Tues, Mar 31st

My big day. First I had to deal with leaving Dawn on the train knowing that I wouldn't see her again until Thursday. She is attending an environmental conference at the University of Warwick and will be staying overnight in Coventry both tonight and tomorrow night.

Then, once I got to work I had accommodate BSI with as they reviewed our EMS. One that had only been put together over the last 6 months. Well the good news is that, as with 9001, BSI will recommend our certification to ISO 14001:2004. However, I did better than with the QMS. I only had three non-conformances. What an accomplishment. Even more rewarding is that I did this while also dealing with my accounts responsibilities and being on short time through January.

Another highlight was picking up fish and chips on the way home for dinner. I then spent the evening with Tiny. She was alot better than we feared. Needless to say, we still missed Dawn.

Mon, Mar 30th

Day one of the week I can't wait to be over with.

Today we had BSI in to complete stage 2 of our ISO 9001:2008 application. I can report that it went as expected and they recommended certification. We just have to notify them of how we plan to deal with the 5 minor non-conformances. Now we have part two of the plan tomorrow to get our other accreditation. The one that was left up to me to deal with.

Sun, Mar 29th

We lost an hour's sleep due to the clocks going forward. But on the bright side, it's now British Summer Time. However, the ice on the cars would seem to contest that point.

Watched the Australian Grand Prix and was delighted to see Jensen Button win the season opener for the Brawn team in their very first race. Even better was that Hamilton finished 3rd. Once that was over, it was go, go, go. Dawn did some of the weekend chores, but we spent most of the time on the laptops. I must have spent over four hours looking at over 100 pdf files to produce our company's legal register. We need it for Tuesday's ISO 14001 audit.

On the bright side, we didn't have to go out and were able to enjoy the cosiness of the house. We also had the pleasure of starting our compost. I tore up loads of cardboard, cut some grass and then added dead flowers and a container of tea bags and vegetable cuttings. The White (or should I say Green) family are on the go.

Sat, Mar 28th

Thank God it's the weekend. We just couldn't wait for last week to be over with. In fact, we chilled out so much that we didn't get to the grocery store until gone 9am. For us that is late. We then popped into town so I could get my blood pressure tablets and do some more grocery shopping and chill out at Starbucks.

The afternoon was more chill out time as we both worked on our computers and watched TV. We ended the day watching Juno. A nice relaxing film that enabled us to unwind even more without too much thinking.

Fri, Mar 27th

Our scales showed that I have now lost weight for 11 consecutive weeks and am back below 12 and a half stone at 174 1/2 pounds. Seems like Christmas increased my love handles just a little more than I would have liked.

Talked to Dad tonight and he sounded a lot happier to be home. Even better is that he won't have to go to the hospital on Monday for his blood test as a district nurse will be visiting him to take it.

Wed, Mar 25th

Dawn had another stressful day at the office today. She had a student work-shadowing her and her boss almost all day to see what goes on in environmental management. Best of all was that the student wasn't even registered at CU, and she was majoring in physics.

However, the day wasn't all bad. I can confidently look forward to getting paid on Friday. Plus we arrived home to find our new composter at the front door. Now we can look forward to composting all our used tea bags, toilet rolls, dead flowers and of course our vegetable peelings.

Mon, Mar 23rd

I am glad to report that Dad is back home after spending four weeks in a hospital bed. He wasn't happy that he didn't get a copy of his discharge letter, and that it was hell walking up several flights of stairs to the front door. He celebrated with a tin of spaghetti and toast. I am sure that compared to what he has been eating recently, to him it must have tasted like a gourmet meal.

Sun, Mar 22nd

As mentioned yesterday, we were away from the house most of the day. After our usual breakfast of sauteed mushrooms, baked beans, waffle and fried egg we headed out in the car towards Holloway. First we picked up George and took him to Nandos for lunch. We shared a pepper dip with pita, olives and half a chicken. George had a chicken pita with chips. It was the first meal that he hadn't cooked for himself in four weeks.

We then drove through God knows how much traffic to the cemetery. A gorgeous sunny Mother's Day brought out everyone and their son, causing us to fall a little behind our schedule. Anyway, we all laid some flowers on Mum's grave, and George laid some on our Grandmother's. Sadly neither of us knew her as she died 25 years before I was even born.

