last time he went, and in those twenty years, the style, decor , burgers and the boy on the 'joanna' have not changed that much. Lili is from Brazil, so she struggled to identify too many of the people in the flyers around the wall, but she liked the place a lot.

Also on Monday the youngest, Kieran, graduated from Liverpool University with a history degree . He is hoping to stay on to do a Masters, but it all hangs in the balance at the moment as he was awarded a 'Desmond' by the narrowest of margins. Tim and Maxine share the top billing in the house, with a 2.1 each, I remain the dunce of the class having just scrapped a few 'A' levels, in the days when they were considered a good qualification to have.

I broke my leg on a motor bike during the examinations, and sat my Maths papers in hospital, with a teacher by the bed invigilating. Consequently my grades were not good enough for Uni, so I ended up at City Poly in their Sir John Cass campus. After a year or so we came to an agreement that if I left they would not kick me out.

Still, the experience of living away from home, allowed me to improve my table tennis, basketball and rugby skills, as well as play footie for Balham Celtic on a Saturday afternoon. Parties were pretty plentiful, and being thrust into bedsits and student flats was a bit of an eye opener, so, social skills 1, Academia 0 I think.

I wonder what Nick Harrison and Rob Stokes are doing now?

I have taken the decision to change estate agents as I seem to have exhausted the network of my current incumbent, and the new people have viewings already set up for this afternoon, so that might even contribute to the good news.

An increase in the base rate tomorrow might not though.

Maxine will be in London on Fiiday to celebrate her birthday and when she's here its always good news. The week concludes with my oldest god- daughters 18th birthday bash in Guildford.

Billy and the Jets

One thing about moving house is that it gives you little option but to throw stuff out, or redistribute it around the family. A combination of e-bay dealing, car boot sales and the odd give away has left me fairly well placed to cope with moving or storing the remaining kit though.

Upstairs, for example, I have a bed, a futon which is our sons, a sofa bed, chest of drawers, desk, filing cabinet and two bookcases. Downstairs, apart from the white goods which will get trashed, there are two sofas, a bureau, dining table and the usual assortment of electrical entertainment equipment. So all in all a part load should suffice once I decide where its all going.

Those of you who know the house may notice that one item is missing, namely the 'Joanna', and you would be right. This morning it got carted off to the piano hospital for some remedial work. It is an upright Bechstein, in dark cherry, which has been reconstructed for a hot climate.

This entailed re-enforcing the sides and tops with strips of matching wood and screwing a number of the joints which would normally be glued, to ensure they did not split. The piano dates from about 1907 and as a piece of furniture it is very elegant.

That's very handy as my playing skills are limited, and my objective aimed at allowing me to play it before I was 50 did rather ease into the background when I was faced with some other priorities. As my memory retards with age, I also wonder if I will ever be able to play anything without recourse to the music sheets!

Anyway, the piano will be away for a few weeks as its sound board is cracked and needs repairing. They use pine strips which are inserted into the cracks and then planed flush. The pins and hammers may also need realignment, although the keys and playing tolerances do seem OK still. The only features it lacks are the two candelabra which traditionally adorned the front of the piece. The restoration when they were removed is pretty good so I am not sure if I will get those replaced.

Once it is back in working order it will get shipped up North, where I am sure it will get more use than it does presently. Each piano is numbered , so I will start to do some provenience investigation to see whether it was shipped to an Arabian knight or similar dignitary, all those years ago. The Bechstein factory employs a historian in its plant in Germany which seems like a good place to start. Watch this space for any news.