The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown

I've kind of half watched the film a few years ago, which means that I've probably started watching it and then not been thrilled so wandered off and done something else or I've fallen asleep! I had massively high hopes for this based on how much I'd enjoyed Angels and Demons and whilst it was good, it could not reach the heady heights provided by DB's first book due to its wonderful setting, intriguing plot and non-stop intrigue.

Set mostly in Paris, but towards the end switching to London and Scotland it is again religion-based, again based on the hero Robert Langdon, but this time with a different beautiful female sidekick. Insted of trying to save the Vatican, Langdon finds himself in the search for the Holy Grail which will confound religious teachings. Again, it is a story of codes and puzzles, and how they are solved using a series of historical clues.

Overall, a good effort and very enjoyable. If I'd read this before A&D then I think I would have thought it fab but after it, then it just did n't quite hit the mark. I'm not sure I'll be able to find the motivation to read Brown's latest offering, The Lost Symbol. Having looked through it in the supermarket it seemed to be completely about the codes and puzzles and someone who has read it suggested the same, without my prompting. Back to Harlan Coben for me!

The Shadow in the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon

This was the first book I read this year. A lady I dated for a while thought it was the best book she'd ever read. We were n't together long, but that's not because of her taste in fiction.

It is undoubtedly a good book. The novel tells about the experiences of a young boy named Daniel living in Barcelona, who one day innocently comes across a book called 'The Shadow of the Wind'. After enjoying the book, he is puzzled as to why nobody, even those knowlegable in literature, seem to know anything about the novel's mysterious author - Julian Carax. It is his curiosity to discover more about the life of Julian that sets him on the path to a thrilling but equally dangerous adventure.

The characters are good and the story is good. The scenes are well described and the Barcelona setting was interesting too. For me the highlight was the character of Fermin Romero de Torres, who is hilarious. It was a page tuner, but I could put it down :-)

Juggling ...... at Christmas

Christmas is the most wonderful time of year, with time spent with loved ones, presents, food, alcohol and a good few days off work. However, before all that can start there is the juggling ...... where will you go, who will you invite, for when exactly?

The last two years I have not had my kids overnight on Xmas Eve, in fact last year I spent Xmas Eve and Xmas morning on my own until I picked the kids up from there mum's at lunchtime and we went across to my brothers. So, this year I was realy looking forward to havnig the three little scallywags here for Xmas night. However, it seems No 1 son will be going to his girlfriends, which came as a nasty shock. I emailed him back and suggested he might spread himself around a bit so me and his mum might get to see at least a little of him but no, he does n't want to split his day 3 ways. So, after much grinding of teeth and then some wise words from the very clever (as well as very beautiful) Kate, I texted him to tell him to do what he wanted and it would be fine. I did n't mean it of course, I did invite him and his gf but it seems her offer is better than ours :-(

I'm still waiting to hear if my brother, sister-in-law and nephew might be coming over on Friday 23rd / Saturday 24th. If they do Mum might be around, and as said gf has not meet them there might be more chance of Tom and her coming over. Xmas Eve and morning the kids are with me and then when I drop them off I'll be driving to Lowestoft as I've had a very kind invite from Kate's parents to join all of them for dinner. I'll be just about ready for a glass of something alcoholic by then :-)

Five Ways to Kill A Man by Alex Gray

Kate pushed this in my direction and I quite enjoyed it.

Set around Glasgow the double murder of a popular and successful couple seems completely separate to the serial killings of random old ladies. But as DCI Lorrimor gets closer to the truth and assailant gets closer to his own family it becomes clear that everything is linked together. Without a rollercoaster story but engaging characters, good descriptions of an area of the country that I used to live in and more than enough content I found this became difficult to put down towards the end. I'll go back to Alex Gray to read some more.

Building for a future......

It's an interesting time, for me and in fact for the whole world, in terms of financial change. With the current issues facing the Euro and the impact that could have, indeed is having, on the UK economy then lots of things seem a bit uncertain.

I feel quite lucky (although I suspect that the people around me would remind me that we make our own beds!) in that my income significantly exceeds my outgoings even after I have contributed generously towards the up-bringing of my children. On the downside, the resolution of the divorce settlement may have left me without having to contribute to a very large mortgage but it has also left me without equity. Clearly, there is a need to build up funds, which should happen relatively quickly, even without that lottery win which I know is just round the corner ;-)

BUT as everything changes and I head towards my mid-forties (or at least that is where I will be the time I've saved up a significant deposit) what does the future hold??? Is buying a place of my own really the best idea? I'm not completely sure. I do like the fact that as a tennent in my rented house if ever I find the boiler is n't working or the rain is coming for example I can just ring up the agents and it get's fixed, at no cost or fuss to me.

If I want to buy a similar place to that which I'm renting now (on a 20 year mortgage without a significant chunk of equity) then the monthly mortgage repayments would be a lot bigger than my rent, and most of that would be gifted to the bank in interest. There's much to ponder, even if I were to buy alone, and that might not be the case as my relationship with the gorgeous Kate seems to go from strength to strength, and in time we might like to bring our lives closer together.

I think there is time to think whilst I'm saving. Time to watch the economies of the world and see what happens in the uk with the buying market, and time to see how things develop with Kate. At some point, I think some money spent on an hour with my Independent Financial Advisor might be a sound investment.

The Well by Peter Labrow

Wonderful book this one (but then for over £7 new from Amazon, it had to be!). Great flowing and imaginative story littered with well-though out characters and good sub-plots. Based on an old curse from a witch who now haunts the well and ruined buildings, two children fall in. A lady in the village, a direct descendent from a line involved in the original incident can see things and knows what is going one. Her young daughter has a great er gift. Throw into that a wanna-be pedophile stalking kids trying to help the victims and there is enough suspense to make a 12 hour flight Japan speed by. It's Labrow's first novel and I look forward to future contributions, even if they are expensive!

Yokohama

At the start of the month I had the opportunity to go to Yokohama. The Japanesepharamceutical company that I work for has this year moved from Osaka to a wonderful purpose-built facility in Shonan, not far from the city of Yokohama (and indeed Tokyo). It was my first visit there and was requested because the project I am leading is going well at an advanced stage. I flew out overnight on the saturday, arriving at my hotel late afternoon sunday and stayed until Thursday. Ob Monday i presented the project to a large auditorium of managers and young researchers. I'd had a bout 10 hours sleep in the last 72 and so scheduled to present at 3:30 in the afternoon, my performance was good, if not sparkling. Then I had two days of samller breakout meetings regarding various projects and initives between the departments in Cambridge, Japan and California. It was really great up to meet up with old friends from both sites and the Japanese guys were so hospitable as usual. A few weeks before leaving I received an email from a guy I met at a conference at the start of the year (we are friends on fb too) and he invited me out with a group of chemists to the local craft beer restaurant. Nice. The following evening I was out with a different gropu including one of the funniest Japanese guys I've ever meet. Derek, from California, had a flight to catch straight after dinner and after "a few" could not be convinced that more sake was the right thing to do. Enter Kawamoto-san ..... "But Derek, it's a-w-e-s-o-m-e dude"!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The pictures were mostly taken from my hotel window, on the 57th floor. The square building contains the hotel (from floors 52 to 70, I think). Not my favourite place to be in an earth-quake torn area. I'd wake up in the mornings (actually, I'd been awake for hours more like!) when I'd wander over to the wall of my room that was all glass, carelessly through open the curtains and see that I was a mile up in the sky. Back away from the window David, back away from the window!!!!!