Then it was up to see Dad. He was in good spirits and looking forward to going home tomorrow. However, we still have to keep our fingers crossed as his INR was way up on Friday. If it's up again tomorrow they may keep him in there a little longer.

George stayed with Dad after we left and we headed home to Hertford for Dawn to finish her weekend chores by doing the ironing. Neither of us is looking forward to the week ahead. It's anyone's guess what we have in store.

Sat, Mar 21st

Today we spent all day at home. Or well as good as. We ran over to Tesco to do the weekly grocery shopping, then spent the rest of the day at home because we would be out most of Sunday. However, this also meant that Dawn had to do most of her chores today which she did in between lunch and an excellent honey roast chicken with butternut squash dinner. Dawn also had her weekly video call with Brady. All in all we were just pleased to be able to chill out after the week we'd had.

Fri, Mar 20th

Thank God it's Friday. Both of us said that. For me, I am counting down the days until my next pay day. I am also counting down the days until the ISO 14001 audit. That has a few more, but thankfully will be behind me once we hit April.

For Dawn, she had to do two presentations today. One was to some of the 65 environmental champions that she has rounded up through one method or another to assist her in changing the world. Well, at least what she has an influence over at CU. But heh, she is making an impact. And far more than those of you who feel they can't make a difference. She then had to do a second one for her department's quarterly staff meeting. Both in fact went very well. But it doesn't alleviate the stress that builds up until they are over. Well done, Mama Beaver. Check out Dawn's Facebook if want to know why she is called this.

Good news (hopefully) from the hospital. Dad called and they have scheduled to send him home on Monday. Of course he needs to get through the weekend first. But compared to last Friday when we thought he was still waiting to have surgery, this is a huge step.

Thur, Mar 19th

This isn't really something just for today. It's been happening a lot over the last week or so, but I wanted to write about it when I had nothing else much to report. Dawn is getting hooked on FACEBOOK.

Dawn set up one for us ages ago for our personal friends, although most of the friends on it are people I work with and some people we know from Florida, and one for her to network with her college folk. However, neither really hit off as we aren't that sociable. But recently she was contacted by some people she knew way back when (won't say how long ago) and now she is dredging up old acquaintances from everywhere. In fact, both our blogs have links to our Facebooks now.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, we're just amazed at how easy it has been to contact people who haven't been in contact for the longest time. If you haven't tried it, give it a go.

Wed, Mar 18th

Once more Dawn had to travel all the way to CU on her own on the train as I was driving to work again. Neither one of us likes this, but hopefully there won't be too many more times now.

Again, I drove over to the Whittington to see Dad and was delighted with his appearance. I know that I keep saying that he is looking better each time. But this time he looked as good has he had before he went in. Even better was that I was able to speak to one of the doctors face to face.

The latest is that the bone scan came back with nothing to be alarmed about. They are also not going to operate on his kidney because that has begun to function again through medication. The plan is to see if he will be well enough to go home next week. I think he wants that more than anyone. Bumped into George as I was leaving. Still no sign of my other brother Phillip paying Dad a visit yet.

Tues, Mar 17th

Worked all day on environmental matters at work or as Dawn puts it - had my environmental hat on today. With just two weeks to go until our final ISO 14001 registration audit, I have enough to do.

No news from the hospital on Dad's condition. I will have to wait until Wednesday, when I go up there myself.

Finally, ordered a small electrical appliance meter so we can check how much electricity we waste leaving pieces of equipment on. Worse still how much they use when we are actually using them.

Mon, Mar 16th

No milk today, as the old 60s song goes. We had no milk delivered and no explanation. Oh well, I thought it was too good to believe.

Dawn mailed out our 2008 US tax return, which will keep good old Uncle Sam happy for another twelve months. Thankfully he won't be getting his hands on any income thanks to the foreign income threshold being so high. Or should I say our joint income being so low!!

Finally some progress on Dad's situation. He finally went for a bone scan. Now we just have to wait for the results.

