Kingfisher

We have been hugely busy these last two weeks so some catchup blogging is in order. Our first trip was divided into two parts. SWMBO dived down to London to meet some friends and then stay over with sister Michelle, then I drove down to Swindon to pick her up and transport her on to 'off the record' Dick and Gill's new place in Nether Wallop, or one of the other Wallops!!

They have got a lovely house which is in two parts. The old cottage is thatched and a 'mind the beam' kind of place onto which is built a new home by way of an extension. This part looks down the garden to a pond and vegetable area, with mini follies scattered throughout.

The home benefits from a home automation and  entertainment network which must be seen to be believed. The wiring is extreme, nothing is labelled and poor old Dick has not got a clue where to start sorting it out. Luckily the critical services work but there is a feeling that there are many more features which could be utilised.

We were there in the company of their son John and Stuart and Delia, our good friends from Marlow, and the boy scout in Stuart certainly came to the fore as Dick wanted help to build a hide so that he could capture some shots of the kingfisher which had recently come to visit the garden. It can't have been after the fish, as the heron had probably wiped them out some while ago. The hide was a glorious success and the little fella had no problems posing for this shot.

The Saturday evening gave Dick and Gill an opportunity to invite some of the neighbours over for drinks as a sort of house warming event. There were some very interesting people there including a couple who lived in Teddington and were weekenders, a lady who was the ex- commercial director for Coca Cola in Atlanta and a peliphera of fishing and hunting people who enjoyed the facilities of the local River Test and surrounding grounds.The local farmer also turned up and he was clearly the centrepoint of village gossip. It was a good craic and as with village folk, they left fairly promptly allowing us to all do a bit of minesweeping later.

Gill then produced an excellent Sunday lunch and we all walked it off with a trip to Stockbridge which nestles on the Test and is very much a London prices sort of place so I am very confident Dick and Gill will be happy there

Vote of Confidence

Footie fans across the Country have been gnashing their teeth with some degree of anguish, as a pre-Christmas merry-go-round of managerial changes have been taking place.Its quite strange though how the managers seem to come off best.

Take Ian Hollowords for example. He resigns from the Argyle, and joins Leicester allegedly for £400k per annum, almost doubling his salary. His wife and kids have just moved into a new house in Plymouth, and now have to leave for Leicester. Not ideal. He gets replaced by Paul Sturrock, who leaves Swindon where he has no money, and no prospects as they stumble from one failed takeover to another. There are no indications of his salary package yet but I suspect he will do better from it than previously.

The rumour mill indicates Steve Cotterill will take over at Swindon. He parted company with Burnley a few weeks ago, with an agreed compensation package, so has not been out of work long. Burnley replaced him with Owen Coyle from St Johnstone, North of the border and Derek Mcinnes has replaced Coyle, a promotion from within the ranks.......

So, all the fans have been frustrated, but the managers seem to have sorted themselves pretty well.

A similar situation is occurring in the Premiership. Wigan part company with Hutchings, who took over when Paul Jewell left the club. Steve Bruce has now left Birmingham to take up the reins. Birmingham have acquired the ex-Scotland boss, Alex McLeish, and Billy Davies, sacked from Derby, indicates he would quite like the Scotland managers job. Meanwhile the aforementioned Paul Jewell steps smoothly into the Derby hot seat, and everybody is rockin' and rollin'.

All we have to do now is fill the England job, but wait a moment Rafael Benitez will get the sack tonight if Liverpool lose in the European Champions League, and the roundabout can start all over again.