Sun, Sep 30th

Finished!!!!!!!!!!!

Today I finally finished the first draft of Leap of Faith. It's taken over ten weeks of writing every day, coupled with reading every email that Dawn and I exchanged in the three months before we met in New York, but it was worth it. Although, I have to admit there were times when I got very emotional writing about some of the events that we went through leading up to that fateful day. I felt like I was reliving each and every experience all over again. At times it was heartbreaking, but worth it.

As for the stats, over the last week I wrote over 46,000 words and completed over quarter of a million by the time I finished. The page count was an incredible 524. This means that when I sit down to edit the book it will take a very long time. However, that won't be until the middle of November. My next writing project will be writing a children's book for a competition that Dawn saw in the Sunday Times a few months back. I need to write it, edit it, and have it ready to go by the middle of November. Wish me luck.

Sat, Sep 29th

Today Dawn and I had errands to run and popped into town before doing our grocery shopping at the local Morrisons in Welwyn Garden City. While in town I had to pop into Specsavers to order some new glasses. Last week I had popped in to to get my eyes tested as I was having a problem with the VDU at work. Then, they quoted a price of nearly £300 for a set of verifocal glasses. Today, after we discussed the options in greater detail, I was able to get the price down to just under £200. However, they will not be thin and lightweight, or have an anti glare coating. I wasn't paying an additional £100 for features I didn't need.

Back at the house I then spent the rest of the day, and even night (up until gone 11pm), writing the first draft of my book Leap of Faith (provisional title). I set myself the target of the last day of September to complete it and I was still on course, just.

Thu, Sep 27th

Today was Dad's 80th birthday and he celebrated it in the Whittington Hospital. Dad was aware that I had been phoning the hospital every day to check on his progress, and calling George in the evening to see how he was doing. However, I decided to surprise him by taking half a day off work to go and see him and wish him a happy birthday in person. I had told him the previous Saturday that I wouldn't be able to make it during the week as I was too busy at work. However, as I thought he might still be in hospital and we weren't able to do something special for him, the least I could do was surprise him. He seemed to be pleased to see me. As he had every day George dropped in too. Phillip also took some time off work and made the trip with Jean as well. I think it was nice for Dad to have three of his sons visit him on his special day.

Wed, Sep 26th

Dawn had yet another trip to make today. This afternoon she visited the Guildhall in central London to attend an Emergency Planning conference. Although conference would be a slight exaggeration as there were only a couple of speakers. One being a work colleague of hers, which was why she attended.

As Dawn was late getting home, I decided to surprise her with a take out from a Chinese restaurant in Hertford, Paddyfields, that we hadn't tried yet. It was well worth the trouble. The Won Ton soup was the best Dawn had ever tasted, and the mussels in black bean sauce were excellent as were the salt and pepper chicken wings. The only down side was that none were really the ideal food for Dawn's sensitive stomach.

Tue, Sep 25th

Today Dawn stayed off work with a stomach complaint. It had been playing up for over a week, so she decided to see her GP. He gave her a prescription that seems to have eased the symptoms, if not cured the problem. She then spent the rest of the day on the computer typing out minutes for work that she hadn't been able to complete when she was in the office thanks to countless interruptions and the piles of other work she needed to do.

Sun, Sep 23rd

Called the hospital and George and both he and Dad seem to be doing fine. The hospital called George and asked him to bring up some slippers and Dad's glasses, so that sounded positive. When I called George later he said that Dad was sitting up, and even moaned at him that he had brought the wrong hangers up. That too was a good sign.

Dawn and I spent the day at home. Dawn was shattered from the week she'd had, and I spent the whole day writing. By the time I hung it up around 5pm, I had written over 9,500 for the day and had completed in excess of 200,000 words and over 430 pages.

Sat, Sep 22nd

Last night I called our hedge man and cancelled that so we could ride up the hospital to visit Dad. We had no idea how he would look, and to be honest were concerned because he did not sound at all well when I spoke to him Thursday evening. We ran out early to do our grocery shopping then swung by to collect George before making our way up the hospital.

We were both relieved to see him resting comfortably. The doctor came around earlier and was pleased to confirm that they had stabilised his heart problem, and got his fever under control. However, the bad news was that he had pneumonia. Hopefully they found out quick enough that it didn't become too serious. Dad seemed fine and was talking normally and sounded alot better than he did on Thursday, so that was a good sign. We gave him his birthday card (he will be 80 on Thursday) before leaving him to drop George home.

