Advent 2011

This period of Advent has been busier than usual for me this year. Instead of the more usual one window per day, I have had to make at least six openings each day of the month. Otherwise I would not have completed my task on the 24th.

Well, its Christmas Eve today - and I have finished it!!


So here it is, for all to see ...

Yep - I have completed my Advent Colander . . .

Should It Stay Or Should It Go Now

Before ...

.. the end of November, a month's growth looked like this. Having decided to grow something for Movember, this is what was left having removed most of the white stuff. So should it stay or should it go?

Generally the reaction was favourable. It was said to be one of the better Movember efforts. I liked it - but with two reservations. Firstly - I knew someone sometime would stop me for directory enquiries - and secondly I was reminded of a schoolday's biology experiment involving a swab, a petrie dish and a teacher's moustache.

So, I made my decision. And I offer you the following photo so that you can decide if I made the correct one.

... and after ...

It Ain't Half Hot Mum

October seems to be the month of half marathons. It is a good time of year to push those extra miles after a summer of racing, and sets you up well for the winter months of preparation for a spring marathon such as London, Paris or Brighton. Locally, there is always a good choice - Cricklade, Swindon and Stroud - but this year I chose an event a few hours down the M5. And the start and finish was only 15 minutes from good friends of ours, so we were able to make a weekend of it.

Though it was the first weekend of October, it turned out to be one of the hottest days of the year, which meant a very tough 13 miles indeed on the Sunday morning. Many runners simply gave up, and some of the fastest sprints seen around the finishing area were by the medical staff rushing to help those who simply couldn't stagger the last few hundred yards around the outside of the playing field. I felt rough from about 8 miles and slowed - along with many others - to a finish time well outside my best, but in a good 13th position. And I did recover surprisingly well.

But I shouldn't really have been surprised about the heat - it was the Burnham Half Marathon!

Things I have to cope with ...

Must be rough at the seaside - today, some VW campervans turned up, surfboards on the roof, and inflatables jutting through the windows. Out jumped a group of surf dudes, who gathered around, putting up windbreaks, nicking my shovels to build sandcastles, and running in slow motion back and forth. In the end, I just had to give in, but before I left for home I managed to sneak a photo of them sunbathing all over my wall.

As you can see, on my current project, I have been overrun by beach nuts ....

My First Festival

It has only taken forty eight years and a very keen daughter for me to finally attend my first ever festival - and it won't be my last. Why I have never tried it before I don't know. Milly and I had a great time. Weather was perfect, of course, which helped, but WOMAD, even though it offered a range of lesser known bands drawn from all parts of the world, was as friendly, trouble free and well organised you could hope a festival to be. There were stars I did know - Booker T Jones with Green Onions and that cricket theme, I Am Kloot, Rodriga and Gabrielle who stole the show - and stars I know now. The standout performance was CW Stoneking, and if you don't know him then check out the link top right. I have had to have a musical fix of him every day since. Other bands who stood out were Penguin Cafe, Brassroots, Pacific Curls and The Savoy Family Cajun Band. We only saw about 25 of the live acts, so no doubt we have missed some other good performances. Perhaps we can catch up with them next year, where the 30th Anniversary promises to be an unforgettable festival. Maybe I will see you there .

Who Are Ya

Saw my first ever Twenty20 game last night. I have played in many over the years, but I suppose that various rounds of The Oaksey Bowl or local evening league never had the same attraction as seeing Muralitharan and Pieterson ply their trade at Gloucester. Surrey were beaten by a tight Gloucestershire outfit with both sides beating the rain that threatened all evening.

Apart from those two big names, there were other players that were worthy of watching - if only I had known that from the start. It was only after, that I had realised that we had been watching - as per the Dad's Army closing caption - the fastest world cup century scorer, the most recent call up to the England test squad, the England Ashes back-up wicket keeper, two other former England players and an Aussie international. Perhaps next time I should do some match preparation.

I recognised the umpire Peter Willey. No sign of Michael Holding though . . .

DIY SOS

There is only one thing I hate more than decorating - and that is paying someone else to do it. So it was with some trepidation that I took the opportunity of a son's school trip to Barcelona, to rid his walls of painted trains and overpaint with teenage greys and turquoises.

It turned out to be a memorable event - not for the reasonably tidy outcome and not for the 13 hours spent painting on the Sunday alone. It was the fact that I had to wear glasses throughout for first time. So it is official - I am turning into my late father. Appropriate, really, as the Sunday would have been his birthday. Somewhere in the loft I still have his paint speckled glasses.

We also have in common, the fact that we shut ourselves away in the room with only sounds for company using the latest technology. For me, it was itunes on shuffle on the laptop. For my father, I recall, it was a stack of birdsong LP's, probably on self loading, using a Morphy Richards mono record player.

I expect mother was listening to the Music with Pleasure boxset downstairs.