Tuesday 31st August 2004… Back to work!
As per usual after a weekend of intermittent weather today is a clear sky and little if any wind, perhaps we will have a late summer?
Work…
Home and to tennis to look after the juniors none of which materialized, thankfully Catherine and Ben turned up and I managed to play a set before the light went, disappointingly at 8.15pm!!! Autumn is here.
MM…
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Monday 30th August 2004… Hip, hip Hooray for Bank holidays another day away from work, hopefully a day to recharge batteries and be able to cope with another week of madness in the print industry.
A morning of gardening managed to get the grass all cut and a large dose of wedding at the back of the garden.
Lunch followed by a walk from Rame head into Causand and then the return trip back along the costal path, weather was perfect, the views impressive as ever.
Tea and of to the evening Argyle match they were at home to Nottingham forest, a good advertisement for the game Argyle went in a half time 2-0 only to have Forest come back to 2-2 with five mins to play, all of this excitement was caused by severe doggy refereeing, added bonus to the evenings entertainment was Samuel and I ending up two seats away from the most abusive man in Britain who if such a category existed would have won the I can say more expletives than anyone else in ninety mins. Remembered why I don’t often go to football matches, took almost an hour to get home the traffic was so bad.
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Sunday 29th August 2004… A morning spent in the garden putting a few new plants in and moving a few of the older ones around the garden. Everything seems to have gone into hyper drive growing at the moment with all the recent rain we have had.
Lunch and then to tennis for a brief game with Richard, I know people give all manor of excuses when playing a sport and being unable to perform well but it was difficult to play today due to the continuous over flying of various jet fighters which kept coming low over the courts. I did think they were rather low at one point when you could actually see the pilot on one particular pass when they seemed to just about miss the top of the leisure centre.
Both the wonder Nan’s made a late afternoon appearance they had by the sound of it spent much of the day covering of the garden centers in the South Hams area, they both stayed for a cup of tea before heading off out to St. Dominic.
An evening of very little once tea was finished and the kitchen cleared up I spent much of it wallowing in the bath and reading before going off to bed felt terribly tired and dully fell off to sleep very quickly.
Paul phoned he will be back on the 12th September, currently surfing in California.
MM…
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Saturday 28th August 2004… Breakfast with very little impact upon the Guardian crossword, I had hoped with age and experience to make some sort of impact on this activity but with Janet and I giving it over half an hour’s deliberation we found ourselves with only four clues filled in.
Tennis courts by ten played a game of doubles before playing singles with Steve which turned out to be a marathon game lasting over an hour just to play one set, disappointingly lost even after having so many set points that I lost count, we played some good tennis though.
Home to lunch and then believe it or not I went back to the club a again in the afternoon to playa game with Richard thankfully we played double with some other club members as I was beginning to feel to effects of the morning as my legs only just about managed to carry me around the court.
Evening Barbecue where we cooked what looked like the largest beef burgers I have ever seen in my life.
Rounded the evening off by going to Julian Grails party a 50 meter walk only to his house, saw lots of people we had not seen for many a year and also my friend John Hooper who is the husband of the current Mayor Sue Hopper
MM…
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Friday 27th August 2004… Upturn in weather yesterday was only a blip, back to rain this morning Lillian arrived in through the cat flap while I was having breakfast soaked.
Frank Zappa guitar solos filled the car this morning, sounded more discordant than usual this morning.
Work… Even more terrible than yesterday!!!
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Thursday 26th August 2004… Up early again, left the house before light this morning.
Work… Terrible terrible and yet more terrible!!!
Home, Tea and to bed!
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Wednesday 25th August 2004… Running this morning only a mile, managing to dodge frequent showers we seem to be having at present.
Grateful Dead 72 tour on the car CD player.
Work…
Good end to the day managed to play tennis, fitted a set in before the light went first signs that summer has come and gone it was getting dark just after 8.30pm tonight.
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Tuesday 24th August 2004… Early start to the day I had to be at Newquay airport before 8am for the plane to Stanstead
Work… In Huntingdon (Near Peterborough) for the day.
Bumpy ride home on the plane, marred by lady behind me being sick, also met rudest woman in the world at the car-parking machine.
Finally home at 10pm
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Monday 23rd August 2004… Where did the weekend go, but then if you are also finding the that time just seems to fly past you, no good asking you to write your answer on a post card because probably like me you would not have any spare time to do it !
Pouring with rain this morning wet drive to work, could not go with Joni on the CD player needed something more uplifting with the grim weather plumped for Grateful dead 72 show
Work… Busy, Busy, Busy.
