Friday 29th July, 2011

This is always one of my most difficult weeks of the year. I think I have told you before that the one reason I would be quite interested in starting life all over again would be if it meant I could get to go to Pony Club Camp. Bob is there this week and whooping it up, one of only four 13 year old boys amongst 30 or so girls, one of whom, I discovered last night, has been bribed into plaiting his horse for today’s tack and turnout competition. What form the bribe took has not been related. In fact I don’t really want to know.

The week was going swimmingly for Hen. She has spent it, blissfully happily, hand-stitching the message “You are invited to my 21st Birthday Party” onto a card, embellishing it further with a little collage of photos cut out from fashion magazines. 45 such cards have to be prepared for which she is being paid a total of £20 by the friend who has commissioned this task. Each card, it would appear takes about a day to do. Simple command of maths will tell you she has completed 5 and so she should have finished them all by the middle of September which happens to be a couple of weeks after the party is taking place. However, today has brought disappointment for Hen although the population of Suffolk should be breathing easier. I’m not sure she approached her driving test this morning in quite the right spirit. She was pondering last night if the test examiner might allow her to put a lucky mascot on the back seat of the car as she quite wanted to take Humphrey ( ridiculous miniature daschund ) along for the ride. Sense prevailed, but sad to say, she failed her test, although she insists it was a close run thing as she only committed 13 minor errors. Apparently this would normally be sufficient to allow the examiner to have passed her, however he was unable to ignore the fact she ran a red light and nearly crashed into the back of another car.

Now. I have a bone to pick with you lot. I sneaked a message out mid week about my Jungfrau Marathon and fund raising exercise for The Rainbow Trust. This is a most worthy cause and I have set myself targets to raise £10,000 and to complete the marathon in under 5 hours. Both of these goals may be a bit of a stretch but to date only two people on this email list have stepped up to the plate. Come on folks. You are mocking me. I know times are tough, but really...... Hit the link..... Davids Jungfrau Marathon

PS Taking a couple of my most important, generous and entertaining clients to St Andrews on Monday for lunch at the R&A and a round on the Old Course. Who knows...it could be you next year!