Natural Creation

For Alan Eames

Introduction

 

I have started this book for two main reasons. Whilst travelling in South India and being asked what religion I hold and hesitating before answering, “None”. I really wanted to say evolution but this somehow seemed inadequate, not a complete answer. Evolution only covers how life changes once it has got going, it’s not as complete an answer as belief in God where all creation is accounted for; it’s not an overall philosophy. He was looking for a word like, Christian or Hindi and I couldn’t think of a word to adequately describe my beliefs so he was left thinking that I had none or had not thought about it.

The second reason is that I don’t think that science is being taught with adequate enthusiasm to get enough kids interested in it. Most of the best scientists with this enthusiasm are involved in far more interesting and financially rewarding occupations than teaching kids. Even if they are teaching, they are teaching at a higher or more interesting level. Consequently, more and more students are going on to studying, “History and Politics” or “Philosophy, Politics and Economics”. Not that there is anything wrong with these subjects, it’s just the quantity of good students studying them compared with the sciences. I am sure that our world would benefit far more by having a few more scientists and engineers even though it costs a little more to teach them. I'm not saying that there are no teachers that teach with enthusiasm, just not enough. The sciences that are taught are disjointed and separated from each other. It’s just not joined up. We spend as much time teaching the history of science rather than the science itself. My aim with this book is to include a short introduction to the basic sciences necessary to describe where we and everything else comes from in the hope that it stimulates a few to go onto discovering and enjoying a little more about these fascinating subjects. How can anything be more interesting or important than how we and everything else got here and how it all works together?

Collectively as a human race we have started to unravel the secrets of nature and to discover how things work. Sometimes, it feels as if we already know almost everything and there is not much left to discover. We have started to travel into space and look to the ends of the universe. Illnesses that would have maimed or killed us naturally we are starting to understand and overcome, new electronic gadgets that amaze us appear more frequently each year. It seems that our biggest invention and new best friend, the computer will help us solve any problems thrown at us. But the truth is that we have barely scratched the surface of all there is to discover. We have only just begun, in the last few millennia or even centuries, or even decades, for the first time, to understand how things work and where we and all this other stuff around us came from and how it all interacts with itself. How could all this complexity have come from such simple beginnings? What is life?

We appear to be so much more successful than any animal around us or those that came before us. With each generation we seem to be so much more advanced than the previous one, which makes us think that we are more intelligent than the last. But its not so much how clever we are compared to the other animals or previous generations, but for the simple fact that we work together as a species so much better than any that came before us. Our acquired knowledge is not being lost or forgotten so much as in the past. Each time we put already known things together to make something new, we advance a little. But more importantly that new thing is available to put together with other known things to make something else new in a never ending progression. We are doing exactly what naturally happens, on its own, to all matter and life. The reason being is that we are part of that natural process. We are that same stuff. Let’s hope that we are wise enough to continue to work together and not let our achievements go to our heads.

So this is my attempt at creating an alternative to religion; a belief system so that when I am next asked what I believe in, I can say, “Natural Creation!” It’s a bit like the Bible except, I hope, a little closer to “The Truth”.

Jobs Done

After the glorious weather last weekend, I am rather glad that the temperature cooled down this week, not least because it gave me the impetus to get on with jobs that really needed doing. Its been a short week but a busy week. I kicked off on Tuesday with the ususal trip to the gym and then afterwards I nipped into Asda to stock up with some supplies. I seem to spend an alarming amount of time shopping in this store, not to mention money. After lunch which was noodles in a lemon grass and chilli sauce I went upstairs to start work on the accounts. I happen to glance out of the window and saw that there was an ambulance parked across our drive totally blocking in my car; I was curious as to who the ambulance was for. Emma's car wasn't there, next door the other side were all out so it could only be for Sandy's house. I stood at the window and after a while, I saw Sandy being wheeled out in a wheel chair attached to a drip and and an oxygen mask.

Of course, as soon as the ambulance left, I went straight across the road to find out what had happened. Lisa was shaking like a leaf and told me that Sandy had been in the loft trying to retrieve a suitcase and had fallen off the ladder. She'd fallen frontwards and her knees and nose had taken the brunt of the fall. Lisa said there was lots of blood. Poor Sandy; it was such a shame because Sandy had the week off work and she and Lisa were planning to go down to Cornwall to stay with Sandy's mum.