Running in the rain tonight completely drenched.
MM…
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Sunday 22nd August 2004… Morning of car cleaning and finishing off cutting the grass which had to be done today with the latest weather forecast we are due to have yet more rain next week, by now we must of reached some sort of record for the wettest August ever since records were kept.
Lunch and then off to tennis, contrary to weather forecast we managed to play several sets before the weather turned to rain as expected. I can safely say that I played the worst tennis of the year today; I seemed in capable of playing any shop even the serve gave up the ghost.
Home to shower tea and a bit of recording, transferred some music to the mini disc, was thwarted to try and put my David Sylvian CD’s on to disc because they contain some sort of anti copying device, while I do support the idea of not being able to copy an artists work, being unable to play the disc on almost any of the CD drives in the house is rather restrictive to say the least.
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Saturday 21st August 2004… No Mini tennis, but alas no lie in as I had an eye sight test booked for 8.30am in Plymouth, surprisingly no need for new lenses present subscription was OK.
Late breakfast and to tennis club to play mid morning game we were very lucky to get a game in; huge black cloud went overhead thankfully only to drop a few spots of rain. Richard and I won which was surprising as we made a bad start to the game.
Samuels bike to the repair shop followed by brief Waitrose shop, cleaned the car and cut the grass before tea, watched the Olympics catching up on our latest haul of medals then spent the remainder of the evening on the PC trying to get the in-box down to a reasonable size.
Laura has stinking cold hence not too sociable, other female in house none too good either Janet has some sort of stomach upset and has spent much of the day in bed.
Later stages of day marred by over indulgence of red wine and eyes too big for my belly potatoes in chives a rosemary and garlic.
MM…
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Friday 20th August 2004… Out of bed at some stupidly early time and on the road before it was even light!
Work… repeat the word terrible one hundred times, do you get the picture.
Tea, followed by slumping in settee and early to bed, out of bed later in the evening to pick Samuel up but due to poor communication and me being slightly tired and ratty I was unable to find pick-up point for Samuel, returned home to throw in the towel, went to bed to leave Janet to go off and find them well after one in the morning by the time everyone finally managed to get into bed.
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Thursday 19th August 2004…
Work…
Laura exam results!!! A day of celebration Laura has got just reward for her hard work.
Wonder Nan was there to see Laura get the good news; Mother dropped her into town as many of her school friends went out to celebrate. Wonder Nan shocked at Laura’s revelation that she would be having a few ‘shots of Jack Daniels’ to get wrecked!
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Wednesday 18th August 2004…
Drove to work in horrendous conditions, raining so hard it was difficult to see the road in front of me. Solo drive this morning went to work early, gave up listening to Radio 5 as they seem to be on an anti British Olympic team kick because we have not won any medals to date. Join Mitchell provided the in car musical entertainment, she has anew album out soon which I would like to get hold of.
Work…
Tennis meeting at the house tonight, we had planned to meet after club night but as the unusually summer but getting more unusual weather consisting of rain followed by yet more rain weather continues we never got to play any tennis again this week, I believe this is the third week in a row that club night has been rained off
MM…
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Tuesday 17th August 2004…
Work…
Tea and lengthy discussion with Janet who has booked a skiing holiday at Christmas, Samuel & Laura also will be coming with us our destination will be Les Arcs in France If it is half as good as last time it will be fantastic.
For the time of year you would think that you would think that the middle of August would be a safe bet to have an evening run and bathe in the final rays of sunshine of a summers day, no, no to night I ran the street of Salt ash in the pouring rain, I did over two miles and felt like going a bit further but being socked through to the skin I decided to stop and have a warm shower.
MM…
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Monday 16th August 2004… Even though still feeling seized from the waist downwards I managed to run before work this morning and felt better for it believe it or not.
In car entertainment Phil Manzanera’s recent solo release, strange how after a few plays the fogginess of the first listening are replaced by more focused listening and before long each track begins to make its mark.
Work…
Tea and off to tennis with Roberto which was curtailed due to the weather poured with rain, (Boscastle in North Devon had severe flooding with a flash flood) returned home socked through to the skin.
Everyone out for the evening, Laura to see Mat’s band, Janet to keep fit and Samuel to the football club to play pool with his friends.
Paul phoned, having a great time does no want to come back, is off to California at the end of the month, not playing for Blazey but has signed for Bodmin, can’t see this being that good an idea as the Blazey manager was in the paper at the weekend telling everyone that he had signed him!