Beach Road by James Patterson

I was lent this and I'm glad I did n't pay for it even secondhand prices. I'm amazed I finished it at all but once I've started something I find it difficult to turn away. I did n't guess the ending, I think, because I was completely uninspired to think about it. My first and last Patterson??

............ and sleep!

We need it, we love it and when we are not getting good sleep then we really know about it in how we feel all day long. I think it is a bit like drinking lots of water in that way.

When we were kids we never appreciated it did we? We would hate to go to bed and do everything in our powers to draw out the day. As teenagers we would stay up late and lie in late to make sure we had enough. As people get older it often seems harder and harder to get a good night.

My own sleep pattern is pretty regular, and I'm a pretty good sleeper. When the light goes out, so do I, virtually every night. I tend to sleep deeply for about 5 or 6 hours and then seem to toss and turn a little as my mind resurfaces and thoughts begin to dance around. Depending on the season, the early mornnig sun coming into my room can exacerbate that. However, I'm lucky, as I said, because I know a lot of people have trouble getting good sustained sleeps and they have my sympathy.

Why this, why now? Well, I'm currently suffering from jet-lag. I'm out in Japan as I write, on a business trip and it has really screwed with my sleep routine. This was not unexpected as it has played out pretty similar to my previous visits to the Land of the Rising Sun, of which there have been about half a dozen. Flying over on Saturday night (12 hours flight) I managed about 5 hours, but then I am lucky to work for a bloody good company who pay for a business class seat. Sunday night I also managed about 5 hours but Monday night was 3 hours and last night 4 hours. I make that 17 hours sleep in the last 105 hours, about half of my norm.

On Monday afternoon I had to give a big presentation to a rather large audience made up of both senior maangers and young researchers. I'd prepared thoroughly so no surprise that it went well and I handled the questions well too. But I was shattered before I even got up to stand. I had to think really hard and be completely focussed. I seem to loose time and was surprised to find myself on the last slide. Whilst it was perfectly fine it was some distance away from the dress rehersal I did in front of my co-workers on Friday - just flat, I guess.

This afternoon in one of my meetings I turned into the proverbial nodding dog, and walking back from lunch and checking the old iphone, something I mastered a long time ago, I came within inches of loosing all my street cred by walking into a wall!!!

The jet-lag is a minor issue within loads of great things about being here. The food is always wonderful and gerenally to my tastes, I enjoy spending time with colleagues out of the office thereby getting to know them better, the science is always good and I learn loads but most of all the people are just so hospitable I find it quite humbling. Tonight I'll be taken out for dinner again and my offer to pay or contribute will certainly be turned down. One guy popped by and left me quite a few bottles of beer in a bag in my temporary office as well. I'm not sure how I'll manage to get them on the plane, but it might be best if they are within me ;-)

So, here's to good sleep, distance friends and sake!

Seasons of change!!

Don't you just love Autumn? I love living in the uk because of the seasons. Sure, we don't get much real summer and it's often a bit cold and wet but have you seen the wonderful colours and the early morning mists we've had recently? Throw a bit of autumnal sunshine onto those and what sights they are.

I think Spring and Autumn are my favourite times of the year. In summer my hay-fever tends to kick in and I don't sleep as well due to the sun coming through my curtains so early. In May the world seems to come to life again and it's my birthday ;-) We all start dreaming what we are going to do in the summer, our holidays, weekends or even days away. As I said Autumn has the mists and the colours - great for photography and we can all start dreaming about Halloween, Bonfire night and then, ultimately, Christmas. Winter is great becasue on those dreary cold days it's a good excuse to just snuggle up with a good book.

So I love the changing seasons of this country and the variation it all brings. This weekend the clocks fall back, bring it on I say. Anyway, I won't notice because I'll be on a plane to Tokyo on Saturday night :-)

Nobody True by James Herbert

Yep, another good yarn here. Based on the story of a guy who growing up discovers how to use out-of-body experiences, only to be murdered in his early thirties whilst absent from his body. His brutal slaying is made to look like the work of a serial killer but it is not. He works this out because around the moment of his death he finds himself in the serial killers flat. Caught between life and death he battles to stop the murderer whilst discovering the betrayal of his wife and best friend who actually killed him. Great twists and turns, most of which I did n't see coming.

The Woman in Black by Susan Hill

Finished this last night. It's not long, about 160 pages. Whilst not a riveting read it was a better effort than "The Small Hand" by the same author which I read recently. The writing still seems quite old-fashioned and not really very captivating, it is a book I could easily put down, and often did, but managed to read it over three days (sat, sun, mon eve) so had no problem going back to it. The story revolves around a junior solicitor in bygone days who is sent to grim north to sort out the affiars of an elderly lady who has died. She lives on an island which can only be accessed when the tide is low. He first sees the ghost, the lady in black, at the funeral of the old woman and then again in the graveyard on his first visit to the island. He eventual flees the area whilst he still retains his sanity to return to London but sometime later is revisited with a bit of a kick. Decent ending.

I'm not finding these horror stories at all scary, maybe I should n't read them in the day time but should read them in the night by candlelight??!!!!

Ok, who's up next, ah Mr Herbert, an old friend.

It might take me a while to get through this one so in the meantime I'll write about the books I read in the first half of the year!

Echos From The Dead by Johan Theorin

Read this last week and a good yarn it is too. Set on the Imaginary Swedish island of Oland this was my first foray into Scandinavian thrillers (I seem to have bypassed Steig Larsson!!). Anyway the reviews on Amazon looked good with greater than 4 out of 5 stars and lots of write ups. The story is based around the disappearance of a small boy about 20 years ago and the resurrected search by his elderly grandfather, and to some extent his mother, following the arrival of one of his sandals in the post. The plot is strong; most chapters are split between the present time (1990’s) and the past based around the main suspect for the widely believed murder. The characters are engaging, the setting is well described and evocative and the twist at the end, whilst being well within the realms of reality, came as a surprise. Very enjoyable!! I look forward to reading more from Jerone.

This week in science ........

..... has been a bit surreal really. I posted earleir today about the sadness of Steve Jobs passing and that really kind of sums things up. It has been odd.