There wasn't time to do accounts in the afternoon because Sue called and we arranged to meet up at Kingston for coffee. I say coffee, actually we went to the M&S café and Sue brought me a pot of tea. I am always happy to meet up with Sue but it's very difficult for her to get out because she's caring for Alan and worries about leaving him, even for a short time. But I think it does her good getting out into the real world and away from the sadness, even if only for an hour here and there. Sue gave me a bag of books and I gave her some ciggies that I brought back from Gran Caneria. It was nice to catch up with her, albeit briefly, her life is not a barrel of fun and hasn't been for a quite a few months. Sue says that Alan is deteriorating more each week. The hospice nurses are able to manage his pain to some extent but Sue says that he isn't very comfortable. Poor Alan; Poor Sue. Life is so damn unfair.

I popped across the road in the evening just to see how Sandy was and was amazed to find her bandaged up and stretched out on the sofa eating a Chinese takeaway. She was very swollen (face and legs) and bruised and her nose didn't look too pretty but luckily no broken bones. I think when the bruises really come out, she will look like she's been in a fight.

I was at the gym bright and early on Wednesday and as soon as I got home, I went straight up to the office to do accounts. Four hours later with only a short break for lunch and my accounting was done. It's true to say. that Phil does the lion's share of end of year accounts but my contribution this year was surprisingly easy and I wondered why I had procrastinated so much. Easy accounts, makes me think I had it easy in 2010 and I couldn't help but go back to The Naked Bloggers 2010, curious to see what I got up to last year. And the answer to that, is not much in the way of flat stuff. I painted Christine's house in Downs Barn in June, I did a quick make-over in Oldbrook when Harriet moved out last July but al-bar a couple of bits on our house, that's about it. But it will be different this year. As soon as we get back from holiday I will have 2 flat refurbishments on my hands.

Even though I took Phil's car over to Cowley's in Whaddon first thing on Tuesday morning, I didn't get it back until late on Wednesday afternoon. Why it took 2 days to do a straight forward MOT I don't know but I mustn't complain too much because we always get a courtesy car. Cowleys have a Ford Ka which they loan out, Phil always gets this when he takes the Land Rover but I always get an old ropey, dog reeking Land Rover. This makes Phil laugh because he knows how much I hate driving big 4x4's and I do, I absolutely hate them, unless its snowing. Anyway, thankfully the Land Rover passed the MOT.

Thursday's are never very pleasant in our house. Phil is always hungover from his Wednesday night out with the boys and yesterday was no exception. It was like waking the dead and I'm amazed Phil got to work on time. I got us Fish and Chips for lunch which is his treat and seems to cheer him up a little. When he got home from yesterday he was very reluctant to do the bike but he did his hour. Phil doesn't like to talk on Thursdays. He ate his mackerel salad for supper; spent an hour on his book and then it was early to bed. I wasn't far behind him.

Phil has gone into work today, he could have had the day off but with a couple of short weeks and time off for our holiday, he decided he may as well go in. Its not so bad because he is finishing at lunchtime. Well, today is the big for Will & Kate and I guess most of the nation will be watching them get hitched. I am not a royalist, I have got some cooking to do so I suppose I'll have the wedding ceremony on the telly in the kitchen but I will not be glued. Luckily, even though it is a bank holiday, my gym is open so I'm off there right now.  I am very late this morning, god knows why I have been awake since 5am. 

The Book

First of all apologies for not writing many blogs in the recent past but Claire has been enjoying writing them; after all, it is her blog. Anyway, the main reason is lack of time on my part; especially since I have been diagnosed with all these conditions I currently have. Oddly, I do not physically feel any different to before the diagnoses but Claire is labouring hard to provide me with a healthy diet and police my calorie intake. She is the Diet Police. The main benefit of this and the new fitness regime that she has me on is that I am loosing weight; in fact I have lost over 2.5 stone since I was at my heaviest and actually feel better than before the diagnoses. I have little time because I seem to have been working continuously since last July. Apart from the few holidays we have somehow managed to squeeze in before I start my radiotherapy. Another factor in having so little spare time is that I started writing a book. I started it around a year ago after we met our new friends Sue and Alan but it was a slow process, even when I was not working, but these diagnoses seemed to have forced my hand and made it more urgent than it would have been otherwise.
Alan had written a book called “Colossus” which I really enjoyed and when you know someone personally, their actions somehow rub off on you and make things that you wouldn't normally do seem possible. Anyway sadly Alan has since discovered that he has a very aggressive cancer which is affecting him greatly and we haven't been able to see him. Our thoughts are with you Alan.
The idea for the book came to me whilst we were on holiday in south India around 4 or 5 years ago. Anyway, the best way to explain my reasons are to give you an exclusive preview by publishing here, for the first time, the introduction to my book which I intend to call, "Natural Creation". In fact I have already purchased the, "Natural Creation.co.uk" website which I have yet to upload anything to.

