Stepping up, stepping down

Hi Guys

Been really busy. Work and play. Scored a cracking header last Friday night to win the game. Leapt, on the turn, twisted headed down, sending the keeper the wrong way to tuck the ball into the corner. Not bad as it was a 5-a-side goal!

Was running a team of guys providing refreshments for 285 women at a conference on Saturday - lots of fun. Great team so everything ran really smoothly. Long day though, 7.30 to about 5.30.

I was DJ at my friends wedding a few weeks back and they popped in on Tuesday with a present. I thought it would be a CD or something but they bought me a dress watch! I was quite oversome with their generosity. I did however change it yesterday to something more appropriate for everyday wear. So I now have a watch I rally like but couldn't have afforded myself. Haven't worn one for 7/8 years since the last one broke. Oh, it's 9.35 !!!

Dinner with friends on Saturday evening (great curry L) and a family on Sunday at a fav restaurant in Ealing: prawns, ribs, skins, nachos, wings, Peroni, hmmmmm...

Have resigned from a Trust with which I've been involved for four years. I feel drawn in another direction and convinced that I have been doing too many things and not being fully effective in any of them.

It has been both difficult and exciting for me over the years to help get something started (in various ways with different ventures) as I still find it hard to step away, however the work has usually benefited from my absence by going on to greater things! Strange that I should find this so hard with stuff I am involved in 'privately' when this is so much a part of my professional role?

However, the Board has asked me to continue to as a mentor to one of the key staff so I am delighted about that. They met last night - it was odd not to be there - felt like I was bunking off!!

Getting on really well with Ned right now. He asked to share something with me recently and the way he sat me down on the sofa was brilliant! Level 5 ensued and he ended by thanking me for my advice. I stated (for the record) that I might not always be able to give advice, as I might not know what to do, but would always be there to listen and support him. I loved the moment. I love being a dad.

He will be at Buckingham Palace tomorrow with his mum who is receiving a medal for services to our Government and country. I hope they have a great day.

So, a bunch of random thoughts. Gonna try 5 words now to describe how I am feeling:

Weary
Eager
Light headed
Apprehensive
Hopeful

Have an afternoons training today as I continue my Certificate in Communication and Counselling skills - looking forward to it but the course is always challenging and I think we may be looking at my journal which I submitted last time. Gulp! "What's mine is yours, still want to know me?"

"Oh thou who lovest me, set love in order in my life" Augustine. TTFN xx

Oh my word!

Another football quote: Stuart Pearce, Manager of Man City FC:

"I can see the carrot at the end of the tunnel!"

The genius of the TV commentator

Thanks to my good friend Mohamad Al Bazzer for sending these which are mostly concern the noble Olympian sports of Snooker & Darts:

"Bristow reasons . . . Bristow quickens ... Aaah, Bristow."

"Jockey Wilson . . . What an athlete."

"That was like throwing three pickled onions into a thimble!"

"He's about as predictable as a wasp on speed"

"Look at the man go, its like trying to stop a water buffalo with a pea-shooter"

"The atmosphere is so tense, if Elvis walked in, with a portion of chips.......you could hear the vinegar sizzle on them"

"Big Cliff Lazarenko's idea of exercise is sitting in a room with the windows open taking the lid off something cool and fizzy."

"It's like trying to pin down a kangaroo on a trampoline"

"Well as giraffes say, you don't get no leaves unless you stick your neck out"

"That's the greatest comeback since Lazarus."

"He's as cool as a prized marrow!"

"He looks about as happy as a penguin in a microwave."

"That's like giving Dracula the keys to the blood bank"

"As they say at the DHSS, we're getting the full benefit here."

"He is as slick as minestrone soup"

"The players are under so much duress, it's like duressic park out there!"

"This lad has more checkouts than Tescos."

"There's only one word for that - magic darts!"

"Keith Deller's not just an underdog, he's an underpuppy!"

"I don't know what he's had for breakfast but Taylor knocked the Snap, Crackle and Pop outta Bristow"

"Even Hypotenuse would have trouble working out these angles"

"Steve Beaton - The adonis of darts, what poise, what elegance - a true roman gladiator with plenty of hair wax."

"If you're round your auntie's tonight, tell her to stop making the cookies and come thru to the living room and watch these two amazing athletes beat the proverbial house out of each other"

"When Alexander of Macedonia was 33, he cried salt tears because there were no more worlds to conquer..... Bristow's only 27."

"Eat your heart out Harold Pinter, we've got drama with a capital D in Essex."

"If we'd had Phil Taylor at Hastings against the Normans, they'd have gone home."

"He's playing out of his pie crust."

"They won't just have to play outta their skin to beat Phil Taylor. They'll have to play outta their essence!"

"Darts players are probably a lot fitter than most footballers in overall body strength."

"Phil Taylor's got the consistency of a planet ... and he's in a darts orbit!"

"Jockey Wilson, he comes from the valleys and he's chuffing like a choo-choo train!"

"Steve Beaton, he's not Adonis, he's THE donis"

"I've got two words for you - former world champion."

"This is his last Tango in Paris... and now it's goodnight Vienna."