Lets start with physics shall we. Last week, we learned that some bods had sent some nutrinos from CERN in Switzerland to Italy, through rock. That in itself I thought was quite an achievement. However, they turned up early. Early? Well, the maximum speed anything is supposed to be able to travel is c, or the speed of light (as in Albert says E = mc^2). the fact that these things turned up early threatens the utter foundations of theoretical physics!! I'm glad my son Tom is just in the first week of his Physics degree at Leeds becasue the are probably re-writing the course as we speak.

As if that was n't enough, this week evidence was published that the expansion of the universe following the big bang is not slowing down, as believed for centuries, but is actually speeding up! Again, it kinds threatens the whole basis of physics. Funnily enough, there was a story that Einstein actually predicted this, but then looked at his work and screwed up the piece of paper believing it to be nonsense!!

This week the winners of the Nobel Prizes were announced. One of the prizes for medicine was awarded to Jerry Steinman from the University of Rockerfeller, New York. His work on dendritic cells was seminal in understanding how the body fights infection. Unfortunately, the morning it was announced he had won this amazing and prestigous prize (and the near £1 million that goes with it) his university announced that he had died a few days before. Normally, the Nobel committee don't award prizes posthumously, but I understand, they plan to make an exception.

For the field closest to my heart, chemistry, the prize was won by Danial Shechtman from Isreal. He discovered quasicrystals - which break all the rules of crystalinity with their perfectly ordered but never repeating units. You would have thought his discovery would have been celebrated but no, it seems not. Indeed, to quote form the BBC website ""The head of my lab came to me smiling sheepishly, and put a book on my desk and said: 'Danny, why don't you read this and see that it is impossible what you are saying,'" Dr Shechtman recounted in an interview with Technion.

The Israeli researcher was later told that he was a disgrace to the group and asked to leave.

On returning to Israel, Dr Shechtman published the results.

"Then all hell broke loose," he said.

Many scientists from around the world started telling him that they too had seen the same crystal structure.

Not everyone was convinced, however. To his dying day, Linus Pauling, the head of the American Chemical Society, said that Dr Shechtman was "talking nonsense".

But Bassam Shakhashiri, president-elect of the American Chemical Society, told BBC News: "This is how we make progress in science.

"[If] someone comes up with a discovery that we are sceptical about…we [have to] take time to verify the observations and discuss the conclusions among ourselves."

He added: "This is a really great example of the triumph of science.

"And an opportunity for all of us... who are curious about nature, to be vigilant, to be careful, and to engage in respectful debate about the interpretation of results."

NO, this is an example of when a bunch of arrogant dicks thought they knew better than the facts in front of their eyes. Sometimes, smart people can be incredibly dumb !!!!

A sad day....

This man was a genius and a visionary – and those are words I don’t use often, at all, if I’ve ever used them together before.

This guy was not some princess or a badly behaved pop star but an incredibly intelligent inventor in the modern technological era and a pioneer who was brave enough not to listen to people who said it can’t be done.

Even if you don’t use Apple products, but assuming you do use some kind of modern technology, then your life will have been enhanced by his inventions, or newer inventions based on his technologies.

The world is a poorer place for his passing.

R.I.P. Steve Jobs.

The Small Hand by Susan Hill

Yeah, this one did n't quite work for me.

So, after trawling Amazon for some good horror to read I came across a book called "The Woman in black" by the same author which seemed very highly rated. I ordered it but unfortunately Amazon have yet to grasp that Super Savery Delivery = next day (or three!) so it did not come in time for the weekend. I ended up getting this out of my local excellent Bar Hill library insted.

It is about a guy who gets lost in his car and ends up at a derelict old house where he seeks directions. There is nobody there to ask but he feels a small hand (of a child) work its way into his and hold him tightly. The rest of the book goes into his return visits, him learnig the history of the house, his travels to buy / sell antique books, his brother's involvement and the return of the feeling of the hand and how it tries to drag him into any nearby mass of water.

Whilst this was a decent enough book, the story it never feels overly novel whilst also never keeping strictly to ground already covered by other authors. However, I found it quite mundane - the pages did not grab at me with the elequence of the writing of other books I have recently (Dan B rown, A&D) and I think I probably would not have bothered with the second half had not been only 169 pages of well-spread text.

Still, I'm not sure when I last read a whole novel in a weekend !

Bokeh ......

..... is a term used by photographers to described the blured background in portrait photos. It provides that smooth backdrop, with the main subject of the picture almost standing out in 3D, that makes some people pictures look really good. In order to achive it well you really need a specialised portrait lens, something with a focal lens of around 90 - 100 mm (human eyesight is about 50 mm) with a very small fast maximum aperture of F2.0 or less. I recently started using a Panasonic GF-1 micro four thirds camera and over the summer Olympus (with whom Panasonic stuff is interchangeable) announced the relaease of a 45 mm (micro 4/3's lens are designated with half the focal length of "normal" lenses due to the difference in sensor size - are you keeping up!) with a pretty fast maximum aperture of F1.8. What's more, it is realtively inexpensive. I chased Olympus to find which shops in the Uk would receive the first supplies and placed my order. With a last minute upgrade to next day saturday delivery I must have been one of the frist photographers in the UK to receive one. It looks cheap with it's silver paint straight out of an old airfix kit and feels like plastic (unlike the equally wonderful Panasonic Lumix 20 mm pancake I bought with my inheritence from Auntie Evelyn) but the first images I've had out of it are superb. A wise investment that I think will give much pleasure over time and record nice images of the people I am blessed to have in my life.

Angels and Demons

A cracking read this one, all 620 pages of it. I'd read a single Dan Brown some years ago, during an ill-fated week's holiday on the Isle of Wight when I spent three days in hospital with a kidney stone. On coming out I collected a copy of Deception Point, which was a good read. Because of its length A&D had stayed in the pile for a while but I got over the intimidation of its size (and it's 620 of relatively small text too!) I enjoyed every page of it. The action very quickly switches to Rome, a wonderful place I have been lucky enough to experience in real life, and spends most of it's time there, within the architectural and religeous treasures. As with the last book I enjoyed this thriller has it roots dipped pretty deeply in science based on the clash between physics and religion and the fictious (?) battle between the two. The Illuminati, a cult of scientists leading the battle against the church, through their "Hassassin" kidnap and murder four of the preferati (preferred candidates) for the vacant papacy.. In the meantime they have planted a single drop of anitimatter within the vatican and the machine stabilising it will run out of energy at midnight. Robert Langdon, hero of the Da Vinci code, and eminent academic symbologist uses his puzzle-breaking skills and cracking of the clues to save the day, but there are many unexpected twists along the way. Great characters, a wonderful setting, a fantastic plot and a style of writing that brings every page alive may well make this the best novel I've ever read. I can't believe it scores so average on Amazon. Nowt so queer as folk !!!

..... and then it was done !!!

Yesterday the Decree Absolute dropped through my letterbox. People had told me that it would be quite an emotional day and that I would shed a tear or two, whatever. That was n’t the way it was for me. I think because the last couple of years of my marriage things were deteriorating and then it has been two weeks short of two years since I left the family home, I’d got past all of the upset. Instead, with the time it has taken for things to resolve themselves to this point, where I am divorced and my financial responsibilities to the children are my only monthly outlay beyond looking after myself, it had worked itself out of my system. I did temporarily feel a slight twang of guilt, for not feeling remorseful, but quickly kicked that into touch.

