Fri, Oct 31st

Our last day off work and we had a ride up to B&Q to pick up some paint and some rolls of insulation for our loft. That took half the day, by the time we'd got home and had lunch. The rest of the day was spent upstairs again. Dawn finished the painting in spare room (all but the radiator), and I got about 2/5 of the loft insulated. I would have got more done, but I had so much crap that I had to move including the old insulation which consisted of pebble-like stuff, carpet, wood, an old television aerial that was bolted to a joist and what was left of a huge wasp nest. At least the house felt a little warmer even if I didn't complete the whole loft.

Thur, Oct 30th

Today we took a day off from DIY and paid Dad a visit. Thanks to the snow, the Hertford trains were suffering cancellations and delays. So, for once we decided to drive up to see him. As luck would have it, we hit traffic problems on the A10 into London, so we took a detour through Broxbourne.

I'd been in touch with Hayley earlier in the week and asked her if she wanted to come up with us to see Dad, and she said yes. So we picked Hayley up at Finsbury Park station and stopped at Nandos for lunch before visiting Dad, then dropping her off at Dalston on the way back.

Our drive home to Hertford proved (as if we needed it) why we don't like driving into London. Our drive home took almost two hours. Much of it in built up traffic. Needless to say, we will be avoiding this type of journey if we can.

Wed, Oct 29th Part 2

Now that we had power back we could officially proceed with our holiday plans. A quick breakfast and a shower was followed by the two of us getting stuck into decorating. Our two projects this week had been to finish the paint work in the spare room and start stripping the wall paper. Dawn decided to do the painting because she hates stripping walls.

By 5pm we'd both had enough. Dawn had repainted all the walls, ceiling, baseboards, window sill and door. I'd stripped all the top layer of paper along the top landing and down the stairs to the hall way. We were both aching, and knew we still had quite a bit to do.

Tonight, I then watched Spurs' revival continue with an incredible result against Arsenal at the Emirates Stadium on Sky Sports. Spurs were 4-2 down with a minute to go. Then, a goal from Jenas and a second by Lennon in the 4th minute of injury time gave my good old Spurs a famous draw.

Wed, Oct 29th Part 1

We woke in the early hours to a cold house and darkness. The heavy snowfall that came down last night had taken down several power cables, so we had no electricity or heat. Thankfully we didn't have to go to work so we stayed in bed as long as we could before getting up and having several hot cups of tea while we read a book or yesterday's newspaper.

At 10am we heard a couple of bleeps as power was restored. We immediately put the fire on and started to enjoy our three days off work.

Tues, Oct 28th

Today was the last day before Dawn and I have five days (including the weekend) away from work. Dawn started her vacation early with an afternoon dental appointment. I got away around 4pm as normal and caught a bus back to Enfield Chase so I could catch the 16:21 train home with Dawn. To say we needed this break was an understatement. It's been a long summer and both of us have had to endure a lot of pressure at work. So it was with relief that my wages went into our bank account, and we said goodbye to work until next Monday.

However, the evening brought us one surprise that we didn't expect. We had just chilled out watching television and were about to turn the TV off when we suddenly lost our satellite picture. I went upstairs to the spare room to check the television up there and was shocked to see heavy snow falling outside. It was so heavy that not only was it settling, but it had also interfered with our television reception. Thank God we didn't have to go to work in the morning.

Mon, Oct 27th

Today I mailed my application to the University of Bath to enroll for the IEMA Associate course. Thankfully JT did a letter of recommendation, and my employers have paid the fees. In the current climate the fees would have been pretty steep. Hopefully now they will accept my application so I can start on retraining in a whole new field. It will be starting from the beginning again. But, I have done that once or twice before so I am not afraid of doing that.

Sun, Oct 26th

We woke this morning to the news that Spurs had fired Juande Ramos as their manager last night, and replaced him with Harry Redknapp. That certainly added some spice to the game we were going to see later in the day.

As for the game, we had the pleasure of a 3-course meal in the Legends Lounge before the game and two really good seats in the East Stand almost level with the half way line. For those interested in the food, we had a mushroom soup, followed by pork chop and veggies, then a kind of cherry custard-cheesecake. This was washed down with a couple of glasses of wine. Definitely better than being in the stands with a hot dog and plastic container of beer.

We then made our way to the seats and enjoyed watching Spurs take a half time lead before returning to the lounge for a nice hot cup of coffee. Spurs added a second goal in the second half before we left at full time knowing that Spurs had won their first league game of the season at the 9th time of asking.

Sat, Oct 25th

This morning I ran up to Tesco on my own so Dawn could tidy up a little. Then it was into town to get our haircut. It's amazing how quick the five weeks between cuts fly past. After that we popped in and out of several shops before stopping at Serendipity for a cup of coffee. We normally stop at Starbucks, but they didn't have any seats. We'd been to Serendipity once before, and again we had to wait quite a while for our two cups of coffee.

