Well, here I am, back in the world of gainful (paid!) employment. As ever with first days, a lot of information was passed across, some of which will hopefully have stuck. It’s actually quite a strange situation as 18 of us started today. It’s going to be quite a challenge for the small existing team over the next few months, as I imagine we are all going to be asking lots of questions. Still they were all very friendly, so the omens are good.

Lunchtime is one thing, which is going to be strange for me. Over the past 20 years I’ve been used to working in or near to the centre of town. This gave me loads of scope for interesting options when it came to filling my break time. I know that often that would just mean a piece of cake, a coffee and a good book in a local café, but it could also be wandering around the old dock area, checking out the record and book shops, going to a gallery or sometimes the luxury of a lunchtime concert. Sadly, my new place of work is in the middle of nowhere, so nothing to walk to at lunchtime and a with a canteen serving scrummy looking food at subsidised prices, if I ‘m not careful, I could see the pounds pilling on!

Our Sunday team were on the end of a pretty comprehensive 7-2 thrashing yesterday morning. Strangely though, I rather enjoyed the game. I was playing in central defence and saw lots (and lots!) of the ball, as the opposition laid siege to our goal for huge chunks of the match. Although they had a much higher average age than us, they used the ball really well and at times had us chasing shadows. This gave me plenty of chances to throw myself into tackles, some of which I even managed to win!

On Saturday evening we made our second visit in a fortnight to the Showcase Cinema. Last week we went to see the Bobby Darin bio-pic Beyond The Sea (Orynthia has always been a fan his work), This week we took my mum to see the excellent Ladies In Lavender, which features the brilliant duo of Judi Dench and Maggie Smith.

Orynthia’s mum is making progress in hospital, although she has been having problems with her eating since the operation. The general signs are good, but the sooner she can start to get some proper nourishment into her the better she (and we) will feel.