It was a wonderfully sunny and warm September day yesterday and I was due on the golf course after an early finish at work but on my way I popped home to get changed and found the post. A quick 9 holes and dinner with friends was followed with me dropping into the shop for bubbly and chocolate on my way round to Kate’s to celebrate, which we did in big style!

The Miracle Strain by Michael Cordy

This was the most recent book I completed, last week, I think.

Tom Carter is a DNA geneticist whose life is about to change. In Stockholm to collect his Nobel Prize (eek!) the assassin trying to take his life murders his wife. After her death it becomes clear she had a brain tumour and was likely to die anyway. With his background in genetics Tom quickly realises and proves that his 3 year old daughter has a very large chance of dying from the same brain cancer as his wife.

The assassin came from a cult whose key purpose is to identify and educate the new christ (evidently, he will not know that he is the son of god!). Their secondary objective is to remove individuals who go against God's word, and evidently messing about with DNA is a real no-no in their terms.

Tom has invented the Genoscope, a machine that can read DNA and scan people in a high through-put mode to see who carries what genes. The cult hear of this and elect to ask him to help them find the second coming. They provide DNA samples from Jesus to scan in the Genoscope. Tom agrees, believing it is only way to find the cure for his daughter's cancer before it is too late. Of course, at this point Tom has no idea that he is now working for the folks who tried to kill him and did kill his wife!

Lots of intrigue in this one with nice twists in the plot and a final kick that I did not anticipate. I enjoyed reading it a lot, although I found a real interest in the science that others might not. A good effort from the author.

It's all made up !!!

Ok so this year I started reading novels again. When I was a teenager I read a lot and now I'm having trouble remembering a lot of the stuff I read all that time ago so I thought it would be good to write a brief synopsis of stuff I read on here. If nothing else it will serve as a reminder in years to come, when I'm even older and even more forgetful :-(

A house can be home, but it is not always the case…….

Yesterday the Miller family home was sold and my wife (very soon to be ex-wife) moved into a smaller property. It marks another landmark step in my journey from very unhappily married man to a much happier individual. With the decree absolute due through the letter box any day now, that phase of my life is almost at an end. Carol and I were together for 18 years and had many happy times and I won’t forget that. In particular three wonderful children came from the marriage, something that I’ll be eternally grateful for.

I pretty much chose the house in Swavesey when we moved down from Scotland as I was down here by myself for a while whilst our old house sold. I screened potential properties and then one weekend Carol flew down and we viewed the short-list, but I knew which one was best and it was just a case of selling its potential to her. A detached property with a very large garden left room for the extension which happened a few years ago, turning a two-bedroom house in a four-bedroom house with the most enormous living room I’ve ever seen. I stamped my mark on it in an architectural sense with a design that was inspired by the tv programs of the day and it was great (large open spaces and a real “flow”). I did not take my ideas as far as I might due to the reticence of my wife but if I had of done it would have been phenomenal.

Of course, less than two years later when we agreed we should separate after the failure of Relate counseling, for the sake of the children, I was the one who left. I’ve been pushed around to three different rental homes since then but I’m very happy in my house in Bar hill now. However, with my financial responsibilities in terms of providing a home for my children about to be significantly reduced as of next month – I start saving for my own home, if that is the direction I choose, but I think I need some sound financial advice and a good long-term plan 

Fly fledgling, fly .........

Saturday September 17th. After I've finished this last cup of Lavazza, I'll be jumping in the car with my first born, Tom, to take him to Leeds. He starts at university there next week, reading physics.

I still remember very cearly the day he was born in Leicester Royal Infirmary, I think times like that never leave us do they? After I'd cut the cord, the mid-wife took Carol off to clean up whilst he lay on my chest and went to sleep. It must have been early afternoon as I remember I/we watched "How" and "The Flintstones". When he was just a year or so old so we got to spend lots of quality time together and really bonded as his mum started working weekends. Since then he has been an absolute joy to have around. He always been well behaved, thoughtful, kind and considerate. Those teenage years I worried about have been a breeze!

Today is going to be a real rollercoaster ride of emotions. Once I get myself back together I'm sure I'll be back to write about it :-(

So, it is sunday evening now and it has really been a rollercoaster. The trip up to Leeds was lovely thanks to the wonderful Honda. We got there and got him checked into his nice room in a nice flat, with two other lads and two girls, in a nice block, just 10 minutes walk from campus. We drove down to Morrison's and stocked up his fridge and larder. He paid, to trial his new credit card clone on my account to check it worked ok, and it did. We got back and were sat eating our sausage rolls and pasties and Tom got upset. He was struggling with the whole concept, a big wobble. To be honest, half the problem was that he had not slept well the night before partly due to Beth staying perhaps. He was tired and hitting the dip but his upset pulled at my heart strings as it must do for any parent. We talked and after a while he seemed to feel better but I could not leave him so we walked back into town to grab him a few things that we had seen he was missing. Walking back up the hill we stopped for a lovely smoothie! Back at his flat we finished unpacking his clothes and the poor lad is struggling again. We talk some more, he accepts that everything is ok really but tiredness is making everything more scarey. In the end he is on the up and I decide that with his flatmates chatting and having a real good time in the kitchen next door I might actually be doing more harm than good by hanging around. I leave, giving him a massive hug and telling him how much I love him and how proud I am, and drive on back down to Kate's. As I'm leaving a lovely girl pops out of the kitchen says to Tom, "hey, come on thorugh and chat!" so that really helps.

Evidently, he does so and enjoys their company for a couple of hours before they all head off to a party at a flat downstairs. Tom stays for a while but it's loud music and drinking which is not really his scene. He heads back but has a bad night partly because other inhabitants of the block keep waking him. So, this morning he is still shattered and struggling, to the point that he's not eating. We exchange texts and have a couple of chats. I encourage his mum to actually give him a ring as well. Mid-morning, his party animal flat mates get out of bed, they all chat for a couple of hours and then head off onto campus to get their barings and then into town. Tonight, they are out at the pub and Tom seems to have turned a corner, but he's found the change hard.

For me, that two and half drive back down from Leeds was tough. I struggled for Tom and also spent a lot of time thinking about my own father. It was hard and there were a few tears shed. Kate has been a rock, she was amazing last night in talking sense into me and making me feel better. Spending time with her and her "little people" today has also been a welcome distraction.

Tom is doing a brilliant thing by going to Leeds to study for a degree in physics. He knew it would be hard away from familiar faces, in new surroundings and possibly most importantly, away from his gf of two and a half years.

As I said, I love him immensely and am so very proud :-)

Moaning

Wow - there is so much moaning and complaining around at the moment. People just seem to need no reason at all.

