Sat, Jun 30th

It's been another hectic week at work for the two of us, and we were glad to make it to the weekend. Today we ran over to Welwyn Garden to pick up the bedroom skirting boards, and then onto Morrisons to do the weekly grocery shopping.

We then went home and after lunch I installed the skirting boards while Dawn did the laundry and vacuuming.

Once we got down to relax, I continued to update our family tree stuff into Family Tree Maker and load it on the net. I'll post the website address in Sunday's entry.

Sun, Jun 24th

Our bedroom finally looks like a bedroom instead of a war ravaged scene. For the last 9 months we have slept in a room where one of the walls and part of the ceiling had plaster damage as a result of me ripping out one of the fitted wall cupboards. Well, as you will know, last weekend we had a plasterer fix the damage and plaster over all the walls and the ceiling. That in itself made the room look 100% better. Well, today we moved the bed into the spare room again and with roller and brush I attacked the room with a pot of white emulsion. Now the room looks nice and clean. What a difference. All we need to do is put down some new skirting boards (baseboards) and find some new curtains and we can celebrate another room completed. It's just a shame that the rest of the house needs to be done, too. Watch this space for further improvements to our little home in Cecil Road. Unfortunately, you'll be watching for quite a while as we have plenty to do.

Sat, Jun 23th

Today was chore day again. We headed into Hertford town centre to do some errands, popping into Woolworth, the Co-op pharmacy, WH Smith to play the lottery (surprisingly we'd won £10 that we didn't know about), and Boots pharmacy. Then we headed over to Welwyn Garden City to pick up paint stuff for the bedroom and our groceries at Morrisons.

Back home Dawn did laundry and cleaning. She even found time to cut my hair. This was the first real cut I'd had since the hairdresser at Supercuts butchered my hair back in April. From now on Dawn will try and keep it under control. She shouldn't have too much of a problem as it's not really growing like it used to.

Fri, Jun 22th

Success on the family tree work. Following our visit to North Warnborough the other weekend, I have been trawling the net to try and find information about the White family in Hampshire. Well, through luck more than judgement, I have found out some more interesting stuff.

Firstly, I have been able to find out that my great-great grandad married someone called Emily Herridge. This had been a problem for me as two official records had her name as Merridge and Horridge. However, I'm confident that she was really a Herridge. What made this awkward to research was that she was the illegitimate daughter of Lucy Herridge who later married George Simpson. A half sister of Emily's later lived in Ealing before the turn of the century (1900) in the very same street that my grandad was born in. George Simpson was also a dairyman in the same area.

It's amazing how every direction I look in brings me back to milk. Emily Herridge, who married George White in 1869, remarried again after he passed away in 1889. Her second husband, Nathaniel Hatcher, also had ties to the dairy trade. One day hopefully I will be able to find the connection.

Sun, Jun 17th

Father's Day - Started the day by receiving a card from Dawn and Tiny. I also got a little ornament of a bear with Dad on it. Then, after breakfast of fried porridge and grits, we headed to Islington Cemetery to lay some flowers on Mum's grave. It was her birthday on Friday. I could have taken time off work and gone on my own (Dawn had to stay home because of the plasterer). But, seeing as we were going that way today to see Dad, we went today instead.

At Dad's we gave him a Freeview box and aerial, so he can watch up to 30 television channels. At present he can only see 5. I then copied a spreadsheet onto his laptop which had all the family tree stuff that I had been researching. It went back about 8 generations on both his mother and father's sides.

We then had a ride to the Gatehouse where we met my brother Phillip and the five of us (Jean stayed in Rainham to visit her dad's grave instead) had a nice meal and chat before we dropped Dad and George home and Phillip headed back to Essex.

