Life Begins

On Sunday afternoon I went to ‘fix’ the vicar’s ‘broken’ computer. I say broken: It worked as soon as I turned it on, but I shouldn’t tease. It is the curse of the computer maintenance person that when you arrive at a client’s office everything starts working again and this means that (a) you can’t find out what was wrong and thus assure them that it won’t happen again and (b) you can’t charge for your time because there’s nothing to fix.

I spent the first half of the afternoon doing some maintenance on the computer (very relaxing) and the second half trying to travel through the fairly heavy rain back to Croydon (very stressful). I think that the transport system in London is pretty amazing but due to a non-existent Rail Replacement Bus service I ended up using four trains and two buses to get back to the office.

In the evening Jenny had organised a surprise party for me. It’s the first surprise party that anyone’s organised for me and this was somewhat overwhelming. I knew that something was going to happen but I didn’t know what it was. It turned out to be a Doctor Who party. Jenny had transformed the upstairs room at The Green Dragon into the TARDIS. As little Sam so rightly said: “Brilliant!”  Thank you to everyone who came out and especially to Jenny who put up with my inability to thoroughly enjoy myself at a time when I should be able to.

I am now able to announce the awards from the party:

Most accurate costume - Simon Jones as Sylvester McCoy

Most effortful costume - Chris and Hilary as the twirling Christmas trees from ‘The Christmas Invasion’

Most distance travelled - my brother Chris who came from Bristol

Most inconvenience incurred while travelling - Andrew Rumsey who had to drive through his own personal hell, Thornton Heath, to get there.

Best food - the things that looked like chicken nuggets but turned out to have chilli and cream in them. Yum. A big thank you to Esther for the buffet.

Finally: I need a new toothbrush.

Wednesday was a catching up at work day. In the evening I failed to meet Simon on the train from Clapham Junction. I managed to catch the same train but couldn’t find the right carriage so we met instead at Hampton Court and got the bus over to The Europa to meet Jenny (and my guitar) and play a couple of three song sets for the lovely Roland Lucas and Dale Harris (Impatience, Perfect and Friends, later Manual, Select and Hidden).

On Thursday I was late for my regular appointment looking after small children in the morning, but managed to get there just in time for everyone to sing Happy Birthday to me (the third, and not the last time, this week). After that I wandered up to Euston to collect my phone from the very generous Lisa who’d come to London for a meeting and brought it with her from Kenilworth!

Some work in the afternoon and then in the evening I went to Camden to record Friends for Balcony TV with the lovely Greg, or was it Layla? The results should be online in a few weeks. Finally a spot of babysitting back in Croydon and some more presents. It’s almost all books so far: Excellent.

Quite a gentle day yesterday. I was at a couple of clients offices in the morning not doing anything strenuous. I sorted out one problem and pointed out some things that would improve the other clients’ systems. A positive start.

In the afternoon I pottered really. I still got things done but with no particular purpose in mind. Drifted might be a better expression.

In the evening Jenny and I went to the Big Beer Band in Croydon. If you’ve not heard loud 16-piece Jazz for free then you’re missing out, particularly when you have the opportunity every Monday evening.

Off to the Masters tennis this afternoon then gig. More tomorrow.

Friday was another travel day. Train-tube-train-bus from Croydon to Witney including the marvellously named Stagecoach GOLD for the final leg of the journey. They have wireless on a BUS. Weird.

I was in Witney for a work meeting that had the potential to be difficult, but turned out to be very easy. It’s not often that you have a meeting where there’s no tension or disagreement. Lovely.

After work: fish and chips with the wonderful Phil Levermore and then back to East Croydon to find people actually queueing under the sign that says “Queue here for taxis” instead of hanging around on the corner and making it take longer for everyone, which is what usually happens. A very positive day all round. Can I have more like this please?

Hmmm… my idea was to try and keep this blog relentlessly positive throughout my 41st year, I’ll use the excuse that I’m still in my 40th to explain away the last posting. Thursday was much better. It’s always going to be better becasue it starts with Playgroup. I can’t think of many things that I’d rather be doing than singing songs to, playing with toys with and reading books to very small children. If you find something then please do tell me.

Next up was a trip to North London (passports please!) to do some work for a client there. I was worried that it might take longer than I had and that it might be more complicated than I anticipated (so an average visit, to be honest) but it all went smoothly and I finished with enough time to get on my way to the evening’s gig. I even remembered to leave every train and tube with my guitar. I regularly have to jump back on to rescue it.

In the evening I met Simon at The White Hart in Whitechapel and interrupting discussions about George Orwell we did a successful sound check, apologised to Dave Jackson of Bedsprings Acoustic for not bringing more people to his gigs (again) and played Impatience, Perfect, Friends, Manual, Select and Hidden. It was a better performance than Birmingham last week, and pretty good for only our second gig together.

CDs sold: none. New people on the mailing list: none. Oh well. Next stop: The Fox in Lewisham on Sunday.

Friday started off looking dodgy but by half time it was going reasonably and finished well. I was proper tired in the morning but got myself up to London to alter an email system for a client (thrilling, I know).

Back at the office I managed to do some urgent things, plan for the less-urgent things, collect my mobile charger and some CDs that might come in handy for the Radio session tomorrow evening and still had time to replace my leaky shoes and meet Jenny in Epsom at the agreed time.

We drove through the wind and the rain up the M3, 4 and 5 to Clevedon for an early brithday meal with my Mum and Dad, older and younger brothers and my older brothers’ eldest son at the Little Harp next to the Severn. Not the world’s most exciting blog entry but a great end to the day.