As positive as I am, it does to get to you after while. People just complain all the time ..... and when something good happens, well that was just expected anyway so not worth talking about!!!

So, I thought I'd come on her and have a moan about it !!!!

Rise above it David, rise above :-)

Wiggle-it, just a little bit !!

Saturday Sept 10th: Wiggle Cyclosportive, 65 miles required (middle distance). Diet up-date, pretty crap (14 st 5 lbs); training up-date, last minute cramming, Weather forecast, strong winds with rain around lunchtime, outlook, bloody worrying.

So, with some trepidation I got up at 6 am to meet the boys from Over Bike Club (aka The Badgers Nadgers) before 7. We were at the start well in time for the first off's but by the time we joined the queue and got away it was 08:15. There were about ten in our group and it had been suggested to me that it would split into a faster and steadier splinters. That happened after about three miles I think when we were five -Tom Ashworth and Dave Corbett (both around my age), and Rich and Rob who must have about ten years of youth over us. For quite a while we were a group, dropping off, shooting up the front and then all coming together again, but by the time of the first food stop (20 miles) it seemed to be Tom and myself. The others had not arrived before the end of our short break. After that we spent a while in big group and made good progress, which was handy as the wind was quite brutal. Hitting a short sharp hill I went to the front and having got to the top and turned the corner into the wind - crunch - the chain comes off. It took me a couple of attempts to get it back on and then there is a long hard chase on my own. Eventually, I catch them, we spend a while together and then a couple of guys from Covenry Racing Club come by going just a mile or two per hour faster. I'm onto their back wheel in a shot and manage to stay with them for maybe five miles before I tire a little and drop off. I reach the second food stop (@ 40 miles) alone, and basically unhinge my jaw and suck the whole contents of the table into my enormous mouth. I've been there a while and Tom comes in. He digs out last night Chow Mein from his pocket - classy! I hang around for him but then just I start writing a text he nips off saying "you'll catch me up in no time!". I finish the text and chase him but he's got into a group and is moving quickly, it takes a while before we come together again. About ten miles later we turn north and that strong wind is behind us, for a while we blast along but then turn back into it. Approaching a small incline I've been struggling for a few miles and really feel like it's "the wall" time. As I struggle to the top of a small-ish hill a few miles from home I look over my shoulder and Tom's dropped off. That's it, the adrenaline surges through me knowing that this is the time to really go for broke. I ride the last few miles all out, even after 60-ish miles I'm doing around 20 miles per hour and grimacing non-stop. I cross the line alone, the first from the club, the guy hands a medal to me "is that gold" I remark, feeling confident I've beaten the time the lads said would qualify, "no, they are all the same!!" He replies. Tom' rolls in only 43 seconds later according to the offical timings :-) We both get GOLD !!!!! The younger lads are about fifteen or twenty minutes after.

Two cups of the worst coffee ever, a Red Bull and a Hot Cross Bun later and I'm on my way round to the house of my dream woman, to continue a truly wonderful weekend.

Three Men in a Boat !!!!

So, this one came from left field. The guy I run with at lunchtimes, Andy (Yorkshireman!) had been to the Isle of wight cycling before and he proposed this trip. We work with Ian as well (Geordie, but still a lovely bloke!) and he's a big cyclist so when we him invited him he was well up for it.

I was up at 04:15 :-( put the newly acquired and expensive bike rack on the Honda and drove off down to Ian's in Hitchen, Andy arrived minutes later. Once all packed up with three bikes on the rack we were away fighting through the traffic of the M25 (even at 06:30 it ain't good!) and heading down to Lymington. Once there we got the bikes off the car and got ready. We boarded as foot passengers (with bikes, obviuosly) and left the car on the mainland. After a smooth 35 minute ferry ride we were on the Isle and in Freshwater. We rode on the road for a short while before hiitng a bridleway and climbing to the top of the main ridge on the island. From there, the views were awesome. We know cos we had a long time to look as I punctured near the top of the climb (only hill I was n't first to the top of, nerh, nerh, ne, nerh, nerh !!) and sat on the ridge changing the tube. Then again because too busy talking, I managed to nip the tube between the tyre and fork :-(

Once we got going again down a big chalky hill it became clear that Ian is a superb descender. After nearly coming a cropper trying to keep up with him, then easing off and nearly coming cropper again I slowed down quite a lot for the sake of safety. On saying that peddling very slowly up the next hill I managed an off!! Front tyre hits stone or bump of some kind and shoots out to the left whilst I go off bike onto right hip, ouch (falls: David 1, Andy 0, Ian 0).

The day was more straightforward after that. The morning was good riding on the chalk downs with nice views but overcast. We rode past the north of Shorwell and then hit the road from Billingham down to Chale, were we lunched on ale, nuts, crisps and lasange (veggie curry for Andy) at the pub (The Wight Mouse, get it? Hilarious eh?). At which point, the sun decided to show it's face and stayed out pretty much all day. We left the pub and did a loop to the north east of Blackgang before picking up the ridge again and heading back. Andy punctured by a field that was being cut and the guy driving the harvester took great pleasure in driving right past and covering us with dust (Punctures: David 2 Andy 1 Ian 0).

We headed back along to the pint we had come up from the north but carried on east along the ridge where the views along the coast towards the Needles were brilliant in the afternoon sun. A lovely long descent through the golf course led us to the disused railway and back to the boat. A cider for me on the way over and then the long drive back. Dropped the boys off in hitchen about 9:30 pm and then got back to Kate's by 10:45, tired but very very happy. 35 miles of good, mainly off-road riding made for a good day indeed :-)

New life - part 3 - new woman

So, I posted a while ago about new life parts 1 and 2 which were house and car. What would have really made a big difference would have been a new lady in my life. I have to say that I even when I wrote those posts a while back, I had a pretty good idea what was coming. I first meet Kate in February, when we had coffee together, we were in touch a lot by different methods over the next few weeks but with her being away and me being away in California it was Easter Sunday before we found the time to meet again. We went for a picnic by the river at St Ives. it was sunny, we got on like a house on fire and she was is so very beautiful I just wanted to reach across and kiss her, but I was n't confident enough! We had a great time and chatting later, with my little 5 year old tucked up in bed but the teenagers around, I cheekily invited myself to her place. At first she declined but then came back to me and said I should come. We had our first kiss that evening and it's been wonderful ever since.

She is stunningly beautiful, with a wonderful warm and caring heart. She's very bright, a great mum, confident within herself and does n't need consistent external reinforcement. She is leveled and consistent with no sparodic spuing of emotions. She's quite a bit younger than me which actually works really well as she has a couple of kids 5 and 8 who, as of yesterday get on well with mine. We seem to have similar traits and outlooks on life as well so I'm hoping for a wonderful future. I have to say that I've scrutinised her pretty hard as well, given some of the bad realtionships I've had in the last couple of years and how I've missed the obvious and early signs that should have sent me running, but there is nothing. Six months in and I do not have one single minor concern. Every aspect of our relationship is just amazing.

