Sun, May 30th

We had a nice lie in this morning because we didn't have to go anywhere or really do anything. I watched recordings of Dr Who and Stargate Universe before making breakfast. Did a little work and then had a shower. Dawn did the vacuuming and I laid with Tiny while she did downstairs. But all in all we took it easy.

I did call Dad this evening and we watched some TV. But basically we did almost nothing for a change. It felt so good, to be honest.

Sat, May 29th

After the last few weeks, we were more than happy to make it to the long weekend. I know I had a long weekend two weekends ago. But life is hectic at the moment.

Anyway, we grabbed a latte at Caffe Yumm and then picked up some odds and ends before making our way to the Old Barge on the Folly, next to the river, for lunch. Then it was off to Tesco to fight the crowds and home again.

We spent the rest of the day chilling out in front of the television or with the newspapers. Although, if truth be known, I was also logging onto my work's network and doing the odd hour of work here and there.

Fri, May 28th

Well it had to happen. My boss started his 10 day holiday today and we needed to pay the balance of the salaries. To cut a long story short, we spent all day trying to get it done only to fail. We were using a new bank for this payment and it didn't go through. Needless to say, a lot of staff were not happy.

I had a meeting this morning with a couple of guys from the company who supply our vehicle trackers and this too didn't go as they had planned. Firstly they didn't realise that their company had disabled the trackers on Monday, and secondly to find out our company was now a new company. Fun ahead, that's all I can say.

By the way, Tiny has a new favorite resting place. While I lay on the couch, she wants to lay on me.

Thur, May 27th

I left work a little early today so I could have my periodical visit to the dentist. My visit in January was aborted prematurely because my gums were so sensitive, and I had to cancel last month's appointment because of work. You can therefore imagine my delight to know that all was well and that I don't have to go back for another six months. We get the simplest pleasures in life sometimes.

Tonight we watched the American Idol final and the results show. It meant that Dawn had to stay up until around 11pm. But she couldn't wait another night. She was also bitterly disappointed that Crystal Bowersox lost out to Lee Dewyze. Not that Lee is not good. She just felt that Crystal was different and deserved to win.

Wed, May 26th

Finally my company can move on after months of turmoil. This evening, after we had all gone home for the day, the chairman got the call to inform him that the management buyout was successful and a done deal. It doesn't mean that all our problems are behind us. But what it does mean is that we can move forward at last.

Tues, May 25th

Once again I drove Dawn into London so she could catch the tube from Turnpike Lane. This time she had a trip to Oxford for a seminar on Corporate Social Responsibility. Thankfully her return trip wasn't so late. I picked her up at Hertford North around 6:40pm with some Chinese take-away from Paddyfields.

Mon, May 24th

On the way home from work this evening, I dropped into Jessops in Enfield Town and picked up a Canon 550D for my birthday. Having read quite a few articles on the camera, I am sure that I will get as much use out of this camera as I did my old one. As for the old model, that is now in Dawn's trusted hands. She never really liked the compact one she had. Now she has a DSLR camera she can get her teeth into.

Sun, May 23rd

Dawn and I really tackled the back yard this morning. I finally got the big tree root up before extending the vegetable patch by fifty per cent. Dawn then transferred all the vegetables we had been growing inside the house into it. There are tomatoes and peppers in pots, plus courgettes, radishes, cabbage, cauliflowers and carrots. I think that's it.

By the time we were finished, we were both totally exhausted. This time my back and arms were aching more than my knees.

We tried to chill out by watching the film, The Wrestler, but we both felt it was crap.

Sat, May 22nd

Today we ran out and did our weekly grocery shopping at Tesco early so we could pop up and see Dad and George. After catching the train to Finsbury Park, we stopped off at Nandos for a light lunch before the walk down Tollington Park Road to see them.

This evening Dawn was glued to the television watching the Over The Rainbow finale. I had been routing for Danielle Hope for several weeks and was pleased to see her win the role of Dorothy in Sir Andrew Lloyd Webber's next box office smash. However, to tell the truth, I wasn't as glued to the TV as Dawn. I was watching the European Champions League final between Inter Milan and Bayern Munich on Sky Player. I was pleased the Italians won. They deserved their 2-0 victory.

Fri, May 21st

Following the problems last month with people getting paid on the last day of the month, our head boss decided to pay staff three quarters of the salary a week early. This way if there is a problem, at least they have the majority of the wages for the month. Last month it went down to the wire and with everything that is going on at the moment we don't want that happening this time.

Wed, May 19th

Today it was back to the train journey into work. Although Dawn had to leave work a little early today because she had her periodical visit to her dentist.