As it is hopefully, a factual book, I have spent most of my time researching almost all the sciences known to man. If nothing else I have learned more in the period of time since my diagnoses than at any period previously in my life, including school. I am constantly learning and have been through 3 sections in the Milton Keynes library already. My next step for reading material is the Open University Library which I hope to start to visit shortly. Of course, finding time to read all this material has been hard because of these jobs but I do manage to read some stuff online from wikipedia and fortunately, since I bought this i-phone I now have podcasts available to me at all times. I can download courses, articles and features straight to my i-phone and listen to them at my leisure. In fact I manage to listen to about 8 hours every time I go to work.
Unexpectedly to me I have spent most of my time learning about biology, especially microbiology and biochemistry which I previously knew very little about as I didn't really take this subject any higher than CSE level. I did do a little in the Science foundation course with the OU. I guess that because my knowledge was so lacking I never really had an interest before but now it seems to me to be the most interesting subject there is. If I had had a decent teacher to make me interested earlier on in my life, I feel certain that I would have wanted to pursue a completely different career.

This interest started by me stumbling across a podcast covering an "Anatomy and Physiology" course. The presenter and teachers name is Professor Gerald Cizadlo and he is the most incredible teacher that I have ever known. He is an ordinary guy but has an almost complete understanding of all the basic level of his subjects and somehow manages to create huge interest at the same time as getting his students to understand every subject he teaches. He somehow manages to hold your attention, almost the whole time. I suspect it’s because he had trouble understanding his subjects early on and therefore he understands how difficult the concepts are. He also understands that the easiest way to remember anything is to understand it; in fact I would say the only way. He also manages to squeeze in relevant personal stories from throughout his life which are always amusing especially when you hear the groan from the audience when he announces that a story is coming.

He did his training in South Dekota and lectures at the college of St Scholastica in Deluth teaching medical students. He started the podcasts because more and more students were recording his lectures so it made sense to record it once and publish on the web. These turned out to be so much more successful than ever could have been imagined. There are over 100 hours of listening in his Anatomy and advanced physiology course alone. I then went onto listening to his other courses which include, advanced physiology, pathophysiology, embryology, endocrinology and the biology of aging which was the first course of its kind in the world. I didn't even understand these words before I discovered Gerald. Sadly, he looks very much like professor Alfi who is a regular Wednesday night member. The Wednesday Night Gentleman's Club (WNGC) was founded in 1978 by Doctor George and Professor Alfi who were taken out, at the time by their students for refreshments once a week after lectures. Although most the faces have changed, the tradition lives on. Do all professors look like Alfi?

It took me some time to read the books as I read most of them upside down. I also read a few on my i-pad in bed while Claire was asleep, "The Origin of Species", by Charles Darwin being one. I listened to "The wealth of Nations" by Adam Smith in my i-phone with audio books as well. What an amazing book that was, you really can’t beat going back to the originals. I was surprised with Darwin’s book as he spent as much time criticising his own theory as he did plugging it. I enjoyed it but I have read so many evolution books that there wasn't really anything new for me. This new technology really has opened my life up; you have to buy them!

Anyway, I always knew that I had two books in me; one about something and one about nothing.I will publish the introduction to Natural Creation on Saturday after Claire has published her end of week blog.

Happy Days

After checking out of Rochford Hall, we drove on the backroads and stopped off in Melton to have a cup of coffee with Phil's mum and dad. To save Dad going out in the car we promised we'd pick up his 'News of the World' for him. George was up dressed and shaved and sitting in his chair wearing a rather vibrant pink shirt. He said he was a bit better but still feeling weak and tired, he's definitely not himself. I think when we get back from holiday and Phil has finished his radiotherapy then we need to give mum and dad our full attention, project parents for the summer.