Sun, Mar 15th

First an update on Dad's condition. Tomorrow will be three weeks since his admission into the Whittington. He arrived with a heart problem, which changed to a kidney problem coupled with breathing issues. He has also been scheduled for a bone scan and a kidney operation. However, neither of these have occurred as of yet. He has lost a few pounds in weight and is as bored as can be and can't wait to get home. Sadly I can not predict when this will be. He has looked better each time I have seen him. However, he still seems a little too weak to go home just yet. But, that is my opinion and I am not a doctor.

As for the two of us, today we took it easy for a change. Dawn of course did her chores, but the rest of the time we spent on the computer, watching television, sorting paperwork (including our 2008 US tax return) or eating. I add the last because I did a wonderful oven-baked chicken with butternut squash and broccoli that we just loved.

Sat, Mar 14th

Thank God it's the weekend. Today we spent the the day around Hertford and the house. Did the weekly shopping at Tesco and then ran into town for our haircut. As usual we stopped off at Starbucks and chilled out for a while with a skinny cappuccino. I wrote some notes for the upcoming week at work, while Dawn did some Suduko. We called into the Co-op to pick up a prescription and ran into the Oxfam shop before making it home in time for some lunch.

On our never-ending path to becoming as environmentally friendly as we can, we ordered a composter over the web. We have already reduced our general waste substantially through recycling and being careful of what we buy. Now, when it arrives, we will be able to recycle uncooked food waste along with plant and brown waste.

Dawn had her video call with Brady today for a change. I am not sure exactly why it was brought forward a day, but it will help with Dawn's chores the rest of the weekend.

Fri, Mar 13th

Yes, Friday the thirteenth again. I had no fears about this being an unlucky day. This has been an unlucky year so far, so one day wasn't going to make any difference. However, I do have a cold now. But I can assure you this is the last of my concerns with Dad back in hospital again.

Today was also Red Nose Day in the UK. Every two years the entertainment industry in the UK leads the country by example in laughing at itself and raising money for charity. So far, despite the credit crunch, over £54 million has been raised. This was up a third on the previous record two years ago.

Wed, Mar 11th

Dropped Dawn off at Hertford North so she could catch a train to work, then drove to Enfield. Thankfully I only had half a day today (which was still nearly 6 1/2 hours). Then it was over to the Whittington Hospital to visit Dad again.

Dad, I can report, is in good spirits despite no sign of his much-need kidney operation. Now they want to do a bone scan, too. He did look a little better than he did last Saturday, but was still on the oxygen. He has lost a little weight, too. But he could do with that, so that's not a problem.

Finally, this evening we got an unexpected knock at the door. A local dairyman wanted to know whether we would be interested in receiving milk deliveries. We jumped at the chance to have milk delivered in glass bottles that can be collected and recycled. Our new deliveries should start on Monday.

Tues, Mar 10th

The good news is that Dawn has finally received her coursework from the University of Bath and can now start doing the IEMA course alongside me. I have already had three months head start, but work and other pressures have made progress pretty slow.

Sun, Mar 8th

Today was our day. After all that has been happening, we felt that today we could just try and relax a little. However, Dad's condition and my job were not far from our thoughts. Not to mention Dawn's workload. She is more than happy with her new role as Environmental Officer. However, she has more work than she can hit a stick at. So in addition to her Sunday chores, reading the Sunday papers, and her weekly video call with Brady, she also worked on environmental stuff for work. Like the old saying goes, no peace for the wicked.

One last thing before I close for this week. I don't know whether you regularly check Dawn's blog, but every week she posts a brief comment or two about a topic close to her heart. Or more to the case, the public's heart. There's a link on the side of this blog called Dawn's Diary. Check it out and come back every week.

Sat, Mar 7th

Saturday at last. What a week. Thankfully I didn't have to go to work today, and I could also see Dad so would have a better idea of how he is doing. First though, we had to do the Saturday chores. I ran up to Tesco to do the weekly grocery shopping and then dropped into our local sorting office to pick up two environmental books that I had ordered that were too big to deliver through our letter box in the week.

Together we then popped into town to do a little more shopping before trying out Brasserie Gerard for lunch. It's a new (chain) restaurant that opened up in Hertford a few months ago. We shared an onion soup, salad nicoise, and pork pate with bread. Sadly it was overpriced and the service left a lot to be desired, so we won't be going back there again.