Fri, Jun 15th

Today Dawn took the day off work to let our plasterer in to fix our bedroom. The walls and ceiling had been in a pretty bad shape since I pulled down one of the fitted cupboards. So to say we were pleased to get the walls repaired at last was an understatement. The guy arrived about 9.00am and didn't stop until around 6.30pm. He worked all day solid. But, by the time he left the room looked 100% better. However, he advised us that due to the damp in the room we should leave the windows open and sleep in a different room. This meant that we had to cram the bed into the spare room. This we did, and (pardon the phrase) we didn't have room to swing a cat. Needless to say, neither Dawn, Tiny nor I got a good night sleep. At least the bedroom looked ALOT better.

Mon, Jun 11th

Follow up to the problem with the wall light in the bedroom. You will be pleased that after picking up a switch today in town I was able to reconnect the electricity and lights this evening and now have it working. We just need to find an electrician to sort out the ceiling fan now.

Sun, Jun 10th

Today we picked Dad and George up and did a 160 mile round trip to North Warnborough/Odiham in Hampshire to do some genealogy. Dad used to tell me as a kid how he used to go down there and visit his Aunt Emmy with his dad back in the 1930s and during the second world war. So, we headed out early to see if we could find the house he used to visit. The drive took about an hour and a half, and when we got to Odiham we couldn't find a house that Dad remembered, or a house that looked like the one that a local historian sent us a photo of a few years back. Dad suggested that we try looking in Hook. So we drove the half a dozen miles and checked this out, too. This was when our luck all changed. I bought a local map in a newsagents in Hook and we immediately saw landmarks that Dad remembered. In particular a castle and stream. So we headed back to North Warnborough and on immediately entering the town for the second time I saw the house in the picture. We parked the car and walked back to check it out. In the window was an elderly man looking out. So, I made my way up the garden path and introduced myself and see if he could be of any assistance. We hit gold. After a brief chat he informed me that Emily White (Dad's aunt Emmy) lived in the Thatched Cottage next door. Unfortunately, she moved out during the war without leaving a forwarding address. The cottage, which was built around 1445, had been obscured by trees. But, Dad was pleased once we saw it. He was also delighted to see that a little bit up the road was the stream he kept mentioning and the pub across the road from where Aunt Emmy lived. We decided to have lunch there, The Jolly Miller, before heading home feeling so pleased for Dad. We later found out that the old man that helped us lived in a house, The Albion, that my great-great-grand parents used to live in way back in the 1890s.

Sat, Jun 9th

What a day. This morning we ran our usual weekend errands. Then this afternoon I tackled three electrical jobs in our bedroom so the walls and ceiling would be ready for plastering on Friday. However, things didn't work out as planned. First, I chased out part of the wall behind where the bed is so I could install a single wall light to replace the two we had. Did everything I was supposed to and then turned off the electricity to upstairs lights at the fuse board so I could disconnect the supply to the old lights and connect it to the new cable and new light. Problem number one was that whoever installed the lights connected them to the sockets circuit, not the lights circuit. So I had to turn off all the sockets in the house and do the wiring in the loft by flashlight instead.

Second problem was that when I connected the new dimmer switch to the light it blew. This resulted in the light staying on permanently. So I had to disconnect the light completely. As for replacing the ceiling light, there were three twin and earth connected to three connector blocks inside the light rose. I decided pretty quickly, as I couldn't tell which cable went back to the switch, to forget this job and get a qualified electrician to do it. Especially as the wall lights had been connected to the wrong circuit. The final job was a complete success. But, disconnecting an electrical socket that was three quarters up the wall WAS the easiest of the three tasks.

Wed, Jun 6th

Back to the physio again today. My shoulder's mobility and movement range has improved since my first visit. However, at the cost of more pain. I'm not complaining, as it's not too bad. I'm more relieved that I can move my arm more than I have been able to the last 6 months. It's still only about one fourth what I can do with my other arm. But, hopefully in time, and with exercises, I'll get there.

Sun, Jun 3rd

We had a hectic and busy weekend again. Yesterday we had a ride up to Welwyn Garden City to do our groceries and have a look in B&Q for some light fittings for our bedroom, and ordered a couple of fence pieces for our back yard. Back home, I spent most of the time on the computer.

