Thursday 14th Feb

Doesn’t it make you feel so much better when the sun is on your back? I enjoyed a brisk walk this morning to and from the library, where I helped a number of people with their computer queries. Had one chap in needing to print off a document to fax it on. Strange to think that this seemed old fashioned. Twenty years ago telex was being phased out, and fax was coming in, and now faxes seem like something from the last century (which indeed they are), and email and scanning is the way forward.

Got on with the ironing after lunch, ironing being something I’ve become competent at since becoming a house husband. It might be just me, but I always start with the quick and easy stuff, moving on to the more difficult, which usually means tops, later. The exception being Mrs P’s selection of blouses and jumpers for work. Why can’t women wear simple shirts the same as men, which are easy to iron. Perry juniors’ school shirts are easy. Women’s’ blouses always seem to have ruffles and tucks, or something to make them awkward, and I’ve recently noticed the odd awkward garment appearing in the eldest’s wardrobe. The compromise we’ve reached is Mrs P does her own tops. To be honest, I’m not sure she thinks they’re done properly if she hasn’t done them.

In the evening I’m off out and despite it being Valentine’s Day it’s not with Mrs P. Who said romance is dead? During the winter Perry Junior and I attended and passed an ECB cricket umpires course. The youngest as part of his Duke Of Edinburgh award, and me to keep him company, and because by the time I’d dropped him off and come back home, I’d have had no time to do anything before going back to collect him. So last night I attended my first meeting of the local umpires association, and very welcoming they were, though I must say I lowered the average age in the room by about 20 years! It was the AGM and having sat through various clubs AGM’s and committee meetings over the years, it was nice to see that the stereotypes you get at clubs all over the country were represented. The season starts mid-April which is fast approaching, and it’s quite daunting to think in two months I could be umpiring 1^st Xl league cricket.

Yours reading the rule book

Jay