The traffic wasn't too bad on the M1, no delays and we were back in Milton Keynes by half twelve. Lunch was easy, a lasagne I'd cooked on Friday and baked spuds and a green salad. Phil was moaning because he had to wait an hour because I don't care for baked potatoes in the microwave and actually, neither does he. As soon as we got home, Phil went upstairs and got cracking on the company accounts because we need to file our company return before we go away on holiday next week. We'd normally would have completed all of accounts by this time and they would be ready for submission. But not this year; Rashmi, our accountant is going to file our P35 on our behalf so Phil had to get details of PAYE and all that boring stuff over to Rashmi so that he can do file our return this week.

While Phil was doing accounts, I unpacked the case. It's great to go away but there always to be tons to do when you get back home. I did the lunch, did the washing, drying and then the ironing. There was a great pile because Harriet decided to change her bed on the day we left home. Half way through the afternoon Phil wanted to watch the snooker but there isn't a telly in his office so he nicked the telly from our bedroom and set that up. I didn't mind because I hate doing the accounts and I wanted him to keep going. He did the stuff for the accountant and then created a new super duper end of year accounts spreadsheet which he said, would make our lives easier. Sounds good to me. We both hate end of year accounts, with a passion I might add and come to dread this time of year. Normally I am good once I get going, but its the getting-going that is the problem. I will do any other job before I start on the books, take last week when my avoidance excuse was the garden. Phil came down the stairs around 5 o'clock and we just sat and flopped in front of the telly.

It was an early start to the day on Bank Holiday Monday and we were both wide awake before 6am. In actual fact we were awake far earlier than that when we woke up when Harriet came home from the nightclub. She tries to be quiet but its always the same routine with HH, she pulls out the kitchen chair where she sits at the kitchen table to finish her kebab, then she pours herself a glass of water, goes to the loo (and leaves the door open) kicks off her shoes and then heads to bed. Thankfully we went back to sleep but the sun pouring through the windows and the birds making a racket, we decided to get up at 7am.

Phil had his breakfast and then it was straight into his office to start on the flat accounts while I made preparations for the Sunday lunch. We had intended to get to the gym early but it was nearly quarter past nine by the time we started our work out. It wasn't a long one, 3k on the rowing machine and then weights. We finished off with a jacuzzi, no steam because the steam room was out of action and then once showered and changed we popped into Asda. I needed some salad stuff and Phil wanted to look for a new telly for the bedroom. I wasn't entirely convinced that we needed yet another telly but the tiny flat screen that was in our bedroom is perfect for the office and not great inour room because it was so far away from the bed. But whether we need the 32 inch that Phil ended up buying yesterday because it was on offer, is another thing. It is a good picture and it is much easier to watch but it does rather dominate my sexy high white gloss Dwell unit. Also, Phil's Dali print looks out of place so I'll need to do some tweaks to the room to accommodate the new screen.

When we got back from the gym and Phil had installed the new TV which required a trip to Curry's for a new cable, I put 2 chickens in the oven and Phil did some odd jobs for me.  He set up the DVD recorder in the conservatory and then he put the feet up on my white gloss unit in the lounge which I've been wanting him to do for ages..  Jobs done, Phil went back upstairs to carry on accounting and I went outside to work in the garden. It was such a lovely day, it was a pleasure to be outside. I did some weeding, cut the grass and gave it a watering because it was rather dry in places and I also painted the shed. I hadn't realised how shabby it was looking and luckily I had half a pot of dark brown in the shed. I served up lunch just before one and felt knackered after the gym and my exertions in the garden.

 

I was tempted to grab a book, get out the lounger and sunbath in my newly spruced garden but there were too many other jobs to be doing. I cleared up the lunch things, dropped Harriet off to pick up her car in Newport then stopped off at the garage to get my car washed and then when I got home I went up to the office to help Phil with the accounts. My job was to find information from files and also set up new files for the 2011/2012. A couple of hours later and we'd both had had enough and decided to call it a day. Phil has done well and I think we are more than half way there.

We've had a great Easter bank holiday weekend and I'm sure so have many others, the weather has been absolutely glorious. However, all good things must come to an end and today its back to reality. Phil has already left for work and very soon I must get myself to the market and then over to Wavendon because Phil's car is in for its MOT. It's only Tuesday but I am already looking forward to the next bank holiday.

Gym & Tonic

After shutting down both the laptops yesterday morning, Phil& I jumped in the car and went to the Gym & Tonic health club in the hotel grounds. And yes. you do read me right, the gym building is in a complex which would entail only a 10 minute walk but our gym kit bags are heavy and we intended to go off site after our workout so it made sense to the car. It was easy to get a title for my blog posting today and my photo explains why. The gym complex has got some very negative reviews on the Trip advisor website and on first appearance, it is obvious that the building, that houses both the gym and the pool, was built some time in the 60's. The equipment is similar to what you might exect to find in a secondary school, basic and very outdated, as is the interior of the gym and the changing rooms. It is certainly old fashioned and very tired looking but in a weird kind a way, it was quite quaint and rather endearing. And thats me saying that, me that is used to state of the arc equipment from years of using at David Lloyd and DW.

