I had a cracking day today. Taking out the normal personal admin and phone calls, I had a visitor rock up at about 12.30 lunch time. I haven’t seen him possibly since our last tour in 2007 and he left the TA shortly after we got back. He has not changed a bit, still a nutter and very funny. He arrived at the bungalow and wifey let him in. He came in and sat down and we chatted for a while about what the had been up to and where he had been. We went over my accident, the progress of the case, how my family were coping and the help I had received. It was a very adult and sensible conversation that was taking place which could not continue. We were at a real risk of acting like proper grown ups, so we finished up the conversation and went for a “walk” to town. The conversation on the way to town was mainly me asking what else my mate had been up to, it was so nice to catch up, to hear about the work he was doing, how other friends were getting on and what they had been up to. After what seemed like a pretty short “walk”, well it didn’t take long for me because he was pushing me! Never look a gift horse in the mouth as they say.
We arrived at the Cerdic for lunch, I could not remember the last time I went for a pint or food with my mate since he had left the TA. We found a table, looked at the menu and he went upstairs to order, returning a short time later with two pints. I had turned down his offer of lunch as I just was not hungry but we stayed chatting over a couple of pints. We were chatting about things we used to get up to, the mischief we got up to, the silly childish things we would do after a drink and a lot of talking about our last tour. The visit to the pub came to an end as we both decided to return to the bungalow, my mate had to drive back home and I was not going to have any more alcohol to drink knowing that my mate would have to drink soft drinks. We “walked” back towards the bungalow, this time with me be able to power myself along, it is definitely easier on the way back! When we finally arrived back at the bungalow and walked in, my children had already been collected from school by my wife, no idea we had been out for the amount of time we had. My mate stayed only long enough to say hi to the kids, and to say that he was looking to arrange a bit of a night out with some of the old TA crew, and then after saying goodbye, drove off to sort his golf clubs for tomorrow.
I called the Royal Artillery today to find out about the jump on Saturday and asked a few questions, they provided the answers and this has left me with a couple of things to do before I call them back on Wednesday/Thursday. I had a visit tonight from a mate of mine who I don’t very often get to see as regularly now as he is very busy with his new job. He was telling me about how he had been taking care of customers hospitality at Brands Hatch last weekend where the bikes were racing. He is really doing well, has made quite a name for himself in the motor trade jumping from job to job and doing very well. It’s nice to hear how he is doing but we never seem to have much time to do it. Another of my mates came round tonight telling me about a holiday he has just had with a mutual friend. He told of how our friend would have patches of sunburn, the way he was explaining it was really funny. It didn’t take me long to figure out that they had obviously had a really good holiday. He stayed until quite late, we talked more about the holiday, we spoke about my friend formerly of the TA, that had been to visit me and then we fired up the Internet.
We went on to the Internet and did a typical bloke thing and started trawling through pages and pages of cars. Despite the pages and pages we looked through, there was only one car that was close enough and good enough to go and look at with a view to purchasing, disappointing really. Then I showed him my Blog, he was asking various questions about it so I read bits to him and showed him how it was presented. After several cups of coffee and more chit chat, he headed off. All in all, a really good day today. I got to spend some quality time with someone who I have not seen for a long time and had a pint over lunch which was a well overdue appointment. I have managed to have coffee and a chat with a mate who is so busy it is nearly impossible for us to arrange a mutually convenient time to do so. And I have also been able to spend an evening looking at cars and listening to how two lads have gone on holiday for a lads break which has turned out pretty well despite one apparently being allergic to the strong sun.
I think it must be my bed time now, so I hope you all had a good day today sleep tight.
Goodnight all.