MM…
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Sunday 15th August 2004… Morning spent in the garden, cut the grass and did a bit of feeding, Dave & Lynn dropped by to pick up some of the fish which Stephen had left the night before.
Did not even bother to watch the reds ones going even faster in the Hungarian GP, played marathon tennis session at the club instead, after four hours my shoulder felt like it was going to drop out of its socket, legs were not in that better a shape either, but a great afternoon of tennis well worth the pain.
Went with Laura back to the Maize, Maize to try and get the remainder of her money she was owed partly successful we managed to hold of half of it, gave the woman until the end of the week to give Laura the reminder or I suppose we will have to take some sort of legal action against her.
Tea followed by very little other than slumping on settee, watched Robert Wyatt program, only piece of music I have ever heard by the man was a rather good version of I’m a believer originally recorded written by Neil Diamond also recorded by the Monkee's his involvement with early Soft Machine recordings and his present day off the wall Jazz work very different to what I expected.
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Saturday 14th August 2004… Mini tennis last one for three weeks we have a summer brake wonderful weather. Many children were missing due to the summer holidays.
Afternoon of tennis also Richard and I managed some how to get a set off of Phil & Steve. Played well if a little error ridden in places.
Barbeque with Laura & matt, Samuel turned up from paint balling complaining about being shot at all day.
Steven arrived with some fish mid evening, he brought over twenty Pollack for us, and Stephen stayed for a while to tell us more tails of his current situation before leaving just before ten.
MM…
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Friday 13th August 2004… Up just after four in the morning for an early start to the day, forgot to put the dustbin out Janet none too pleased.
Work… Grim, in fact very, very grim!
Tea too tired for anything, I made early exit to bed to try and re-start the weekend tomorrow morning.
MM…
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Thursday 12th August 2004…
Work…
Evening spent with present Tennis club web master who has handed over the duties of up dating the clubs site to me, just a matter of mastering Microsoft program called front-page editor, which looks a little daunting at present.
MM…
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Wednesday 11th August 2004… Not a good nights sleep awoke to tour the house after hearing strange unaccounted noise, arrived back at the bed to find furry object was now sleep on my side of the bed!
Work…
To Tennis club night which was a good one if a little frustrating due to the weather the grass courts were out of action which meant that those who had turned up had to wait for courts to become available to play on.
A talk with Samuel… ‘What are you going to do with your life‘being the title, as suspected the event was a short memo rather than a thesis, apparently life in hold until the exam results turn up.
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Tuesday 10th August 2004… Lillian up and about far too early this morning!!!
Work…
Samuel none to pleased that Waitrose do not need his services, though there is a glimmer of hope that he may well get something in the future with a few of the present people working there leaving in the coming months for University. M&S and Safeway the only other two irons he has in the employment fire at present.
Home to tea and then running again tonight made it to Latchbrock and back just!
Laura returned from France but not in for the evening out again, Samuel has gone off to a mid week party, some poor parents must be on holiday.
MM…
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Monday 9th August 2004… Lillian’s latest trick is to get you out of bed at the dreadful hour of 5am convince you to go downstairs to the kitchen to fill her food bowel up, only to find it with food in it, It is more like she can’t sleep so why should the rest of the household do so!
In car entertainment no-man Returning Jesus, to be described as ‘Electric Folk’ the duo of Wilson & Bowness being original, is one of their fortes.
Work…
Home to tea and then running shorter than usual but I did enjoy it even in the stifling heat of the evening.
Samuel still in search of a job has had interview with Waitrose but still awaiting M&S to get in touch with a possible interview opertunity, poor chap is not also having the best of luck in the purchasing dept. his phone deal he brought oveer the internet via E-bay has gone a bit sour, on sign of the chap he brought it off his he sent him the £150 via PAL payment.
Laura phoned from Paris, very hot and she will be back tomorrow, Janet told her about the Lady from the Jazz Cafe in Plymouth phoning about a job.
Watched part 2 of The Waking the Dead.
MM…
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Sunday 8th August 2004… With Laura and Paul away at the moment and the availability of vacant beds in the Madden household you would think that the fur balls would take the opportunity to have the luxury of a bed to themselves, but no… I awake this morning to find four of us trying to fit into one bed!!!
As predicted and unusually forecasted correctly, the weather has changed to cloud and heavy showers, spent much of the morning clearing up the house filled up two bags of rubbish, where does it come from?