Now that we are 6 months in, we had a grand meeting of the kids day yesterday and that went just as well as could have been hoped. Everybody got on really well.

So bring it on. With a house sale and finalisation of the divorce just around the corner, a fantastic new life is beginning. I am so very very excited, like I thought I could never be again :-)

And memories of that wonderful afternoon by the river, in St Ives under the sun? She had a great time but was just waiting and waiting for me to reach across and kiss her, lol.

Life's a beach ... !!

So a week in Newquay with 2 sons, 1 daughter, 1 son's GF and Mum. What a nice time we had. The weather was pretty kind with some days with sunny spells and some overcast days but no real rain to speak. Even on the overcast days when we were doing other stuff we did comment that it was warm enough to be on the beach. On saying that we had a couple of lovely lazy days on the beach with the sun coming out form time-to-time, enough so on the first beach day that Tom and Beth got a little sunburn !!!

The Honda was packed a little tight but it never missed a beat and got us down there cruising effortlessly at 80 mph and without requiring an ocean tanker of crude oil (it's certainly no Land Rover!!) We had pushed the boat out and rented a lovely house for the week which was within walking distance of the town centre and the closest beaches. We cooked together, ate together, we cleaned together and enjoyed pretty much everything together. On the overcast days we went to the zoo, the aqaurium, the pirate musuem and did a bit of shopping. I really like the surf-wear they have down there so spent a small fortune on clothes. I even found the time to read a couple of novels, Koontz and Coburn; very good.

As I said, a great time was had by all, and I got a new profile picture fo FB ;-)

Guitar Hero !

Rock n roll ! I love it. My music tastes genuinely transcend genre - anything from Michael Bubble or a bit of Take That right through to Metallica. A great tune is vital but I like a realy strong vocalists (Chris Cornell is my current fav, YouTube his name with "You know My Name" if you don't know him) but a great guitar riff always gets me.

Back in my undergrad days Guns n Roses released their seminal album Appetite for Destruction. It was a monster hit across the world and more importantly with me! I became an instant GnR fan and loved the their follow-up double ablums Use Your Illusion 1 and 2. I was never a big fan of the lead singer Axel Rose, don't like his voice and his childish throwing of the teddy out of the cot got tiresome very quickly. The lead guitarist, Slash, on the other hand with his awesome playing, definitive style and grounded personality was more my scene. Axel tore GnR apart and after a while Slash reformed with some of the band members as Velvet Revolver. Their first album was very very good but the second one did not reach the same heights. After they split slash released a solo album in 2010 with a range of guest vocalists. It is back to his best.

So, in May I came across the fact by chance that he was touring in the uk. I paid 3-times the face vlue for a ticket to see him at the Birmingham O2 Academy and went last week. it was a great night. I pushed my way down the front to within 4 or 5 rows from the stage and got a great view. Got to see one of my guitar heros right up close and his was on top form.

I ended the night dripping wet from a combination of sweat (mostly) and lager being thrown about. Required a t-shirt on the way out just to have something dry to wear for the drive home!

That's another thing I can tick off from my list of things to do before I die :-)

Spidey Senses?

Gut intuition, feeling it in your water, sixth sense (great film, by the way!) are all ways of talking about intuition. My fav phrase for this is spidey senses, because I'm quite a fan of Spiderman. We've all felt it have n't we?

I remember the last time we went to Cornwall as a family. On the last day I walked the dog along Perranporth Beach on my own (apart from the dog, obviously!). I remember becoming quite emotional and having a few tears run down my cheek. It is a wonderful place the beach at the bottom of the hill below the Haven site at Perrenporth, really wonderful. I've seen beaches in the Caribbean and in Southern California that cannot begin to match up. The awesome beauty of that place is enough to make you emotional but there were other things on my mind. Especially at sunset.

Have you ever felt that you actually love a place so much that you know that you'll definitely come back BUT have a really strong feeling that things will be different next time? I had such a strong sense of it that day. Sure enough that was just about 4 years ago and we were a family unit. We were hiding the grave problems but atleast we were all there, each day. Of course a few years later it became crystal clear that Carol and I could not be happy together so things have changed. Now I'm lucky enough to see the kids 4 days a week which is quite good I guess; a lot of single Dad's are a lot worse off.

This Saturday, "the family" will go to Cornwall again for a holiday. Now however, the family is kind of made up of Chloe, Tom, Rob and myself along with Beth (Tom's lovely GF of 2 1/2 years, who is so lovely that we would happily adopt her!) and my Mum. We have a house rented in Newquay for the week starting on Saturday. It is close enough to the centre of Town so that Tom and Beth, who are both 18 now, can go off on their own if they want. It's also within walking distance of a number of great beaches to so maybe the lovely Honda, with the awesome stereo, will get a rest too!!

I have to say I'm a little apprehensive!! I have to be responsible for the well-being and entertainment of all these "kids" and my mum, who is just lovely but can struggle to hear and understand sometimes.

It's all about the tone.......

I treated myself the other day. Call it a replacement or a late birthday present or a bonus present, whatever, I'm convinced I deserved it ;-)

Until about March of this year I owned a rather nice small (5 w) valve amp which I "played" through a Marshall 2 x 12 1936 cab with Celestion vintage speakers. it was nice but it was really loud. The tone was really good but it was basic with a lack of controls. I lived in a terrace house and that time it did not seem as if I would soon move to the lovely detached place I'm in now. So, I sold it.
Months later I'm a valve amp owner again. After much research and trying stuff out locally (I hate playing in public, especially guitar shops!) I ordered a Hayden 15 w Mini Mofo with a Vox 1x12 cab fitted with a Celestion Greenback. This thing rocks! The tones are lovely and there is lots of control, so much so that I don't think I've scratched the surface yet!

To top it all off it looks great. There were other options that sounded great but looked awful !!! I'd post a picture but really, it is all about the tone, well nearly ;-)

The 4 Muskateers in Sherwood Forest !!!

Early in June one weekend, we were at it again. This time there was no "journey" like riding the South Downs Way which we loved last year. Due to back problems and a lack of fitness all round we were off to ride the trails at Sherwood Forest. So I'd taken the friday off but being a bit of a work-a-holic-I-can't-let-go kinda guy I had a video conference with some guys in Singapore to attend first thing. All packed up I dashed out of the conference room into the Honda and hot-footed it up to Mansfield. Steve and Andy were already there with tents set up and had disappeared off to nose round the camp site. By the time my tent was up they were back and we biked the 2 miles to Sherwood Pines Country Park (very close to the Centre Parcs site). We rode the ridiculously easy green trail (3 miles) and then the almost as easy blue trail (6 miles) by which time the pace had noticably dropped. For most of the second half we were passing and being passed by a lady with two-paniers on her bike and small children with her. In the end, when Steve had a mechanical difficulty, they beat us round!!!!! The day ended with a pub dinner sat in the sunny beer garden which was very nice, followed by sweets from the shop and footy at the camp-site with Stella!!!