Phil managed to do 2k on the rowing machine and 30 minutes of weights and I did a 3k run. True, the gym hall was hot because there was no air con and neither was there any flat screen TV's with built in audio sound. But hey ho, at least we got a workout, in fact we had the workout hall to ourselves. And we also had the jacuzzi to ourselves for a while. We had a little plunge in the pool and then we finished off in the steam room. There is a steam in the sauna in both the ladies and mens changing rooms so we couldn't steam together which was a shame. The changing rooms were basic but had everything you needed, hot water and hairdryers, the staff were friendly and I really can't understand some of the negative feedback that I’ve read on the internet. It certainly gave us a chance to work off our breakfast, although we're on a mini-break I can't let Phil step off the diet wagon for one single minute, he's worked so hard to get this far and so have I!

Yesterday was another glorious day and after we'd showered and changed, we got in the car and drove to the church in the village to look around the graveyard. Phil's ancestors on his mum's side of the family originated from Lincolnshire and he wanted to see if he could find any gravestones belonging to his family. Before we lived together, Phil spent thousands of hours researching his family tree but he's hasn't done any work on it for years, which is a shame but there just hasn't been the time, been too busy building up our property portfolio. Anyway, we spent an hour in Stoke grave yard and Phil found one grave stone that he thinks belonged to his mum's family. I was bored after 10 minutes, grave yards are not really my thing and after nearly an hour of hanging around, I finally managed to prise Phil away.

We went back to the room to dump our bags and I got changed into a summer dress. When I was ready, we got back into the car and headed for the A1 to fill up with petrol. We hoped that the garage would have an ATM machine but no such luck and we ended up having to drive into Grantham to get some cash. In the end, Phil got cash out from an ATM in Sainsbury’s. These rural village are very beautiful but they have f**k all facilities. Grantham and the A1 were really busy; we were hoping to stumble across a little village pub for lunch, but we didn't fine any watering holes, despite driving around little lanes for nearly an hour. In the end, we heading back to Rochford Hall and went to the bar for a snack. We just about made it in time because the bistro closed at 2pm. Phil went for the salmon fishcake and I choose the ploughman's but Phil didn't like his fish cake so I had to swap, so in the end we had a smedley of both dishes.

The day was glorious, after lunch Phil retreated to our room while I loitered in the front entrance grounds because there was a wedding and I wanted to see the bride and the bridesmaids. I got to see both, but alas, the bride wasn't particularly beautiful and neither was her dress. But hey, I shouldn't be such a bitch, the venue was stunning and as long as the bride felt the same and enjoyed her day, that's all that matters. It was a civil ceremony which took place in the conservatory and I saw her walk down and meet her husband-to-be. It was funny the wedding march song was 'Some Like You' by Adele from the album 21. This is my favourite record at the moment and I play it all the time in my new car. But I thought it was a bit of a weird choice because Adele is singing about a long lost past love and the lyrics are about all about heartbreak and regret'. Still, each to his own.

Phil wanted to write some more of his book which was fine but I couldn't bear to stay in our cold, uncharismatic room on such a glorious day so I changed into my denim shorts, grabbed a magazine and went out on the front lawns to sunbathe. I felt a little out of place as I was all by myself and the front of Rochford Hall is so amazing and when you think of all its history, it seemed almost disrespectable to be half naked on lawns with signs that told you not to walk on the grass. Hey ho, I did an hour, read the Times, read my magazine, phoned Harriet and listened to the bagpipes at the wedding drinks reception. I had a lovely time.

I went back to the room and Phil was so deeply engrossed in his writing, he hardly noticed my return. I didn't mind, I had my laptop and a high speed internet connection. Phil was so cold that at 5pm he had to go for a walk around the grounds to warm himself up. Honestly, you wouldn't believe how cold it is in room 36. While he was out, he spotted 2 pheasants in the memorial garden trying to get it on and he also heard the bagpipes man as he played the wedding party into the reception. When he got back, we drank some wine, watched a bit of telly then at 6'ish we got ready for dinner.