Wonder Nan’s arrived in the afternoon for my Mothers birthday celebrations, had planned to go to the garden center but any idea of going out of the house was given upon due to the weather. Splendid tea roasts lamb, Janet’s first attempt at cooking with the new cooker, the Nans stayed for the evening leaving just before nine.
Watched Waking the Dead on BBC 1 before going off to bed.
MM…
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Saturday 7th August 2004… Mini tennis, less numbers than expected due to the holidays, very sunny everyone seemed to suffer from the heat.
Afternoon of very little slumped on settee and had an afternoon nap, then to the tile shop to take back the leftover tiles.
Tennis at 6pm everyone could not play until then as they all went off to the Argyle game (0-0 draw with Millwall) played doubles against Phil and John lost but played as best as I could, managed to get back Phil’s massive serve but unable to control his searing forehands which kept coming my way.
Home to shower and barbeque, all the children out for the evening just finished cooking when Stephen arrived, it was gone eleven by the time we had finished eating, and he spent much of the time telling us the latest events in his life.
MM…
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Friday 6th August 2004… A restless night’s sleep due to it being in contention with Basil over bed space, Fur ball tried for most of the early hours of the morning to oust me out of the bed. Change in the weather pouring with rain this morning, yesterday’s time spent watering the garden was not required, got soaked putting the dustbins out.
Work…
Long hall home some poor unfortunate people had a fatal accident on the A30 chaos ensued hordes of holiday makers trying to move about the county on the back roads, took over two hours to get home.
Tea and finishing off Samuel’s paper round, well after nine by the time we had finished to bed read and as per usual drop off to sleep before even a page was read.
MM…
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Thursday 5th August 2004…
Work…
Home and out again to take Laura to Matt’s she is off with his family to Paris for Matt’s eighteenth birthday party, one of the highlights will be visiting Jim Morrison's grave. They plan on leaving at midnight and traveling by coach overnight; I only hope that Matt’s Family is aware of the consequences if Laura does not get her essential beauty sleep.
Janet & I made a start on Samuels’s paper round; he is not back until the weekend.
Tea for Janet & I only, with the children seeming to be not at home more and more, Janet is finding it difficult to come to terms with cooking for less people, with just the two of us I find it a struggle to get through 6 pieces of chicken and what looks like enough broccoli in cheese sauce to feed an army.
MM…
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Wednesday 4th August 2004… Alarm went off at 5.15 am!!!
Work… To London for the day.
Back home at just after nine due to various train changes due to mechanical failures and line problems, Janet not in she was making a return trip to Harlyn Bay with Samuel after his interview at Waitrose. I went off to bed before Janet got back to the house; Wonder Nan Madden went with her to give Janet some company.
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Tuesday 3rd August 2004… First nights decent sleep for some time; we have finally got a lightweight duvet to ensure that we both do not fry alive in bed during the night due to the recent warm weather.
Work…
Home via Harlyn Sands to pick Samuel up, none too pleased about it all, he has an interview with Waitrose tomorrow morning.
MM…
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Monday 2td August 2004… Dreaded return to work, could have done without chasing Lillian around the garden trying to get a mouse off of her, she then managed to pull down the Honey suckle which was growing around the patio window when the mouse ran up it trying to get away from the cat, in her desperation to get hold of the mouse she has managed to snap one of the main stems on the plant!
Work…
Janet spent much of the day sitting in traffic trying to take Samuel to Harlyn Sands, he is staying with his friend Nick in a caravan with his parents, and Samuel will also be none too pleased that his phone he brought on e-bay has not turned up today. Nan Lott in the house today trying to bring the Madden household under control, new kitchen is looking rather swish, Chris will hopefully be over during the week to finish things off.
With my mid week tennis partner Roberto away on holiday in Lanzarotti I had a evening in the garden digging in more compost and laying some coco shells n the hope of keeping the weeds at bay, did not get very far as the weather went bad, it started to drizzle with rain.
Laura at Matt’s for the evening and Janet out to keep fit, she picked Laura up on the way back; we both watch the final installment of Waking the Dead on BBC.
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Sunday 1st August 2004… Last day before I return to work aggh! , The idea of doing two lottery entries you would think is going to improved my chances of winning; yet again I had not one number double aggh!
Lillian up and about early I fed her and then did a bit of diary tidying and emptied the in-box, which has started to regularly, fill itself with unwanted e-mails again.
Cut the remaining part of the hedge at the side of the house and cleared up all of the cuttings gave all the plants another feed. An afternoon of tennis, which was played in searing heat, managed three sets of good tennis before I left the rest of them to play on without me.
MM…
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