Then today Dawn had her weekly video call before doing the weekly chores. I then spent a couple of hours scraping wallpaper from our bedroom wall. All I need to do is one more wall, and then replace the ceiling light with the new fan-light fitting we bought yesterday. We still need to find some replacements for the ones on the wall. Hopefully we'll be able to do them before the end of the weekend.

I also made some monster muffins for us. I baked a dozen or so for lunches and breakfast this week.

The day ended with a call to check on Dad and then an hour or so chilling out in front of the television. By which time we were both ready for bed, but not looking forward to the week ahead.

Wed, May 30th

Today after six months of aches and pains I finally got the chance to see a physio regarding my left shoulder. This was another example of the NHS. I may have had to wait for 6 months to see someone. But, it never cost us a penny. Plus, my visit next week is covered by my taxes, and any future visits too.

As for my shoulder. It appears that a sack of fluid that should protect the movement between tendons, cartilage and bone appears to have been damaged resulting in them rubbing together causing inflammation. I was told that with exercise I should be able to have the full use of my left arm again. It will just take time. After a little massaging and some exercises, my shoulder felt a little better.

Mon, May 28th

Today we enjoyed the last day of our long weekend. Dawn had her weekend video call with Brady, and as Michaela is staying with Brady and Jim at the moment we got the chance to see our niece for the first time since we were in St Augustine early last year.

The rest of the day was spent taking it easy while we still had the chance. I made a home made pea and ham soup before we chilled out in front of the television.

Sat, May 26th

Today was a long day for all three of us from Cecil Road. In Tiny's case, it was because we had left her alone in the house from a little after mid-day until a little after midnight. For many kitties, this may sound fine. However, Tiny is not used to being left in the house on her own when it's dark. She did well, though. Although we could tell that she was more than happy to see us when we got in.

As for the reason for being out so long on a Saturday. We got a train into London and visited with Dad and George before heading to the Royal Albert Hall to see Simply Red in concert. It was the fourth time Dawn had seen Mick Hucknall in concert and without a shadow of doubt the best concert of his she had seen. Even better than when we saw him at the Lyceum back in 1998 when we were right in front of the stage. This time we had a seat with a great view, the acoustics were perfect, and to wrap things up the 136 year old building literally rocked as the 8000 plus audience got to their feet for the encore that included everyone clapping their hands and dancing to "Fairground" and singing the chorus of "If You Don't Know Me By Now."

Fri, May 25th

Another busy week for the two Whites, with both of us eagerly looking forward to the long Bank Holiday weekend.

Dawn had a midweek dentist appointment that broke the week down. Unfortunately, it was a follow up to her check up two weeks ago and was for a filling replacement. The good news was that the cost of the two visits combined with the filling still came to a little over £40. Boy do WE appreciate the National Health Service. People may groan about taxes. But, we can assure you that this is far more reasonable than having to pay health insurance premiums PLUS out of pocket costs.

I had a nice surprise when I received a bonus from work. Everyone reached their targets recently, so I was rewarded for my contributions. It was a nice reward considering that I haven't been there three months yet, and am only halfway through my probation. As for how we are going to spend it, we'll probably put it towards the re-plastering job we need done on our bedroom. The less said about this the better.

Sun, May 20th

Well, it was an active day for us today, rather than being a day of rest. Dawn of course did more laundry loads before hanging most of it outside on the line to dry. She also cleaned the bathroom, vacuumed upstairs and down before doing the weekly ironing. I, in the meantime, took our cans, boxes and bottles over to the recycle centre in Ware.

When I got home, I then pulled up some weeds in the back yard, before doing the same in the front. I even trimmed the plants that had been overhanging the small wall and cleaned the path to the front door. I wasn't finished there either.