As lunch wasn't really spectacular, standard pub grub really with slightly slow service but that was probably due to the wedding party, I can't say I had a high expectations for dinner. But I was pleasantly surprised; when you think we've only paid £120 for our stay which includes 2 nights accommodation, 2 breakfasts and a 3 course dinner in a spectacular location, its begging a lot expect 5 star. But the food was really good, not spectacular, as was the service. We had a drink out on the terrace before dinner.

All things considerd we've had a great little mini break. Its nice doing something a little bit out of the ordinairy and stepping aside from our normal routine. Rochford Hall certainly doesn't deserve the slagging off its gets on the net. We would probably come again but perhaps I would try and stay mid week and try and get upgrade to a Mansion room. Its been well worth the money. Now I must pack our bags and get ready to head home.

A mini-break at Stock Rochford Hall

This little mini-break has been booked for a while and I'd almost forgotten about it. Indeed, at the time of booking, I hadn't even realised that it was the bank holiday weekend. Maybe if I had of done, because of concerns about traffic jams, then perhaps I would have chosen another weekend. We went to get on the M1 at junction 14 and when we drove over the bridge we saw that traffic was at a standstill. Not a great start, but the sun was shining, Phil had his earphones plugged in, so we decided to drive the back way which was fine. A little slower and a little longer, but actually, I enjoyed driving through the different villages, it made a nice change from the motorway.

At the time of booking, the plan was to stay 2 nights and then drop by Phil's mum and dad who are only 20 minutes away and take them out for a special Easter Sunday lunch. But all that has had to change and I had to cancel the table, because for the last 3 weeks, Phil's dad has not been very well. It all started before we went away on holiday. Apparently George was mixing up a mix of weed killer for the lawn and somehow (and don't ask me how) it blew up in his face and he inhaled the stuff. You'd think this was no big deal but inhaling the poison made him very poorly indeed. He had a terrible cough which stopped him from sleeping, he lost his appetite and as a result had no energy. We hadn't realised how bad things were until last weekend. Phil's mum phoned to say that she had eventually made him go the doctor who prescribed antibiotics. More trauma followed as he was allergic to the antibiotics and suffered quite a bad reaction. So it was back to the docs for George and another course of different antibiotics. Bet also said that George had a couple of falls and because he hadn't been able to drive, she had been virtually housebound for 3 weeks. I immediately offered to go down to get some shopping, but of course she wasn't having any of it. One thing she did talk about on the phone was coming to live in one of our ground floor flats, so at long last, both she and Phil's dad realise that finally they need some help.

Anyway, because of all of this, we decided yesterday, rather than drive straight to the hotel, we would first go to visit Phil's mum and dad. Made sense really because we had to literally drive straight back their house to get to the hotel. The plan was to mow their lawn for them and do any little jobs in the house that needed to be done. We arrived just after half one only to find that George had already mowed the lawn. Bet said that it had taken him 3 days and made him feel unwell again. Phil's mum is just as bad; I'd cooked a lasagne and taken it down just to save her from cooking for a couple of days but then she goes and invites us for a roast dinner on Sunday. Whatever are we going to do with the pair of them?? I am not sure but the time has come for something to be done, they can't be left alone to their own devices. We reprogrammed their TV, because of the digital switch-over they had lost all their channels. We had tea and homemade cake and after a couple of hours, we said our good byes and drove to the hotel.

We are staying at Stoke Rochord Hall near Grantham in Lincolnshire http://www.stockrochfordhall.co.uk/. Stoke Rochford Hall is impressive; it has a long drive up to the hotel which leads through the park and over the bridge, then you do a right angled turn to the east through the iron gates to the main house itself. We checked in okay, the only problem being that we couldn't get a table for dinner in the restaurant until 8.30pm which was way too late for us. As dinner is included in our deal, well dinner for one night we managed to change it to this evening and have booked for 7pm.

Our room, room 36 is in the Old Stable Courtyard and not in the main house itself. I did tell a little fib in an email and try and get us an upgrade, as I'd heard the mansion rooms in the main house are fair superior to all the other accommodation on site but my luck was out as there are 2 wedding parties staying this weekend. Never mind, always worth a try, if you don't ask, you don't get. We were a little disappointed with our room; it was okay. A double rather than king-size bed, a pokey bathroom with no bath, only a shower and the tiniest TV I've ever seen. Also it was bloody freezing despite being so warm outside.