I am still fighting fires at work. No progress on my company's direction yet. Although I do have two of days of help to look forward to. With my boss and the credit controller now gone, I feel like the little boy by the dyke.

Oh yea, after some consideration, I finally decided what to get for my birthday. I had toyed with the idea of getting a netbook. But now I have decided to get a new camera. My Canon is over 5 years old and taken over 20,000 photos. It's only a matter of time before it plays up. Besides, I've already dropped it once this year and Dawn needs a good one next month when she goes on her trip.

Tues, May 18th

This morning I drove into London and dropped Dawn off at Turnpike Lane station. Dawn needed to get a train from Paddington to Bristol so she could attend a travel workshop in the west of the country and it was easier for me to drop her off rather than trying to leave even earlier by train.

Needless to say, Dawn was exhausted by the time she got home, which was gone 8pm. Considering we were up at 3:30am, she did well to stay awake all day and not miss her trains.

Dawn liked the look of Bristol, as the place she attended was on the water. It was just a shame she felt the time spent there was a waste.

Sun, May 16th

As much as neither Dawn nor I wanted to, we both headed into the back yard this morning to work on our vegetable patch. Within an hour we found a hidden wall UNDER the ground. Not what we wanted. After a little deliberation, we decided to cover the wall with soil and pretend it wasn't there. And surprise, surprise, we even finished stage one and got the first square ready for Dawn to transplant the stuff we have growing in the house. I then spent the rest of the day nursing my aching body while Dawn did her usual chores. She is a little dynamo!!

Sat, May 15th

Woke up this morning and spent a couple of hours logged onto my office network running countless reports needed for Monday. Although I wasn't at work the last few days, I was always in touch thanks to email. Yesterday afternoon I was informed that we have an audit scheduled for Monday morning, so it seemed sensible to print pdf files and just print out the hard copies when I get to work.

We then popped into town and did a little shopping, grabbed a nice latte in Cafe Yumm and then lunch in The White Hart. We of course made it home in time to watch the FA Cup Final from Wembley, which Chelsea won beating Portsmouth 1-0. Dawn was more interested in Over the Rainbow later in the evening.

Fri, May 14th

I could have gone to work today. But having booked two days off and with all the stress and additional workload I have to deal with, I thought it was well deserved. Sadly Dawn didn't book a day off, so I was on my own.

After dropping Dawn off at the station, I got stuck into the back yard before chilling out with Tiny. Before lunch I then popped out to Tesco to do the weekly grocery shopping and picked up some fish and chips from Carleys on the way home.

In between all this, I was in constant touch with the office with emails going back and forth.

Tonight I received a call from my brother David in Dublin to wish me belated wishes. That was a nice thought.

Thu, May 13th

Today I celebrated my 49th birthday with Dawn. And best of all was that we both had the day off work.

After waking up, I opened my cards and gifts. I received six cards in all. One each from Dawn, Hayley and Tiny, Dad and George, and Brady and Jim. Hayley also got me a Hairy Bikers cookbook, Dawn gave me a notebook (her main gift was later), Brady and Jim gave me some John Lewis vouchers, and Dad and George gave me cash.

After chilling out a bit, we had a ride over to John Lewis at Welwyn Garden City where I picked up a 1Tb hard drive before heading to Datchworth for a birthday lunch at The Tilbury. The food was excellent. We both had mushrooms and poached egg on toast with a Bearnaise sauce. I had fish and chips while Dawn had eggplant and veggies, and we shared a brownie with pistachio ice cream.

Tues, May 11th

Not surprising, today we were glued to the television as history unfolded in front of our eyes this evening. We had been watching the end of a film we had started the night before when it was announced that Gordon Brown was about to make an announcement outside Number 10 Downing Street. Little did we think that is was to resign as Prime Minister. We then watched in interest as, within less than 90 minutes, Brown had visited the Queen to resign, followed by David Cameron to accept the Queen's invitation to form a government and then he made a speech outside Number 10 himself to announce that the Conservatives and Lib-Dems would form a government. Five days after the Labour party had lost control, and 13 years after Tony Blair had defeated the Tory party, there was a conservative Prime Minister back in office.

Sun, May 9th

Today was a tiring day. With our fruit and veg growing in leaps and bounds, we really needed to get our back yard ready for them. However, that meant we needed to get out there today and make a start. I only did two hours before I had to call it a day. I cleared up the countless pebbles stones between the path and flower bed, attacked countless bamboo and tree roots, and turned over quite a bit of soil. Sadly, it felt like I had only made a small dent in the project. The back yard, on the other hand, had left my arms, legs and back aching again.