Back at the house Dawn did her weekly video call with Brady today instead of Sunday because we're going to Spurs tomorrow. I also looked in the Hertford Mercury and called someone out to give us a quote to trim our back hedge, which we have not had trimmed once since we moved in. The guy said that it was too high for him to reach the top of it, but would quote to cut the inside only or inside and outside. This was because his quote was a little more than we had budgeted for, or planned. We said we would call him back tomorrow.

One other interesting piece of news. Tiny has found a new place to rest. Check out the photo above. She now nestles down her after dinner in the evenings and can lay there for an hour or more.

Fri, Oct 24th

Today was a sad day at work as half a dozen members of staff were made redundant and we closed down our Northern Office. As you know, we have had cash problems for a while now. Well they have now come to a head and the powers that be felt that something had to be done. It's definitely a worrying time at present. But, all we can do is knuckle down and try and work through this. Some people will of course jump ship. I just hope that things can turn around soon.

Thur, Oct 23rd

Today, having only been involved for a few weeks on the company's environmental issues, I was thrust into holding the 14001 gap interview on my own. I am pleased to announce that it went okay. Although we're only starting out on the environment road, we did have some pretty sound procedures already in place that we could feed the 14001 process into. I was also pleased at how well I was able to hold myself seeing as it had only been agreed this week that I could undertake this role officially. Now we have until December 19th to get ready for Stage 1 with the final accreditation review at the end of March.

On a separate note, I watched Spurs demise at the hands of Udinese on television tonight. We lost 2-0 again and our performance was even worse than on Sunday. We need a miracle if we are going to salvage something from this season.

Tues, Oct 21st

My boss returned from his vacation yesterday and was pleased (although he had no doubts) that I was able to keep the cash situation at work from imploding. It doesn't mean that things will be easier this week. But, at least we're still coping. JT has also spoken to him about me taking on some of the workload in getting our company through the ISO 14001 accreditation and he was supportive of that, too.

Sun, Oct 19th

Up early to watch Louis Hamilton win the Japanese F1 Grand Prix before making some grits and fried porridge for breakfast. After a shower, I had a drive over to Ware to drop off a couple of bags bottles and cardboard at the recycling center before dropping into Tesco to pick up a bunch of flowers and a box of Earl Grey tea bags for Dawn.

Dawn did the vacuuming and laundry, while I made a pot of chili.

This afternoon, I finished reading my environmental book while Dawn had her weekly video call with Brady. I then plonked my backside on the couch to watch the Spurs' visit to Stoke City live on Sky Sports. It sank deeper than ever after I watched as Spurs lost again. Their worst ever start to a league campaign.

Sat, Oct 18th

Nothing out of the ordinary to report. We did our weekly grocery shopping at Tesco before heading into town to run some errands. We popped into the library to see if they had some books on the environment. They had just one worth getting. We dropped into Woolies, Waitrose and the Oxfam book shop. We had hoped to stop at one of the local coffee houses for a nice relaxing cup of latte. However, there were so many people in town that we decided to give that a miss and headed home.

Back home I spent most of the day reading 'Managing the Environment the 14001 way'. I'd already finished reading 'Easy Eco Auditing' in the last four days. Dawn just had to laugh every time I mentioned something I had read. Deciding to re-train has certainly invigorated my attitude towards work. Keep your fingers crossed that I can incorporate my new ideals there.

Tonight, we relaxed by watching this week's episodes of 'Strictly Come Dancing' and 'X-Factor'.

Fri, Oct 17th

Dawn emailed her line manager yesterday to fill her in on her visit to the doctor and hospital and was told to take today off work and rest. She felt it was more important that Dawn put her feet up for the next couple of days and come back Monday.

Well, Dawn followed her bosses words to the letter. Unlike yesterday when Dawn drove me to the station, I had to take myself this morning. Just like I did yesterday, I caught the 6:31am train to Moorgate. Then, once I had left she settled down with Tiny and took it easy for the rest of the day. On one occasion when we spoke she was stretched out on the bed with Tiny. As for her cough, it's still there. And doesn't seem to be getting better any time soon.

Thur, Oct 16th

Dawn has now been suffering with her cough for over three weeks, and despite completing one course of antibiotics still can't clear it. So today she took the day off work and visited our doctor. He felt that Dawn didn't have anything for her to be too concerned about. But did agree that it needed to be looked at, so sent her to our local hospital for an X-ray. Unfortunately, we will have to wait a week for the results. However, the doctor did put Dawn on another course of antibiotics.

