Work was just as tedious as it was yesterday. At least I didn’t have to engage much brain power. Nice day, a bit chilly though. Walked Sasha. Went for a run early evening and then worked far too late. Booked the R44 for Saturday, will take it round the block….at 135MPH. Watched the one off special of ‘The Crystal Maze’ which was made to support ‘Stand up to cancer’. That brought back some memories. Interesting to see that Chatsworth Television wasn’t mentioned anywhere at all. It now exists though up in London, would love to get Carl up there one day.

Work started on time, no problems. But by god has it been dull. Never mind, required no brain power. Walked Sasha in changeable weather, very windy. Walked to the gym, did Combat, walked home, caught a wild Lapras. Did a lot more work. Looks like I may have a cockpit full on Saturday, now need to see if I can get an aircraft.

Started this morning with much coffee and papers. Finally we got up and took the dogs out to the field. Dillon was a pain in the ass pulling but they both really enjoyed themselves when they got there. Dillon actually won the ball catch competition. Came back and then headed to Cribb’s. I wanted to look at some televisions, Jamie wanted to go to the toy shop. Then we headed to his mothers. Jamie said that he’d only notified her that I wouldn’t eat gammon a matter of hours before, she said that this was already in hand and I was having fish. I joked that it would hardly be sea-bass and expected something like cod in butter sauce as you could just bung it on the hob (I like cod in butter sauce by the way, often have it). We arrived, I was having sea-bass, I was very pleasantly surprised. I helped with the veg, well I shook it around somewhat. Dinner really was lovely, sea-bass and a couple of rather exotic veg and potatoes. The sea-bass was actually stuffed with what I think was basically a tomato based nut-roast. Oh and there was a plate of sausage rolls that we polished off. Alison is now in her ‘pink’ phase. I remembered your request for crimbo and it’s now in hand…..Drove home. Had a bath. Phoned mother. She was moaning about her TV again, I said I would speak to my sister and see if we could get her a modern flat screen TV for Christmas, she said instantly that she ‘Doesn’t want one with a silver bezel as it won’t go with the lounge’, this is why she will get a one-way ticket to a Swiss clinic for Christmas.

Okay so this morning was a bit lazy. I woke up at just gone 9AM. Made breakfast and coffee. Read the paper. Had a hand job. Read the paper some more. Cruised some youtube videos. Finally got up and popped to Tesco’s. Booked my flu injection. Bought some straws. Had a quick lunch and then we headed into town. Went to the Apple store to look at the watches. I can get a good discount through my health insurance. Did an evolve session. Now hand 140 in the dex out of a possible 142, a bit disappointed in my Muk, but everything else went according to plan. Still got a lot more sorting out to do.

So started this morning early as I wanted to get about four hours in before we set off. We headed off to Staverton and arrived at about half twelve. Ben had already fuelled the aircraft and we were pretty much only one gallon away from busting the max weight limit. Jamie was very surprised at just how damn small the thing was. He was more surprised when he had to cram himself in it. To say you get intimate with your passenger is an understatement. Went through all the startup checks, did the radio call and we picked up. He wasn’t overly keen on that bit, its a very strange phenomenon if you hadn’t experienced it hundreds of times before. We went down the taxi way and took off directly to the south. He then said, ‘This is really cool’. So I think I won him over. The journey to Lucknam Park was pleasant and uneventful. Visibility was a bit crap to be honest, a bit hazy and some low cloud. But on approach to Colerne the sun was out and it was a very straightforward straight in landing. I stopped on the helipad and a golf buggy came to pick us up. We had a lovely poncy lunch at the brasserie. Crab starter to share and then I had the fish of the day (Hake). I mentioned it was Jamie’s birthday and a lovely platter of toasted marshmallows arrived. We got a buggy back to the chopper and took off directly to the south. Due to a NOTAM we were restricted on our route back, so I headed over to the estuary and tracked back up the M5. Landed back at Gloucester and drove back to Bristol. I think it was a successful day.

Walked to the gym, did Pump, walked home, picked up a paper. Met Phil down at the Holly Trinity Church and took out a mystic gym. Now I have an appointment with Alan Sugar.

Work continued to be very dull. Just cracked on with it. I have tomorrow afternoon booked off, but at the end of today I’ve already done over a full weeks hours. Walked Sasha, weather was okay I guess. Went for a run this evening. Did some more work. Printed out some approach charts for Lucknam Park, even printed out the radio frequencies. Just need to wait for winds now. Could be an interesting flight, were going to be right on the fuel limits. Still the weather looks good to crash into a mountain.

Busy day, mainly taken with an SDK update. Weather was a bit all over the place. Took Sasha out in the rain, then it got very warm and finally ended wet again. Worked into the evening and then went out for a run. Knocked roughly thirty seconds a mile off, so it’s coming down. Need to do a flight plan for Friday, have done the weight and balance calcs now, not truly happy about the amount of fuel I can take, but it’s not like you are going to hit traffic at 1,800 feet. Weather looking good for the journey, all booked in for lunch. Looking forward to it.

Work was fine, if somewhat dull, lots of memory tracing. Weather was cold, really very chilly. The sun came out eventually though and I started to walk Sasha. Got just down the road and my 10Km egg hatched. Finally. It was a Chansey. So that’s it then, I now have enough to evolve all one and forty two in the UK Pokedex. I have just under 130Km still to walk and that will take me to 1,000Km walked. Then I finish, the end is finally in site and whats more it’s finally achievable.

Work was mostly fine, can’t complain, if a little dull. Also a bit annoying I had to trace a load of bugs which I never really had time for. Sun was out, nice lunchtime dog walk. Walked to the gym, did Combat. Did a full evenings work. Been keeping an eye on the weather on Friday. It’s gone from dull, to light cloud and now to heavy rain. It’ll probably be snow by tomorrow. I’m going to leave it until Thursday to make the call I think. The weekend doesn’t look too clever either.

Felt far better today than yesterday, head completely clear. Had breakfast and coffee, then mowed the front lawn. Took Sasha out. Made my lunch and drove to Staverton. When I arrived Sid was just about to go out on his solo nav, so that cocked up all the timings by far. I still had to do a check flight as it had been an age since I’ve been out in the 22. Sharon and Iain were in the aviator, Sharon was on the wine. We did a hot swap when Sid came back in, so I did a few circuits and PFL’s with Ben. I picked up my passenger. She only had two requests, one was to see into the centre of GCHQ and the other was to see a rock formation known as ‘The Devils Chimney’. Thankfully as the wind direction meant they were using 04, I managed to take off to the south via 22, which meant we went pretty much right over the top of the GCHQ doughnut. We then did an anti-clockwise orbit of Cheltenham and over the rock formation. Nice flight, I’d forgotten a bit how much fun the 22 is compared to the 44. The 22 is a sensitive little beast, completely unforgiving, you have to be alter at all times. The 44 is like driving an old couch, sluggish in maneuvers but mighty powerful. It was good to get an hour in the 22, I missed it. All set for Friday…..