Sun, July 25th

Another busy week at the office. On Wednesday I had payroll training with TRG. We use them as a bureau service. I also spent the best part of the week on June's management accounts. This is something Steve used to deal with. So although I knew what needed to be done, I had to do it in the context of how he did things in the past, as well as it being the first full month of the new business.

Yesterday we met Hayley and went to Jamie Oliver's Fifteen restaurant in London to help Dawn celebrate her 50th birthday. Hayley had wanted to take Dawn out, so I suggested we go half on this place. It was well worth it. The food was excellent and Dawn fell in love with their Bloody Mary. As the restaurant was in Islington, we then drove over to Holloway to pay Dad a visit.

Today I spent a fair amount of time editing photos and uploading them to Facebook and Photobox. But, all in all, a good weekend.

Fri, Jul 16th

Today Dawn turned the big 50. So to celebrate we caught a connecting train to York for the day. We had a great time, spending virtually all day wandering around the historical streets, popping into York Cathedral and even having a wonderful lunch at the alleged birthplace of Guy Fawkes (the guy that tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament and has a special anniversary celebrated in his name every November 5th). You can check out all the photos on our Facebook pages.

Needless to say, we were exhausted by the time we caught the train home. However, the excitement wasn't over there. Our train to Stevenage was late arriving, so we had to wait another hour for the next connecting train to Hertford. Even a beer at a local Wetherspoon didn't calm Dawn down.

Thur, Jul 15th

Today we both took the day off work. Dawn because she was going to Champneys in Tring to enjoy a day of pampering at a spa, and me because I wanted to spend a day at home taking it easy. Little did we know fate would play a different hand. Well, for me, that is.

Dawn drove to Tring leaving me at home. However, an hour after leaving home, I got a phone call from her to inform me she had got a flat tire. Concerned that Dawn would not enjoy her special day, I called her a taxi and told her to enjoy her day at the spa and I would sort things out.

What that meant was walking to Herford North station, catching a train to Finsbury Park, getting a tube to Euston station, getting a train from there to Berkhampstead, and then walking a couple of miles to the car. I'm not complaining. I watched for the Green Flag guy, got the tire replaced at Kwik-Fit, and met Dawn at Champneys after a coffee at Starbucks in Tring. Dawn then informed me that she had spent a pound or two on extra goodies. This on top of the £20 for train fare and the cost of a new tire. Oh well, it could have been worse.

Sun, Jul 11th

One of those rare weeks when there is little to mention. Work has been work for the two of us. Dad hasn't been rushed to hospital.

Yesterday my daughter Hayley dropped down to see us again. We picked her up from the station and had lunch at The White Hart before heading back to the house.

I suppose the one thing worth mentioning is that a month of football live on TV came to an end today after Spain beat Holland 1-0 in the 2010 World Cup in South Africa. Sadly the interest for many English ended after we were sent packing by Germany several weeks ago.

Sun, Jul 4th

This week Natalie moved into accounts full time. That was a bonus for me seeing that the three people who had worked with me back in April were now all gone. In addition, two other colleagues resigned this week, too. Not to mention I had a meeting with our auditors. Then on Friday we had problems with the trains and had to go home via Cheshunt and Hertford East. So, all in all an eventful week.

Yesterday we had a ride up to Highgate where we had a nice lunch at DimT before dropping in to see Dad. Back at the house I spent several hours online dealing with invoices using terminal services.

Today we took things a little easy, bar the weekend chores. However, I did go in the front yard and pull up a load of weeds.