Fri, Sep 21st

Tonight I called Dad to check on him and got no answer. As he didn't sound too good on Thursday, I immediately called the Whittington Hospital and found that he had been admitted to the Recess ward. Several calls followed before I found out that he had gone there earlier in the afternoon with a fever and high pulse rate. Thankfully they had given him several ECGs and said that he wasn't having another heart attack. By 9pm they said that he had a cold and they were keeping him overnight for observation. George was with him and said he seemed okay.

Thu, Sep 20th

Again Dawn was out and about. I dropped her off at Hertford North around 5.15am so she could get a train into London to meet up with a work colleague at Paddington station. Together they then got a train to Bath University in the west country for yet another business continuity conference. She's a busy girl. By the time she arrived back shortly after 6pm, she was exhausted.

Tues, Sep 18th

Yesterday Dawn was again out of the house early as she had to attend a Business Continuity course. This time in Chiswick, on the west side of London. Thankfully it wasn't a real long day for her and she was home normal time.

Today we travelled together on the train as I had my periodical examination at our dentist in Winchmore Hill. All went well, I am glad to say.

Sun, Sep 16th

Today we just took it easy. I'll rephrase that. We stayed home and were busy. Once Dawn had finished reading the newspaper, she did some laundry, vacuumed the house, hung out the laundry, ironed my shirts for work, edited the Scotland diary, and still found some time to play with Tiny.

I, on the other hand, made grits for Dawn's breakfast (I had crumpets), grilled cheese toast for lunch, a large bowl of home made bean soup to freeze for dinners in the week, and then cooked a roast chicken for dinner. I also spent the best part of five or six hours writing our story. I have now completed 176,000 words and 370 full pages of text. I still have another two weeks to get to the end of October 1996, so should be able to finish the initial draft of the book by the end of the month.

Sat, Sep 15th

Today we had a ride (again by car) to see Dad and take him to the cemetery. Although we had been there last Saturday, Dad prefers to go there on the anniversary of when Mum was buried rather than the day she passed away. On the way back to his flat, the four of us, including George, dropped into the Flask at Highgate for lunch. The food was nice and the place was booming. Clearly the no smoking ban hadn't done any harm here. Admittedly virtually everyone was outside in the gorgeous sunshine.

Fri, Sep 14th

Today Dawn left work because she had an appointment at the "Doctors". As she was in town when I left work, we decided to try out the Thai Rack for an ethnic meal and see how their Red Chicken Curry compared to the one she gets at the Pride of Siam when she goes out for lunch with Tessa at work. It was good, but Dawn still preferred her usual curry from the restaurant in Exmouth Market.

Thur, Sep 13th

Today was one long work day for my poor wife. She needed to attend a Carbon Trust workshop at Nottingham Trent University and had an interesting day to say the least travelling there and back. First she needed to get a train from Hertford North to Stevenage. That was so she could get a train that went to Petersborough. And when she got to Petersborough she got another train that took her to Nottingham. But the fun didn't end there. Once she arrived there, she had to walk several blocks to catch a tram to the University. If that wasn't enough, in addition to having to make the reverse journey home again and not getting in the front door till nearly 8pm, each time she got off a train she had to stand around for over 20 minutes for the next train. She was not a happy camper when she got home. She was smiling even less when I reminded her that she has a trip to Chiswick on Monday and then Bath next Thursday, too.

Sat, Sept 8th

Today was the tenth anniversary of Mum passing away, so Dawn and I had a ride up to the cemetery to lay some flowers on her grave. I got pretty upset seeing the date in the marble stone and couldn't believe that it had been so long. When we got home, I continued to edit the Scotland diary and finally finished my edits. Now Dawn can get back on the computer and make my changes. You may be able to read it by the end of October if you're lucky.

Oh yea, today marked eighteen months since arriving back from Florida and yesterday was our first anniversary of the day we moved into Cecil Road.

Mon, Sept 3rd

I had a late start at work today as I had to wait in for someone from the fire showroom to check the gas run for the fire, a plumber to check the water leak that was damaging the wall between the living room and computer area, and an insurance surveyor to check on the damage caused by the said leak. The first and last visit went well, but the plumber wanted £300-£350 to re-grout some tiles and put some caulk around the shower base. I thought I could do it cheaper and said no thanks.

Sun, Sept 2nd

Even though it was a short week thanks to the bank holiday on Monday, we were both glad to see the weekend arrive. However, a leisurely ride on the train to see Dad on Saturday was sabotaged as we needed to drop into Jollyes along the way to get some litter for Tiny. It's not only the cheapest we can find, but Tiny prefers their brand of white crystals. As everyone knows, it's only the best for our Tiny.

Today was a day of rest with me working virtually all day on writing in one shape or another. Again, I spent several hours or more on our book before taking a breather to spend another couple of hours editing my copy of the Scotland diary. Dawn in the meantime had her weekly video call with Brady.