After lunch Dawn called Brady on the telephone to wish her Happy Mother's Day. Brady and Jim were getting ready to go to the beach, so they couldn't do their usual video call. Dawn then did the ironing while I watched Chelsea win the Premier League with a 8-0 win over Wigan. Spurs ended the season losing 4-2 to relegated Burnley. Thank God we beat Man City on Wednesday otherwise we would have missed out on the Champions League by finishing the season in 5th on goal difference.

The above photograph shows how far we have progressed in the back yard.

Sat, May 8th

This morning we did the Tesco grocery run and then decided to drive to Dad's instead of getting the train. My leg hadn't been hurting and I didn't want to push my luck. We filled up the car on the way and for the first time in my life it cost £1.23 per litre.

We dropped into Dim T for lunch and then popped up to see Dad and George. Dad has done pretty well since he got home from hospital four months ago. He had us worried, but he has been doing good.

Back at the house we watched a little television, had dinner and went to bed. I hoped that I wouldn't be woken up with pain in my leg, and again got my wish.

Fri, May 7th

Thankfully it was Friday. Again I had a late night last night due to the pain in leg. Went to work and again did my accounts colleague's work. I even did the banking on the way back to the station at the end of the day.

I caught the train home on my own as Dawn had her departmental meeting to attend and didn't get out of work until close to 5pm. I picked her up at the station when she arrived in Hertford and picked up some fish and chips from Carleys, too.

After dinner we watched a little television and were in bed by 8:45pm. Including me. I had hoped that the lack of sleep and my working week would enable me to get a good nights sleep. It worked.

Thur, May 6th

Election Day in the UK and I am pleased to say that for the first time since my wedding day in 1997 I was able to vote in a general election. I was in the US in 2002 and 2005 when Labour were returned to power.

When we got home from work I walked down to the electoral polling station, which was our local community center, and wrote an "X" on my ballot paper and placed it in the metal black box and returned home to do dinner. Again this evening I stayed up late (because of the pain in my leg) and watched the election results unfold. It was clear pretty soon that the expected hung parliament was on the cards. When I eventually made it to bed both Labour and Conservatives had 84 seats each with the target of 326 a long way off.

Wed, May 5th

I knew that this week was not going to be a good one. The accounts colleague who left early yesterday was off sick today. As luck would have it he is also on holiday Thursday and Friday. What this meant was that the Chairman asked me to step in and do his work for the next few days. We hadn't closed off April yet and we needed to get our debtors book up by the end of the week. So, in addition to doing my job, I am now doing his!!

Tonight on the way home we dropped into The Riverside so we could pick up some more plant pots for Dawn to re-pot our growing veggies. We also picked up a new stand too. One that we can place the pots on in the spare room and have them covered by plastic so Tiny can't eat them.

After dinner I stayed up to watch Spurs claim 4th place in the Premier League with a 1-0 win over Manchester City. This means that we enter the qualification round of the Champions League next season.

Tues, May 4th

Back to work and the stress level was already on the rise. Today was the first day without my boss who finished last Friday. We are still having major cash issues, and my only full time accounts work colleague left early to go to the doctor.

I have still not been getting a good nights sleep due to the pains in my left leg and was luckily able to book an appointment with a doctor at my local practice on the way home from work. The doctor spent no more than five minutes with me and decided that I needed to see an orthopedic specialist. The down side is that it may take a month or two.

Mon, May 3rd

Thank God the first Monday on May is a bank holiday. This meant that we could extend our vacation by a day and made our working week just four days.

As Dawn had done most of her chores over the weekend, she only had to do the ironing today. I on the other hand spent a fair amount of time in the kitchen. Made a fry up for breakfast, made some crab cakes for lunch, prepared a vegetable casserole for a couple of nights this week, and then with a cooked chicken I had picked up at Tesco did some brown bismatti rice and sauteed mushrooms with gravy to go with it.

Sun, May 2nd

This morning I drove down to the post office to get the newspapers for Dawn. The last three nights, pain in my left leg has woken me up and I've had to get up to prevent disturbing Dawn. After breakfast I then went to Tesco on my own while Dawn did the weekend chores and later had her weekly video call with Brady.

Otherwise I took it fairly easily. I watched Dr Who and Sanctuary that I had recorded and later in the day we watched the results from Over the Rainbow.

Sat, May 1st

Today we celebrated our 13th wedding anniversary. And I have to say that the years have truly flown by giving us both countless memories that we can cherish.

We started the day opening the cards we received which included one from my daughter Hayley, Dawn's mum (Brady), and as always Dad and George. Dad even called to wish us happy anniversary.

We didn't do much today because we had gone into London yesterday. However, we did go out for a special meal and had a really enjoyable meal at the Fox and Hounds in Hunsdon.