3rd February 2008

Once again, this week, the entire family seems to be in full working order, no coughs, colds, or car calamities to report. Even the Peugeot remains dent-free. Remarkable.

Despite the rest of the country being buried under snowdrifts and forced to rediscover the whereabouts of their gloves, we managed a total of about twelve snowflakes. They performed a brief, optimistic flutter and promptly vanished, possibly out of embarrassment.

Sarah added yet another ‘A’ to her growing collection, this time for Thai chicken. I remain hopeful that one day I’ll get to taste some of these culinary masterpieces. For now, I can only imagine the deliciousness.

In more exciting news, Charlotte has confirmed 3rd September as the wedding date! After a tense spell refreshing airline websites and mumbling at booking systems, I successfully secured flights to and from Zanzibar for Sue, Jamie, and Sarah. It was touch and go, most seats were snapped up by people evidently more organised than I am, but we’re in.

We’ll treat it as a bit of a holiday, arriving a full week before the happy couple. Out of respect (and common sense), we’ve booked ourselves into a beach hotel just outside the capital, Stone Town and will make the journey to the north of the island on the big day to join them. Hopefully, we’ll be relaxed, tanned, and not too sunburnt by then.

Friday night saw Sue and me at the local cinema club, watching Atonement. A beautifully made film, although not one for laughs, more of a sit-quietly-afterwards-and-stare-into-the-middle-distance kind of evening. Still, well worth seeing.

As for Saturday, the less said about the rugby, the better. England lost to Wales, and I’m still recovering. Frankly, when you pick players who are either out of form, recovering from injury, or last seen doing laps in the reserves, you’re asking for trouble. I would have expected more tactical awareness from a coach of such supposed experience. Still, at least the snow didn’t stick.