By the the way, before anyone complains about the wait for Dawn's results, let me put the NHS service into perspective. Especially for Americans ready to criticise social health care. Dawn called the doctor shortly after 8.30am to make an appointment. She was given the time of 11:20am. Dawn arrived five minutes before her scheduled time and was seen dead on time. She left the doctor's surgery and made her way to the chemist (pharmacy) to pick up her drugs. It cost all of £7. She then drove to the hospital where she was seen immediately, had an X-ray, and then drove home. She was home by 12:15pm. She had visited her doctor, chemist, and had an X-ray in all under an hour. Best of all is it cost her JUST SEVEN POUNDS..........

Wed, Oct 15th

Today I had my six monthly check up at the dentist, and am glad to report that all is well. In fact, my dentist is so pleased with my progress that she doesn't want to see me for another six months. For some, this is normal. But for me, with my track record, this is great news.

Sun, Oct 12th

Today we had a ride on the train up to Finsbury Park to see Dad and were welcomed at the station by yellow tape cordoning off Stroud Green Road. Arriving at Dad's we found out that there had been a stabbing earlier this morning near the station. Later we found out that two groups of men had clashed leaving two seriously injured.

We spent a couple of hours with Dad. His visit to the hospital yesterday proved a waste of time. He could have answered the questionnaire over the phone, but hadn't been advised. On the way back we stopped at Nandos before catching a train home again.

Dawn finished her weekend chores while I updated the blog. Apologies for the delay. Hopefully it has kept you amused.

We also heard some exciting news from some friends of ours who are moving back to Canada from sunny Florida. They received an offer that good old MK could not refuse. I checked the Weather Channel and at the end of the month they will have a high of 35 and low of 18. Boy, I know we wanted to get away from Bush and the hurricanes, but I didn't realise it had gotten so that bad........

Sat, Oct 11th

We had to reschedule our whole weekend because Dad had to pay a visit to one of his hospitals regarding his cataract operations. As we still wanted to see him this weekend, we decided to see him on Sunday and do most of the other chores today. First though we ran our shopping errands to Tesco, the Co-op Pharmacy, Oxfam, the local petstore and Waitrose. We then had a ride up to The Tilbury at Datchworth to use some coupons we cut out of local Mercury newspaper. Yes, I had fish and chips again. But, thankfully you don't have to endure the photo.

Back home Dawn then had her Sunday video call with Brady. Then, after I had prepared dinner (steak and bake), we sat in front of the television and watched Strictly Come Dancing and X-Factor. Dawn was in heaven when little Leon Jackson sang a song from his new album. No more need said there.

One other interesting thing happened today. Following my idea to study something in the environment field, I today I decided I may enroll for a distant learning course with University of Bath. It means three months of hard work, but if I complete the course in question, it would give me a pretty good qualification that may come in handy.

Fri, Oct 10th

Last day of the week and the two of us were more than happy to call this week over. It has been an especially long one for me. I am finally getting around to posting the September invoices onto the ledger, preparing the expenses for next week's payment run, and spoke to countless suppliers regarding why we have yet to pay their overdue invoices.

Dawn on the other hand had a nice chat with her sister Kelly. Thanks to the 5 hour time difference and Kelly's hectic weekends, the only time Dawn can get hold of her is during Kelly's lunch breaks (around 6pm our time). At least they were able to catch up on how things have been, and Dawn enjoyed that.

Oh, and for the record, Dawn still has her nasty cough. That's three weeks nearly...

Wed, Oct 8th

Today I finally gave into reason and decided that I should further my career instead of making excuses to vendors and suppliers as to why a cheque has not arrived in the mail, designing timesheets and generally playing with invoices and nominal codes.

So tonight when I met Dawn on the platform at Enfield Chase (she now gets the Gordon Hill train that arrives at 16:49 and gets off to meet me), I told her that I was thinking of studying something in the environment field. What that will be I don't know yet. But give it a chance and something will come up. At least I have made a decision instead of sitting on backside and waiting for the something to happen to me.

Sun, Oct 5th

Needless to say, the spare room never got done again today. I know. You all think I am lazy and can't be bothered. Sadly, I have to agree when it comes to DIY. But, it will get done eventually, I promise. At least I went into the kitchen and kept busy there. Excluding breakfast and lunch, I made a large pot of chicken soup after roasting some chicken, made some crab cakes and pepper sauce, and then roasted some chicken pieces to take to work for lunch. I got out of cooking a dinner tonight, though, as we had some of the chicken soup.

Dawn did the usual weekend chores before we sat down and watched American Gangster.

Sat, Oct 4th

Today we had a nice visit from Hayley. The last few times Hayley has been down we have gone back to the house and had a chat and something to eat. This time, though, we showed Hayley around Hertford and went for a bite to eat in the Woolpack. Dawn made a big fuss how once again I gave into temptation and ordered the fish and chips.

Afterwards we drove back via Hertingfordbury and St Marys Church so we could show Hayley where her great-great-great grandparents Eli Cooper and Lavina Furr we married over 130 years ago.