Sunday, September 24, 2006

Here, there and everywhere

It's been a while as we seem to have been rushing all over the place, so apologies for the blog silence. As you can see, Sarah's settled in and is vying for sofa space with Stan.

The week's highlight was undoubtedly the birth of my first niece, Madeleine Grace (pictured below), to my sister Lynn and brother-in-law Jake. She's due to come out of hospital today after a troublesome first few days on the planet. Mum and dad flew down from Scotland and stayed overnight with us so it was great to see them too. My youngest sister Zed sprung a surprise by telling us she is expecting her second child in April. Poor mum and dad didn't have any grandchildren when they moved to the Highlands last year and now they have two with another one waiting in the wings. Maybe they had a premonition...



Second top spot must go to Brief Goodbye but I'm sure John will cover his brilliant win on his page.

This week's unlikely to be much quieter as we're off down to Devon on Tuesday to take Desiree for a few months of intensive training with Christelle Durrant, a good friend of mine who also happens to be a superb event rider. It will be great to see her and her team of horses, especially my favourite old boy, the aptly-named Berry. We mustn't forget Dickie Old Chap, Christelle's husband, who gets a look-in only after the horses and dogs.

Next weekend should be fun, too, with planned trips to Ireland on Saturday for the last day of the Goffs sale, and to Paris on Sunday for the Arc, not to mention another five Group 1 races on the card. Might find time for some work in between all these trips.

I'm not going to mention last Thursday's lunch, involving some of the British racing press room's mightiest men (and women). Drinking all day is not big and not clever, but a huge thanks to the birthday boys, Musc and Banana, for picking up what must have been a hefty tab. Now, where did I put those Alka Seltzers...?

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