It was nearly teatime and as we'd only had a light lunch, we were both starving. From trawling through the trip advisor website I'd already read that there was a good restaurant in the nearby village of Skillington called The Cross Swords Inn. As the sun was still shining we decided to walk to the village. It took 15 minutes just to get out of the grounds but we walked to the main gate and turned right. It was really hot and we had no water and after about 40 minutes with no civilisation in sight, I'll admit, I was ready to give up and turn back. But not our Phil though, he was determined to find food not to mention a cold pint of beer!

We got to a main road and then saw a sign for Skillington and turned left. Another 20 minutes and we were in the village. The restaurant that I'd chosen was almost the first building we saw but unfortunately it didn't open until 6pm. Luckily, just around the corner there was another pub which was open, so we got a drink and sat outside on the village green. We finished our drinks and went back to The Cross Swords Inn and were the first customers through the door.

The inn (http://www.thecross-swordsinn.co.uk/) is run and owned by Harold & Linda Wood and what a lovely couple they were. They've had the inn for 20 years, Linda does the front of house and Harold is the chef. The menu was good, not cheap but we didn't care, we were hungry. I went for the rib eye steak and Phil went for the steak pie with veggies and roast potatoes. It was absolutely excellent and we would certainly recommend a visit. We finished our wine and after settling the bill, Linda said that Harold had got the car out and would drive us back to Rochford Hall. The car turned out to be a Jaguar and we didn't leave the premises before taking a look at one of their guest rooms in the courtyard. Harold & Linda have 3 rooms and another nearly finished. The room was delightful, far superior to our room in the old stable courtyard. But how lovely of Harold to take us home, what a kind gesture, and to be honest I didn't really relish the hour's walk home after a bottle of red and a full stomach. Once back to the room it was some telly and then shut eye.

Not certain what the plans for today are. We've already been down to the main house for breakfast and very nice it was too. There was a good quality selection of fresh fruit and yoghurt and an excellent selection of your good old English fare. Phil is currently working on his book on his laptop and we are just letting our breakfast settle and then we're going to try out the hotel's gym and pool. Then who knows, we'll probably head out in the car and explore the local area.

Good Friday & a Good Week

Phil quite often tells me that I have the “life of Riley” and mostly I refute this but I do think this week he may just have a point, this week I have had it real easy. The weather has been lovely and this always lifts my soul. Every one needs good girlfriends and this week I have been able to meet up with 3 of mine. On Monday I started the day off my with usual trip to the gym followed by Asda, then after lunch I went to Willen to have a cup of tea with the lovely Vanessa. I hadn't seen her for a while so it was good to catch up with all of the Ford news.

On Tuesday after my gym session I decided to work on the gardens. I started on the front garden which was easy. A bit of chopping with the hedge trimmer then I was on my hands and knees getting the moss out of the block paving. Fortunately I'd had the hindsight to spray it at the weekend with weed killer so the green stuff came out quite easily but boy what a tedious job. I finished up with a good sweep of the drive and a polish of the front door and it was job done. After lunch, chicken chilli men without the chicken, I decided to attack the back garden. Now this wasn't as straight forward as we haven't touched the back since last autumn and it was a mess. It doesn't help that I hate gardening with a passion and I have no natural gardening skills. And I mean none whatsoever. If I had my way I would have astra turf, slabs and concrete with the odd pot but this garden was fairly established when we moved in so it made sense to keep what we already had.

I started with weeding the borders. I collected thousands of leaves and pulled out everything that looked like a weed. I wasn't sure actually what was a weed all bar the thistles but my strategy, if you can call it that, was if looked grotty, it got pulled. It was really hard work and 4 hours later I had filled our green bin. After weeding, I got out the mower and cut the grass which was quite satisfying. Next job was to rake out the moss with a screw driver, no easy feat. Last job of the day was to sweep the up all the moss and rearrange the patio furniture. I was knackered when I'd finished but very pleased with myself. I couldn't wait for Phil to see my results when he got home from work. Phil hates gardening so he was really pleased that I'd started. However, on closer inspection, his appreciated soon disappeared when he discovered that as well as getting rid of the weeds, I'd also got rid of some shrubs in the process. This was my biggest fear but too late now, the deed is done.