Once inside, I made a huge pot of chili, which will last about four meals. Made some burgers, so we can have them with eggs for breakfast this week. At the same time, I made some salmon patties so we can have them cold for lunch this week, and then finally made some jelly (gelatin, for you American readers) for our evening desserts. Next I edited a load of photos on the computer before calling Dad to check on him, and then finally sat down and started working on our Scotland diary. I am trying to finish it by the end of the month. So watch this space and look out for the link so you can read about our Highland exploits.

Sat, May 19th

Today we spent the morning running errands. First we drove into town, picked up my blood pressure prescription at the Co-op, bought some odds and sods for the home from Woolies and the local hardware store, got a couple of pens at WH Smith, and even helped out the local producers by getting some veggies and some stuffed olives at a couple of stalls in the street market. Next it was on to Morrisons in Welwyn Garden City for the weekly grocery shopping, before making it home just in time to down a quick salad before Dawn had her weekly video call with her mum at 1pm.

I of course plonked my butt in front of the television to watch the first ever FA Cup Final from the new Wembley Stadium. Watching the build-up, it dawned on me that it was 20 years ago this month that I was at the old Wembley Stadium with my eldest step-son Lee when Spurs lost to Coventry. That year I saw every FA Cup game we played, and even took Lee with me to the semi-final win over Watford in Birmingham.

After the match finished, I made some oven-baked nut-encrusted cod and haddock with some green beans. It tasted good.

Fri, May 18th

Thankfully this week is over with. Especially for Dawn who found out once she had walked to Old Street Station to catch her train that the damn station was closed due a power failure. Luckily she was able to make her way to Moorgate Station and catch a train from there. However, that just made her journey home today even longer than normal. She even had to change trains at Finsbury Park. I tried to make the evening start a little better by preparing some pan-fried salmon with fresh asparagus, baby courgettes, and cherry tomatoes.

As for work, it was a tiring week again. On a positive note, I was able to issue labour analysis figures to the department heads for the first time, and have worked out how to provide job costing figures for the first time too. It will be interesting to see how this pans out. As for Dawn, the less said the better. From the minute I pick her up until we walk in the door, she has plenty to say. The censor board, I'm afraid, has prevented me for repeating most of her comments.

Sun, May 13th

Today I celebrated my 46th birthday. Although I had an early call as Tiny wasn't feeling too good. She woke us both up early (about midnight), and had me up two or three more times before we finally got up for the day.

Dawn received a Mother's Day card from her little baby (it's Mother's Day in America). Then, when we got downstairs I opened my cards, and gifts from Dawn. I received a card from my brother Phil and his wife Jean (first in God knows how long), one from Brady and Jim, and one from our friend Judy in Florida. I of course got one from Dawn and Tiny, too. Dawn gave me a crystal candle holder from Ben Nevis, a tea bag holder, and a special mug. Of course, the best gift of all was herself.

Later we picked Dad and George up and had a nice birthday lunch at Brown's in Islington Green. Dad and George gave me a card each and some cash. It was nice to be able to spend today with Dad. It meant a lot to me. Oh yea, when we got to Dad's he gave us a large bag from my niece Denise that had a nice card and a whole collection of gifts for Dawn and me for our 10th anniversary. Denise and her boyfriend Ed dropped in to see Dad the weekend we left for Scotland. We were so disappointed that we weren't able to see them.

I ended the day sharing a chocolate cake with Dawn. Tomorrow we plan to get back on the South Beach Diet health plan. I think both of us have overindulged in our love for food a little too much recently.

Fri, May 11th

Well we survived returning to work after enjoying our ten day absence. However, I think both of us are the worse for wear. Dawn had more than enough meetings and appointments to re-organize and sort out. As for me, I returned to find out that one third of the previous week's timesheets had not been processed and the weekly manager's meeting did not receive its usual labour summary. This meant that I had to do my normal workload in a shortened week (they are needed by Wednesday), and complete the previous week's and review what was done. Friday evening could not come soon enough. As for the weekend, we plan to do our grocery shopping and household chores on Saturday, and then enjoy Sunday with Dad.