As usual a combination of family, music and football tends to dominate my life away from Integra.
On the family front, we said goodbye to my dad in June, a victim of pancreatic cancer. Naturally the family were all deeply saddened but we gave him a wonderful send off and have fabulous memories of the eighty five years he graced the earth.
My mother has remained strong and is coming to terms with a life without dad (they were married for sixty one years) and we had an excellent lunch in July to celebrate her 80th birthday.
My five grandchildren are growing up fast and I relish every minute I get to spend with them, a series of family BBQs have been great fun this summer.
In September we have another big family gathering planned for the FDs birthday (she would kill me for revealing her age).
In July my brother and his family were over from the USA and we took the opportunity for a short break together. We spent a night in the Lake District at our regular haunt, the Bridge Hotel, before a couple of nights in Balloch in Scotland on the shores of Loch Lomond. We broke the journey on the way back South with a night in Chillingham which is near Alnwick in Northumberland.
It is amazing what you can fit into just a few days and the FD and myself enjoyed visiting Inverary (pictured) , Doune, Lindesfarne and Bamburgh Castles plus the gardens at Alnwick Castle and Holy Island.
Doune Castle will be known to many of you as the setting for many of the scenes in Monty Python’s Holy Grail. You will be pleased to note that I did not meet the Black Knight or the Knights that say Ni! I also ensured that the contents of my nostrils stayed where they should (watch the film!).
We also had a family clay pigeon shooting and archery afternoon which was immense fun and I must admit to having excelled with the shotgun, shooting a pretty impressive 40 out of 50 clays.
Music continues to play a big part in my life and I enjoyed the Wallingford Beer and Blues Festival in June with Laurence Jones and Wilko Johnson headlining this great two night event.
I have also attended gigs by Guy Tortora, The Mentulls, two gigs from Gregg Sutton (with Muddy Manninen from Wishbone Ash sitting in on guitar), Bad Influence, Papa George and Micky Moody, Three Buck Shirt and Walter Trout.
August Bank Holiday weekend saw the FD and myself attend Julian and Cat O’Dell’s Catfest. A superb “festival” held at their farm near Milton Keynes and featuring a great range of artists including Fred’s House, Danni Nicholls, Balsamo Deighton and others. It was hoped that the event and other activities will raise over £25,000 for Macmillan and I am sure that that figure will have comfortably been exceeded. Well done!
Gigs lined up between now and the end of the year include six Wishbone Ash shows (including Ashcon where Xander and the Peace Pirates and Doris Brendel will be in support and I will be playing as part of the Wishclone Ish collective).
Other future gigs include The Mentulls, Chantel McGregor, Robin Bibi, Giles Hedley, Dave Kelly (ex Blues band), Never the Bride and a three day Blues weekend in Bournemouth with an excellent line up of artists playing.
The football season is now underway and the mighty Hornets are looking to consolidate and build on last season in the Premiership. Over £40 million has been spent on new players and the ground has continued to be developed and is most impressive.
The cost of a beer and a pie has increased somewhat but it is the on the field activity that is of most interest.
Another new Head Coach (Walter Mazzarri) now has his chance to work with our multi-national squad and strike fear into the hearts of our opposition.