26 February 2011
An early morning video call to my dear friends Brinton’s. welcoming them back to the UK God willing I will see them both at Lord’s before too long
A lazy day. Most of the morning spent working on the blog or answering e-mails as well as making and receiving a number of Skype video calls. Then the afternoon spent watching international rugby. First of all Wales versus Italy and then England against the French. The first half of the Welsh match was very entertaining but the second half was scrappy. Nevertheless Wales scraped home with a win, 24-16. The English and French teams were the only unbeaten ones in the championship so far, so it was evidently going to be a needle match and so it turned out, but in the event the English, on their home ground at Twickenham, were dominant. They actually crossed the line 3 times but with one try disallowed for a very marginal forward pass. The best the French could do was three penalties so England won with a convincing score-line of 17-9, and the only team left in the hunt to win the Grand Slam. International rugby A highlight of the match wars Jonny Wilkinson becoming the highest points scorer, all times in International Rugby. In times past I would have been part of that 80,000 strong group of spectators cheering on the home side but, hey hoh, I have my memories..
For part of the time, while I was watching the Welsh match, I was joined by Liz ‘Moon’ (she married an astrologer!), A talented local artist, a friend of Alice’s who dropped in for tea. Liz painted a wonderful conversation piece for my 60th. (?) birthday. It hangs in my office and is a view of this thatched garden, weather boarded, 17th century building, looking through the open door, with me sitting at my desk and my secretary on the other side. What was so clever about this picture was that she managed to paint a number of separate pictures in the reflections of the glass windows. ‘My lovely’ feeding the donkeys; Miles and Chloe sitting outside the front of the main house with two of the grand children; the running postmen; the gardener;; our lovely black Labrador Woody and our cat Pandora and so on. I have asked Liz if she can e-mail me a copy of this picture and if she does manage to do so I will include it in the Photo section.