Well the other Saturday got off to a thrilling start, drinking my coffee when two items of post arrived. One was a brochure from a pension fund from a company that I worked for years ago, full of lovely coloured charts and diagrams and even they don’t help me understand what any of it means.
The second… a Jury summons. Yes, I’ve been summoned to do Jury service towards the end of November. This will be the third time that I have been summoned, the last time being about 20 years ago.
Strangely enough, given my record on knowing people almost everywhere I go, I’ve not met anyone on Jury service that I knew. The closest was the first time I did it, there was a bloke there that I recognised and he recognised me but neither of us could think or work out where we knew each other from. We had discussions about schools, places of work, football clubs we’d played for and against, but still by the end of the fortnight we were no closer to working it out. So back to work the following Monday, standing at the station waiting for the train to arrive, and guess who walked along the platform!
So September has gone and we are now almost through October, autumn has well and truly arrived. Soon I will have to start wearing a jumper for work instead of just t-shirt and shorts.
But what a lovely September it was. We had some absolutely smashing weather. The first weekend, we took our son back to Bournemouth to Uni and decided to stay on for a couple of days down on the south coast. We spent the first evening strolling along the beach at Mudeford, eating fish and chips and watching the sun go down. Mudeford was where my wife and her family used to holiday when she was young, so it was a real trip down memory lane for her, seeing what was still there and what had changed in forty odd years.
On the Sunday we went to Portsmouth and went for a boat trip around the harbour. This was delayed by half an hour or so whilst we waited for the Aircraft Carrier HMS Prince of Wales to leave port, on its way to America for final testing and to help the American Air Force learn to land and take off at sea. We had our lunch under the Spinnaker and then just went for a wander around. That evening was spent on the beach at Hayling Island, no fish and chips, but we went to a restaurant instead.
On our way home on the Monday we went for a jolly on ‘The Watercress Line’ which is the Mid Hants Railway, then home. Very sunny all weekend!
We enjoyed it so much, that 2 Saturdays later we took my mother in law, our daughter and her boyfriend down to Mudeford for a day out and a reminisce. Lunch at the beach this time, still fish and chips, after a walk along the beach we then caught the ferry across to Mudeford spit and then the land train to Hengisbury Head and back. Again, sunny all day, we could not have asked for better weather. Her mum was absolutely thrilled that we had taken her and it was just after her birthday.
Disaster has struck, well more like annoying embarrassment. My auntie was 90 a couple of weeks ago. She was going to celebrate with a family meal but with Covid and one thing and another, she decided that she would take us all out for Afternoon Tea. One of my Cousins organised it, although he lives the furthest away.
Funnily enough he lives about 10 or 15 miles from my son, so he offered to bring him up from Bournemouth for the Afternoon, along with his wife, daughter, mother in law, her wheelchair and the cake! I was asked to get some balloons with numbers on or big number balloons.
If you have read or listened to one of my earlier rambles, you will know my feelings on helium balloons. Of course I had to make a stand and refuse to get them. Of course I didn’t! I duly went to a well known card shop, found two different designs and bought them. I did however make my feeling known about the mis-use of helium in filling balloons, both at the shop (I was told to shut up and pay for them) and also at the Afternoon Tea. It was a very generous spread, very tasty and everybody took home a doggy bag of cakes, as there was so much. So hats off to the restaurant at Barton Mill, near Barton le Clay in Bedfordshire. It was good to see my son for the afternoon as well as my cousins and their families. Maybe it will inspire me to do some more work and research on my Family Tree.
The new Bond movie is out, No time to die. I do like a good Bond movie, and this is a good Bond movie. I’m pretty sure that I’ve been to see the last 3 at the cinema with my son but as he is away at university I had to settle for going with my Mother in Law. She is a big Bond fan and wanted to see it so it made sense to go at the same time.
Thoroughly enjoyed it, a couple of surprises but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who will not see it until it’s on ITV, in a years time. I have enjoyed Daniel Craig as 007 and in my opinion he has probably been the best. The storylines have been grittier and much darker than the previous 007’s, although that was probably more to do with when they were made. Cinematography has changed a lot over the past 60 years, with advances in technology etc, so it’s maybe a little harsh to compare them with the early ones. Saying that, Sean Connery is probably a close second, as I don’t think Timothy Dalton got a fair crack at it.
It was good to see the old Aston Martin V8 Vantage make an appearance as well as obviously the DB5, which seemed to have disappeared until Daniel Craig came along. I’ve since been going through my books to see how many of the Ian Fleming Bond novels I have, and I appear to have 8 out of the 12 novels but neither of the 2 short stories, I’ll have to start keeping an eye open for them.
Is it just me or does nobody else notice how most goalkeepers appear to stand with one foot on the line of the penalty area and then take their drop kick, with the hand that’s holding the ball, clearly outside the area. The problem being, that the assistant referee is generally miles up the touch line level with the last defender watching for offsides from any returning passes or punts up field. I’m sure that it would take just one goalkeeper to get pulled up for it and everyone would be watching for it. It would have to be a yellow card for the keeper, as it’s deliberate handball and a free kick on the edge of the box. You look out for it, next time you are watching a game!