Once again today I had to work to ensure we can give the children a good education.  As I predicted, when I got up at 6:30am this morning no one else stirred.  Michael did surface slightly before I left (about a minute or so) and Stephen nodded goodbye from the safety of his bed.  We had a client seminar today and as it was being held at a hotel which I could only reach by changing tube lines twice and then still having a 5 minute walk, I decided to take a taxi instead which took about 15 minutes with no exercise involved.  As I have mentioned before, everything starts late in London so the seminar only started at 10am (though I left at about 8:20am). I got there with plenty of time to spare which enabled me to check that my video clips were working (you can’t do a presentation without at least 1 video clip – I had two today).

I will get the boring part out of the way and say that the seminar went well.  The clients behaved themselves and all the London staff presented well.  It was a good day with about 40 clients attending.  I had to go back to the London office after lunch so that I could read some attachments on emails I had to reply to today so that spoilt the afternoon a little but not really.  We had drinks with some of the staff after the seminar and a couple of clients also hung around (you get to see who really likes you then … or maybe it was just the free beer on offer).

Helen and the kids went to Hampton Court Palace today.  We have recently acquired a ‘taste’ for Henry VIII and his 6 wives and so Helen was keen to go and Chloe is studying the Tudors so that made it interesting for her too.  They caught a bus to Waterloo station and then a train down to Hampton Court.  As it is some major anniversary of Henry VIII (500^th maybe?), they have special events taking place at both Hampton Court Palace and also the Tower of London.  At the moment at Hampton Court there is also a flower show.  Henry VIII was also present today and you could have your photo taken with him and some of his wives were also wandering around the palace.  Two squires were also engaged in a Real Tennis match (of the indoor variety) and so they also manged to watch them play a little. I am hoping that the special event at the Tower will be a beheading because that would be quite spectacular to watch (I am planning to meet them there for lunch later in the trip – it is very close to my office).  They then reversed the journey and when I called at 3pm they were already home and the boys were on the Wii again and Helen was out shopping again.  The worst thing is that she claims her personal card doesn’t work so she jusy HAS to spend my money instead.

I got home at around 7pm and while we were waiting for dinner I got in my first 2 games of Wii Tennis.  I first played Stephen and did ok but then I played Michael and did worse – I regressed.  They (of course) have already got about 20 hours experience in 2 days so I am a little way behind at this stage.  After dinner it was time to pack up as we have an early morning train (7am) to Edinburgh tomorrow.  I am now officially on leave for a week and I am hoping that my staff won’t bug me (that includes all the Gen Re staff reading this and also all the CBD staff).  While I was trying to reply to a few emails this evening and after we had packed, Helen got herself settled with a Wii remote and played table tennis against Stephen and from the sound of the groans she was either having another child or Stephen won easily.  They then tried laser hockey but that seemed to go even worse for Helen – I know because she called it a ‘stupid game’ and told Stephen to select something else.  Helen then went fishing and with Michael shouting “Pull, Pull” in 5 seconds or so, she got the necessary instruction and managed to finally beat Stephen at something.  That meant she wanted to play again, and then when she won, she wanted to play again (and you thought I was the competitive one in the family).

We finally sent the kids to bed which gave me time to play some tennis against the champions.  Dad will be pleased to know that I beat Venus Williams.  It was tight but I started dominating at the end.  Now I have to wait until we get back from Scotland to start the Australian open.  The good thing about the Wii is that it tells you how many calories you burnt off and during my match against Venus I managed to consume 39 calories.  Forget the gym … this is my future exercise regime.

Now I need to go to bed even though I am sorely tempted to play one more (just one more …) game of tennis.  Hopefully I will have some form of internet access using my cellphone still and you will still get the daily updates for the next week.

Cheers

PHSMC