Of happy news and other things

So the weekend went to plan, with just one happy little surprise thrown in.

Had Friday evening off, and sat out in my garden in the sunshine to restring my guitar and annoy my neighbours. You might think the sound of a guitar gently strumming coming from your neighbours' garden on an early summer's evening might be a pleasant thing. I guess the trouble is, as with anything that needs practice, practice involves repetition. 

So I try not to indulge too often, and am conscious to keep the repetition to a minimum. And nobody has yet complained. But it's too nice not to sit out in the sun on a sunny evening, and the house gets just a little too noisy at times. In nothing but a good way and I have no complaints. But being able to find a quiet corner in the garden in the sun with my guitar is a pleasant escape. I am not, by nature, a gregarious soul, so I like my own space occasionally.

The clip above is a version of Hotel California from Friday night. Still a bit rough around the edges, but got the words in, more or less, the right order. Always been fond of the song, never worked out a version to play with the band, but it remains an ambition and therefore a work in progress.

Saturday night's gig was excellent fun. Lots of faces in a packed house, some new, many we've known now for years, in some cases, decades, so count as good friends. It was a late one, home for about 0200, in bed for about 0330. 

Then back up for 0830 Sunday morning to get to the Club to meet Amanda and rig the Albacore a little before 1000. Didn't get time for my morning cup of tea, so dropped in at Nik's shop to say good morning (she'd been up to open at 0700) and grab bottle of Lipton iced tea and a bag of crips on the way out (the breakfast of champions! - that is, by the way, an ironic exclamation mark) plus a chicken and mushroom Pot Noodle for lunch later. 

Don't say I don't know how to treat myself. Yep, more irony.

We replaced the Albacore's main halyard which slowed preparations down a little, so were last off the beach and barely made the start-line on the other side of the lake with seconds to spare.

Wind was light, at around 6 knots from north of north east, but very variable in direction and some surprisingly blustery gusts occasionally blowing through to keep everybody on their toes. The sky was very thermic, with little puffs of cumulus blossoming and fading above in the otherwise blue heavens. The sun was warm, but the wind still had a bit of a chill, as it almost always does when there's any east in it.

We sailed the two morning races together, with indifferent results despite two very good starts. Win some, lose some I guess. It was still a lovely morning to be out on the water.

I remained at the club for the afternoon, taking my turn manning the safety boat for the pursuit race. It was an uneventful duty, the wind stayed fluky, but dropped off even further, leaving the boats racing occasionally motionless on the flat water.

I'd originally been scheduled to run the safety boat for Saturday afternoon, but had done a last minute swap with somebody else when Nikki reminded me that we'd agreed to go out to lunch with Ben and Hannah. Ben's the eldest of my two boys, and lives with his wife in Bristol. They're teachers, so we don't see nearly enough of them during term time. 

It seemed a little odd for Ben to arrange a family get together, but he'd explained he'd missed seeing his grandad (my father-in-law) on his birthday because of work, so this was just a chance to remedy that. So Saturday afternoon saw Nik and I sitting down to lunch at Hickory's Smokehouse with Ben and Hannah, along with our daughter Tash and the twins Harry and Charlie, my in-laws Lil and Harry, and, of course, my Dad. Only my youngest, Sam, was missing, as he couldn't rearrange his shift at work. Such are the hardships of working in retail.

It was a lovely lunch, lovely company, and not long into it Ben and Hannah revealed the true reason for the gathering. It seems Nikki and I are going to be grandparents again, with the new baby, Ben and Hannah's first, expected for the beginning of November.

It almost feels redundant to say it, but I'm going to type it anyway, we're all completely delighted.