Phil went out for a beer with Jim on Tuesday night and I caught up with some soaps and did an hour of deep plunge squats. It didn't hurt at the time but oh my god, when I woke up on Wednesday I could hardly get out of my bed. I think my exertion in the garden was exercise enough and deep thrust squats was overload on my aging body. Just getting down the stairs was a nightmare. I was driving down to see Christine in Surrey and had planned to go to the gym beforehand but there was no chance of that. Instead, I did some domestics, packed an overnight bag and finally set off at half ten. Phil had programmed the crappy sat nav for me and I admit I was a little nervous about driving so far. I don't drive much on motorways and the M1, M25 and M23 was scary. But I took it steady, not really going above 60 which wasn't difficult, much as I love my new car, it hasn't got much poke.

I got to Charlwood in 2 hours which wasn't too bad considering Christine lives just 5 minutes from Gatwick. The dogs, Purdey and Buffey gave me a good welcome and I was surprised to see that Paul was down from Sheffield. The sun was glorious and we had lunch on the lawn, goats cheese tart and salad and a good bottle of chilled white which Paul & I polished off between us. I was curious to see what Christine had done to the cottage since Phil and I visited her last September. Lots of work has been done, new kitchen, new windows, landscaping in the garden, new fence and gate. The garden in particular looked lovely and it was obvious lots of love and care has gone into this project. Christine has still a way to go, new bathroom for one, more painting and decorating and some tweaking and general finishing off. But she'll get there I'm sure but it's fairly obvious that she is very happy in her new home which is good to see.

After lunch, we left the polish man laying her new patio in the back garden, I have to say I felt for him labouring so hard in the hot sun and popped into Horley. At least I think itwas Horley; we had a quick look around the shopping complex and then dropped Paul off at the train station as he was spending the evening in London with his daughters. We went back to the cottage to pick up the dogs and then drove to the woods. Christine said that the bluebells were a sight to see and she wasn't wrong. The main reason for walking the dogs in the woods, which is a walk Christine does every day, was to take me to see John's remembrance bench. With my really sore thigh muscles I really struggled with the inclines and declines and the stiles but I managed. John's bench is in a great expanse and it was good to take a few minutes out to remember him.

We had a good hours walk in the woods and It was almost half six by the time we got back to the cottage. Christine fixed us an appetitive and we had this by the pond. The Polish man was still labouring on the patio and I did feel guilty watching him work, while I supped away. Marius finally finished the patio at half seven, Christine paid him but then he couldn't find his van keys. Half an hour later he finally found them and when he left we had supper and cracked open the wine. The rest of the night was girlie chat and generally putting the worlds to right.

I was awake really early on Thursday morning, like before 6am. I don't now kwhether it was because it was a strange bed or the light pouring through the bedroom window but I really didn't want to wake that early. In need of tea, I crept downstairs and found the kettle and then took my brew back to bed. Around 8am Christine got up and we took the dogs for a walk around the football pitch and then stopped off at the village shop for newspapers. Paul was up when we got back looking and feeling very hungover, not surprising seeing as he didn't get back until 1am. I had some melon for breakfast with a cup of green tea and then just after 9am I said my goodbyes and headed for the M23. It was nice to see Christine and the cottage and I had a lovely time; sometimes its nice to do something different.

The drive back to MK took almost 2 hours. I was a little worried that there might be jams on the M25 with the imminent bank holiday weekend but it was fine, busy and a little slow but the main problem were the speed restrictions because of the road works. I was very relieved when I finally got home. After my night away or holiday as Phil referred to it there was jobs to be done. Unpacking, washing and a lasagne to cook. I just had enough time to drive to Peartree Bridge to get a large, cod and chips, Phil's favourite Thursday lunch. Phil came back at the normal time and I think he missed me, he seemed pleased to see me.

After lunch and a few more jobs, I drove over to Westcroft to see Jan I was very pleased to see that she is much, much better. She still has to take it easy and be careful not to overdue things but she is well on the road to recovery. She is frustrated with all the things that she wants to do but can't, but she's sensible and I just hope she doesn't rush back to work before she's ready. So all in all, as you might be able to tell, I've had a good week; reunions with girlfriends, lots of sunshine and lots of wine. It would have been nice to catch up with Sue but it wasn't to be. She phoned me on Monday to say that was hoping to get out to see me but Alan was having a really bad pain day. Hopefully there'll be a window of opportunity next week.

I'm excited today because we are going away for a couple of days. I found us a deal on the internet and so we're off. Our original plans for the weekend have changed slightly but I'll blog more about that when we get home. We're going to the gym for a quick workout first then home to pack a bag, grab a light lunch then we're heading north on the motorway.

Happy Easter everyone!