The debonair Basil Marigold's

1 - Attending a funeral for a man, who really didn't deserve that. 2 - A large glass of Jack Daniels. 3 - Kate Bush: 'a woman's work' on repeat. starting with the line 'Pray God you can cope' 4 - Thinking of my children and who'll look after them when I am not here (see number 1). 5 - Hating that I can't do anything about number 4 and will miss so much of their life. And I don't want to miss a moment. 6 - wish I could turn off my brain thinking, just once. 

Moved into a very uncomfortable place today. I returned to running club. A place I have not been for a long time, loads of excuses and complications along the way, but I am back there and the last few weeks that I have been out and running/racketballing has seemed to help and the evening session wasn't as tough as I had imagined it could have been. The one noticeable drawback is that training on a playing field really punished my legs, which are far more used to the feel of tarmac, which although jars the joints, doesn't sap strength quite as impressively like a grassy, shock absorbing field. For those asking, I hear, what is the toughest terrain to train/run on? Sand, every time, just plain difficult and strength destroying I've found. So here we go again, I have a half marathon in August. There is three years of neglect to turn around.

I had the pleasure of using public transport today, not often I get this treat but it is a time to reminisce back to when I didn't drive and how I achieved large levels of reading on public transport. Something I miss while driving, apparently ruled unsafe. So, imagine my joy, being a fan of English romantic poets that when I went to disembark off the bus, I passed a woman sat in her seat, who on the back of her neck had had tattooed, in what I imagine she thinks elegant hand writing looks like, because that is what makes neck tattoo's look good obviously, the words, 'Byron's Bitch'. Now, living in the district where Lord Byron was bought up and had his ancestral home, Newstead Abbey and also not more than 7 miles from the Church where his grave is, although all that is buried there is his reclaimed heart. I thought to myself that, apart from the language, the tattoo was a great way for her to publicly demonstrate her adoration to, arguably, England's finest 19

The domestic football season finished today. Thus ends the 2010-11 season and one I personally will not be sad to see the back of. One in which the club I have followed and Loved all my life nearly went out of business, destroyed by the greed of american's, rescued by even more american's. The return of the King and next season I will great with more optimism than I have done for the last 4 years. Sadly, this wait will now be for 3 months.... No football for 3, whole, months! I hate the summers where there are no European Championships or world cups. They make for sad summers. 

Today witnessed the first exodus of bulky items from our house, which were solely child related. After the birth of our first child, we like most other new parents, realised we would have to transport her around somehow so we purchased a second hand Pram, and a new car seat. We bought the pram off ebay, as we felt that paying the ridiculous amounts for a new one was a huge false economy. We ended up with about £400 worth of 'Travel System' for about £140 and a £70 car seat, so we halved to a certain extent what we could have chosen to spend. The only downside to the pram was that it had a scratch on one of the struts, which was hardly earth shattering and meant we had a quality pram for half the price, which freed up money to buy other stuff for the flump.  Since we have had flump 2: The sequel. We moved into a double buggy which is a lot niftier and trendier than the original pram/buggy. It also holds two flumps! The decision was then taken to off load the original pram 

Death has no respect. Death is indiscriminate; Be you good or evil, rich or poor it strikes with the same venom and finality. It never ceases to moralise the person it strikes, it just takes with no judgement. It is harder when it takes without warning. This situation has impacted on my life three times, so far. All significant for different reasons and discovered in different ways, and now thinking of them, all happened to be men. The reason I am writing this is that one happened yesterday, to someone I had only known for four years through running club, and who, seemingly as fit as a butchers dog to my knowledge and who I have run and chatted with often, spoke of life, children, retirement, etc. The stuff you talk to friends about. It really is a hammer blow that evacuates the wind from your lungs when you find out that they will no longer be there, anymore. The next time I go to running club, he will not be there, there will be a person shaped hole where once he ran, never to be fil

It's not every day that you wake up to your street being cordoned off by the Police. It's certainly the first time for me, even more so because of a suspicious package and to then be informed that the army bomb disposal team is on it's way to investigate. We managed to get out just in time as we were due to visit somebody and when we arrived back there were no missing houses, no blackened crater where the road once was. I presume it was a false alarm, a poorly delivered 'amazon' parcel or the like, maybe just a box of old pant's and Lego. What it did reveal is how much I despise the nanny-ish ways that the state can deal with you. The classic conversation with the policeman along the lines of, can we leave by the other exit as the package is at the bottom of the other end of the street? Replied to by, 'it's for your own safety if you stay in the house and don't go'. The frustration of this still gets me as I am the judge of my own safety. Should

Everything seems to run in four year phases. My four year stint as a district councillor came to an end last week. I was not sad, it is something in effect I was kind of hoping would happen for, probably, two years now. The one sadness was that the actual work was interesting and varied and I can honestly say that I served them all well, the residents got a good service. It was outside factors really, that pointed me towards seeing not being elected as a relief to me personally and professionally. Over the last few weeks I have been looking at where I was and where I am now, four years on. I have faced and experienced some pretty huge changes. In 2007 when elected, I was never married. Now I am facing my upcoming fourth anniversary. I now have responsibility for 2 children, one just about to turn two and the other is only 4months old, arguably the cause of my most fundamental life changes and experiences over the last few years. both have been an absolute joy in every way. At times, th