Wednesday 30th January 2013

I don’t have the hardest commute in the world, I’ll be honest with you. At times I do grumble when there is a tractor in the way slowing me down, but for the most part it’s a clear run and I can get from Dover to the office in less than half an hour.

What I do like is the first morning back at work after being away, and getting in the car, turning on Radio 4 and just driving along looking at how the countryside has changed and, this week, how much lighter it was than last time I did the trip. Sometimes its these small details that make the difference.



So, it was back to work this week, and waiting for me on my desk was the new mobile phone I ordered after I foolishly told my new boss that I couldn’t check e mails whilst on the move as I didn’t qualify for a ‘smart’ phone. Me and my big mouth. Anyway, it has taken a full two days to synch my e mail with the phone and change the code on it that the phone likes. In the end I chose something that was easy to remember, the number of an A4 pacific after it been renumbered by BR.

Yesterday, I worked from home. I could have gone into the office, but given the choice, working from home wins every time. By a quarter to ten, I was hungry, looking in the fridge I saw eggs and bread. So, a simple choice for a snack was fried eggs on fried bread coupled with a huge cup of tea. Win!



As usual, I had to deal with the demands and whims of the three cats who, clearly, could not find their bowls of food, despite them being in exactly the same place they normally are to be found! Oh well.

The afternoon was enlivened by the delivery of the two CDs I have had on order; the expanded versions of Searching for the Young Soul Rebels and 2112. The cats did not seem to appreciate Rush, and Molly sat on the sofa with her ears flat against her head, meaning she was pretty unhappy with all the noise. But she did not leave her space on the sofa.

I have been back on the cross-trainer for about a month now, on and off, and have done three sessions already this week, and despite my back grumbling about it, I am feeling the benefit, and in truth my back seems to be better this morning. So, onwards and upwards.



One final thing: It crossed my mind that this month is the 15th anniversary of my paternal grandmother’s death. She outlived her only son, my Dad, by21 months and spent it in pretty bad health, ending up in a care home as her body failed her at the age of 97. We always thought she would live to get her telegram, maybe she would have done if Dad had lived; who knows? She had her full faculties until the end, and with her on her death bed, I travelled up from Wiltshire to see her, for one last time. She was weak and could not see much, she smiled when she knew it was me. How are you feeling, I asked. With my hands, she replied. Still fighting.



Her answer has become a joke between Jools and me, but it is how I remember Nannie. Well, 15 years has passed in a blink of an eye…….