We then drove over to Highgate in North London to visit Dad. When we arrived at the Whittington I was pleased to see that Dad looked even better than he did on Wednesday. On the down side, he was still on oxygen and had still hardly been out of bed. Monday will be two weeks since he arrived. We also discussed his forthcoming surgery. Because of Dad's health, the doctors have decided to carry out the surgery under a local anesthetic. That made me feel a little better. But I have to admit that we're still concerned about his long term health.

George arrived before we left so at least this time we were able to talk with him a little before heading back home. Back home, we saw the day out watching American Idol and a 1971 film, Walkabout.

Fri, Mar 6th

When Dawn and I arrived home there was a brief message on our voicemail from Dad, so I called him back immediately. Hearing his voice on the recording was encouraging because it meant that he had come through his surgery. However, when I spoke to him he had news that I did not expect. Instead of a pure exploratory operation, the doctors had planned to insert a stint near his malfunctioning kidney. Sadly his IR was too high, so now it's scheduled for Monday.

Thu, Mar 5th

Tonight we got a call from George to tell us that the doctors are taking Dad down for an exploratory operation in the morning. Some of the things George said did not make sense. However, it didn't alleviate our concerns regarding Dad. Now we will be on pins and needles wondering what the doctors are looking for and whether it has anything to do with his cancer.

Wed, Mar 4th

This morning I dropped Dawn off at Hertford North and drove into Enfield. My boss had approved my request on Monday for me to leave around lunch time and visit Dad at the Whittington. However, it didn't make this morning any better for me at work. I'll be glad when this week is over. Things are just too tense for my liking.

As for Dad, he looked a lot better than he did on Friday. That's mainly because he seems to be getting over the chest infection. However, he is still on oxygen and is still not getting out of bed much. I just think it will be a while before he is back on his feet again or back home. On leaving I bumped into George who seemed a little too preoccupied with something else to notice me.

Tues, Mar 3rd

Update on Dad. Spoke to George again this evening. He said that Dad has a bad kidney, can't breathe very well and isn't eating much. Thankfully I'll be popping up to the hospital on Wednesday so I can see how he is for myself.

Mon, Mar 2nd

Back to the grindstone and the recognition that the problems faced in February have not gone away. Within 10 minutes of arriving at the office my boss recieved a call from the bank. Several more phone calls took place before I left for the station. Now they want to come in and see him to check one or two things over. Great.

Dawn had attended several meetings at work today and was back in the environmental mode. I just wish I had a job where I could deal with environmental issues day in and day out. Instead I have to explain to creditors why their cheque is not in the mail. I used to explain that we hadn't paid because the cheque must still be in the mail. However, some of our debts are so old that that explanation doesn't wash.

Tonight we had leftovers of the chicken bake from Sunday and it was excellent. Will make another variation of this dish at the weekend. We also watched Junebug.

I also called the hospital and the staff nurse said that Dad hadn't been coughing today and that he seemed a little better. I asked her to let Dad know that I had called and would be up in a day or so.

Sun, Mar 1st

Let's hope that the new month is a little better than February.

After the usual Sunday morning routine of picking up a Sunday Times for Dawn, relaxing with an episode of Stargate Atlantis, and a nice plate of baked beans, mushrooms, waffle and egg, we got stuck into our list of things to do. Dawn finished off her weekend chores while I drove over to Ware to drop off a load of aluminium cans, plastic bottles, glass bottles and cardboard before stopping at Tesco to pick up some carnations for Dawn.

Again I went through some of Dawn's environment papers (as well as completing one of my IEMA assignments) before making a seafood cocktail for lunch.

This afternoon Dawn's video call with Brady didn't happen again because of technical problems, so Brady called Dawn. I meanwhile watched Spurs lose the Carling Cup Final to Manchester United on Sky. In between I prepared a baked chicken dish from a Weight Watchers magazine. I made enough for two nights and it was excellent.

I called Dad on his cell phone this evening and was pleased to speak to him. However, he was constantly coughing. He is still on oxygen and a nebulizer though.

We ended the night watching the remainder of There Will Be Blood before calling it a night.