Sunday morning Bren arrived. With D'artagnan's presence we were the four muskateers!!! We started off round the more difficult red trail. Insted of very easy surfaces we were now on reral mountain bikers paradise darting in out of tree with some really nice switch-backs and berms. Although the pace was slow it was good fun. Half-way round Bren seem to have headed off the front so Steve suggested I go catch him and we head off at our own pace and meet him and Andy at the end. Ok, so now the real fun started!!! hitting the trail at a good pace was challenging technically and gave a real buzz. We finished off in good time and hit the cafe for an icecream. I suggested we ride more but Steve and Andy seemed very tired and Steve's back was hurting, possible from the saddle problme he's had but possibly also because of the continual bumps or the fact that he's caught a log with one of his pedals and taken a tumble. Anyway, as England were playing Switzerland we headed to the pub instead. It was a 2-2 draw but I missed most of it as I was playing pool with anybody who would take me on. the love of football that I carried deep in my thirties has sadly long gone.

Sunday morning started with breakfast at the fisherman's greasy van. Gone were last year's healthy options and we were all on the fried stuff! If I did n't know better I might have said there were a few sore muscles around the place. I asked a couple of times about riding the red route again but my questions seemed to be just getting ignored. eventually, it was suggested (not by me) that we just ride a few of the tracks around and beyond the camp site. There was a consensus and one disppointed David :-( Well, it started off easy enough but then we seem to end up on a roller-coaster of a footpath along side the river, which turned out to be great fun!!!! All-in-all, a very good weekend, nice riding, good company and good food and beer :-)

New Life - part 2 - new pad!

Ok, so having the Royal Wedding week was great, people could take just the 3 days holiday to get a full eleven off. Superb ...... or you can take that time and spend most of it moving house!!!!

So, the landlord's job had fallen through in Canada and that happened over the summer or autumn so there was no surprise when I got my 2 months notice to get out by May 5th. So, the afore mentioned trip to California was ace but the timing was not. It fell right around the time I would want to secure a property, and I did manage to get my deposit down on a lovely house in Longstanton only to be gazumped. I did n't think that happened in the rental market!!!

Anyway, just before I departed these shores I did manage to secure a house in Bar Hill (picture attached, well it will be when I get round to taking one!!). It is more expensive but it is bigger and detached (cue new guitar amp!!!). The garden is bigger too which is good for Chloe and Cookie the dog and bbq's!! It is lovely and I'm feeling nothing but good vibes.

So, I'm really excited about this year. Everything seems to be coming together nicely (bloody hell, there is even an outside chance I might get the divorce sorted this side of Xmas!!!)

... and then there were four!

So the forty-something cycling group has started a little late this year partly as a result of Steve's dodgy back and my work travel. However, this weekend just gone we had a fab time, but first a welcome, to Brendan "Bren" Young who has joined the rabble. The four Muskateers?!! Bren is a lovely bloke with a great sense of humor and he supports the right football team so we have lots in common!

So this weekend saw the traditional first group ride of the year out at Grafham. The weather was amazing and after meeting up, the usual mooching around the expensive and generally out of reach bike porn in the shop, we hit the cafe and then the bogs before the off. In spite of Steve's concerns about his back the group managed two full laps together, each taking around an hour. The last third of the final lap, every time we stopped we seem to get over taken a couple in their sixties with him pulling the grandkids in a trailer. It was a great sense of achivement the managed to overtake them again just before the finish!!! I hope I'm able to pull the grandkids round there in trailer when I'm in my sixties!

After recovery, we headed off back to my place (not for much longer!) all hit the shower and some Stellas and agreed that our weekend of June 2nd would be based at Sherwood Pines which is flat (important for Steve's back) and not too tough, as the training schedule is running rather behind. I'm sure that will be the subject of a later post.

With that agreed, we headed off for a cheap but very cheerful Indian here in Willingham, then into Cambridge to hit some of the pubs. I did warn the guys that there were some amazing young girls down there who had some incredibly short skirts and high heels. The boys were not disappointed ;-)

New life: part 1 - new wheels

Everything seems to change in spring. The weather, people and often our lives. My changes in life, in fact our changes in life (me and the kids) will take three different forms in the near future. Two of them will certainly happen quickly but third could be soon or it might take a while (cryptic, I know!).

Part 1 is the need for a new car. The Discovery has been great but I had been made aware that the brake pads and disks needed changing, an expensive job. Whats more the MOT and tax were due. So when it failed to start and all the usual checks found nothing, the words "it must be in the engine, we'll open her up and take a look" were quickly followed by the reply "thanks but no thanks"!!!!

So, I had a couple of hire cars over a couple of weekends when I needed transport for the kids and then a new car was purchased. Thing to note here is that I don't actually need a car for myself! I thought long and hard about it. The idea of another 4x4 was nice. A great high driving position and no worries about luggage space when we go on vacation or I take Tom and his stuff off to Uni. But decent ones that would last were best part of £10K and I did n't have that (or want to spend it). So, something more sensible? I looked at the Mondeos and the Passats and the Avesis's and they were all lovely but rather "old age". Now I may be a 42 year old father of three kids (for a couple of weeks longer anyway! r.e. the age that is, 43 soon, I'll ot be having anymore kids!!) but I like to feel I still have some life in me. So, I ended up with a lovely Honda Accord. As close to total reliability as one can get, more than 40 mpg and wow, is it frisky (petrol version). I have not enjoyed driving this much in years. On Thursday I had the chance to ride to work and I did, but it was a hard call!

So, to those of you who think that a car is just a way to get from A to B, or if you don't drive, you really are missing out, trust me ;-)

California!!

So, I'm back after having a wonderful time in the States. Things did n't start brilliantly as the car that work organised to collect me did n't turn up. After half an hour failing to call the useless buggers I realised I was on my own. So, local taxi organised I call Virgin Atlantic to be told that if I'm not there 90 minutes before the flight then they won't let me on board (hang on, it was n't like this with Ryanair!). So, the taxi driver absolutely hammers it down to Heathrow and I know I'm going to be late. I turn up about and hour before take off and stagger up to the counter short of breath to be greeted by a beautiful young lady who asks me how I am today. "Well, I'm rather late and vrry stressed"! She asks me which flight and tells me we get an extra 20 minutes in business class so I'm fine, lol.

After that it was almost all good. The flight was fine and I enjoyed "Inception Day" on the way over. David "The Hoff" Hasslehof was sat a few seats ahead of me (for sure!) and for a while I was debating if JLS were also just infront of me too. My Brit Pop knowledge ain't that hot but I don't think it was them.

The conference was good. It's not every day you get to listen to a Nobel prize winner give a lecture. We had a nice meal out at a Chinese with our Japanese colleagues too which was fun.

One of our colleagues from the San Diego site offered to give us a lift down there but he was leaving a day earlier than we had planned. Hotels in California, or maybe just the people, are a lot less fussy than over here so they were happy to let me leave early and give me some money back. A quick visit to Tripadvisor found the Hotel Indigo in the Gas Lamp Quater of the city and we were set. We arrived late afternoon, freshened up and headed off to where the action was. On one of the main streets all the restaraunts had their tables out on the very wide pavements so that's where we had dinner followed by hitting a couple of bars where there was live music and even dancing in the last one.

Next day was "free". We visited the Seaport Village where I grabbed loads of presents for the people I would be staying with later and the kids. In the afternoon we hit the USS Midway, an aircraft carrier turned into a museum. There were loads of planes on deck and we even got to stand on the bridge.

I was there with a colleague from work. Katherine is a rather attractive 29 year old and it was funny for me when some guy thought we were together, hahahaha!! She chuckled too!

That evening we got a cab out to Torrey Pines heading back up past the airport. I recently saw a tv programme called "the world's 10 most dangerous airports" and SD was in there because they built a high multi-storey car park right in the flight path. The planes, as we saw for ourselves, have to pass really close over it as they come in to land.

We were spending the weekend at the Hilton at Torrey Pines. The hotel is lovely, separated from the sea only by the PGA golf course. My favourite part was the pool and jacuzzi on the back patio, especially in that California sunshine. We Spent Saturday with our old friend Ben, walking the nature reserve and then dinner and drinks in his garden around the chimanea.

Sunday Ben was racing so Katherine and I had a nice day in La Jolla, a lovely little seaside town. Monday was a work day, visiting our colleagues at the San Diego site with a very beneficial mutual exchange of science.

Tuesday Ben I were supposed to hit one of the best mountain bike trails in South California. A high level ride with excellent views of the sea, so I'm told. Unfortunately, I'd hurt my back hauling the suitcase around so we could n't go. There is an irony to spending the night in a lovely big $225+ a night hotel room with a kingsize bed and then sleeping on the floor, which happened a few times!!

We consoled ourselves by driving out to one of the local breweries for lunch, a tour and then some sampling. We headed back to Ben's where we spent the evening sipping the exquisite Aberlour A'bunadh that I'd brought him. After that the 18 year old Glenfidditch seemed pretty ordinary.

On my last day Ben had to work but he lives about a mile from the beach so I managed to have a nice day even without his car, which he offered to lend me. Next morning a big breakfast for us two growing lads and then I'm on Amtrack up to LA. The train was a double decker and I'd been advised to go upstairs and sit on the left for the coastal views. Shuttle bus from Union Station got me to LAX. I could have spent an hour or so looking round downtown LA but following the "joy" of journey out I just felt I wanted to get to the airport nice and early. Anyway, that way I got longer in the business lounge ;-)

Then it was done. What a fab time I'd had. No Katy Perry but one of the funniest moments was when I mentioned to Ben how gorgeous all the Californian girls seemed. "You should come back in the summer...." he replied "...all the same girls but they just don't wear so many clothes"!!!!!!!!!!!

It's a good job I like to be busy!!

.....because I certainly am just now. Work's is really busy as we hit the year end with budgets to sort and appraisal season in full flow. The projects are all at interesting stages, either flourishing or struggling, but either way there always seems to be loads to do. In fact, work is going to be pretty much taking over shortly with business trips abroad. After a pretty full on couple of days this week I'll be off to Sweden on Thursday / Friday to visit some collaborators at the University of Upsalla. That will be very interesting because I nearly took a job there about twenty years ago. Then a week on Saturday it is the big one ...... California. A week at a conference in LA followed by moving on down to San Diego, a weekend to sight-see followed by a day or two at our place and then a couple of days mountain biking / climbing / surfing / drinking with a good friend of mine. I'm really lucky because I work for a great company. Even in these difficult financial times I'll be flying business class and staying in Hilton hotels. It will be nice to be spoilt, a little!!

Just in case I'm not busy enough I need to find a new home. The owners of my current rental are back from Canada and want their house back. How very dare they!! So that's something else that needs sorting. it's a bit of a pain and it always seems to cost me a few hundred quid to move but it's spring, the season of change and soon i'll be in a lovely new home. I think I'll go detached this time if I can, save the neighbours from my terrible guitar playing ;-)

Hit and run!

Music is incredibly important to me. It is very rare that I'm not either listening to music or have some song going round in my head. I love to listen, crank it up in the car and sing my heart out, watch music dvd's or best of all see a band I like at a live gig.

Perhaps it's no surprise then that I often link events or feelings or people to songs. It happens lots. When I was a teenager and at Uni I was a massive fan of the Shiffield rock band Def Leppard. They had a cracking tune that has been going round and round in my head for the last few days. The song goes something like ".....hit and run, hit and run, it's just another hit and run". I can't remember any more of it and it might not be appropriate but there's a reason this song is haunting me. It relates to a brief romance that has just come to an end.

I met what I thought was a lovely lady. Very attractive and bright and she seemed to have a good heart. At first, she was virtually obsessed with me. Every time we met she was very keen to get the next date arranged at the earliest possible point. She'd text me constantly, call whenever possible, come into town to meet me on my lunch break and seemed to spend an unhealthy amount of time viewing my Facebook profile. One wednesday morning a few weeks ago, she texted me to tell me that she'd had a crap night's sleep but it had given her lots of time to think and she had decided that she was head over heels in love with me!

Just four days later, she seem to back off. I'll repeat that, just 4 days later! Excuses for not being able to call or chat on-line, followed a few days later by an email along the lines of ...... "something fundemental has changed, not with us, but it was as if the break up of the family had just hit me and that I just wanted to take the boys and hide up in a cocoon". She called me later and tried to explain but could n't. I offered her space and said I'd keep a low profile, she accepted but invited me round for dinner on saturday night (bizarre!). Of course, it never happened. Three days later, circumstances came to light that made it clear she was a liar and a cheat so I was happy to move on. In five weeks she managed to go from a psycho obsessive stalker to a psychopathic liar and cheat!!

Now I've read John Gray so I understand that women are likes waves but this was ridiculous. The consensus of opinion with the people close to me with whom I've discussed it is that she was unbalanced. Dangerous.

Whatever, I made mistakes. My normal cautionary style went out the window when this woman seemed to be "head over heels in love with me". I allowed myself to be dragged in too far too deep and too quickly but I'll learn from that. On the plus side, I found out early, I found out who the real person was as well which makes moving on so much easier when she really does n't deserve me.

Looks like Katy Perry might be in luck. I may be single when I hit California ;-)

Where's Katy Perry?

... maybe she'll be in California at the end of March when I'm there.

I'll be off over to LA for a conference, which is ok, but what is really great is that I've managed to arrange a business trip to our site in San Diego straight afterwards. That means a business class flight to go with a week in the Anaheim Hilton. Much more important, it means a weekend and couple of extra days with my good friend Ben in SD. He's an avid (but scarily very very fast) cyclist, likes to surf and generally just hang out and have a good time. Can't wait!