It’s good to have:

A name called Heather, but in the grand scheme of things, scrap that, it’s just a name. Because this is what Helen Glover & Heather Stanning achieved today. The First UK gold medal, truly awesome… Makes you wonder how Olympic Heather finds time for rowing when she’s also a serving Army officer. What a testament to human achievement…

Proud to be British

And while still on the subject, congratulations to Bradley Wiggins after winning the Tour de France, he comes back & earns himself an Olympic gold medal. GB’s Chris Froome got bronze too, truly inspirational. I had to mention Bradley because he comes from our neck of the woods. In fact when we lived at the house, his local pub was about a mile away from us, & we went there regularly too. But of course he was unknown then, so he could’ve been sat at the next table & we wouldn’t have known at the time…

Proud to be British

Then there’s the wounded soldiers (Walking with the wounded) who’ve just achieved their third gruelling challenge to raise money for Armed Forces rehabilitation support. They successfully cycled 3 Alpine stages of the Tour de France. I don’t know if it got any media airtime what with everything else, but If anyone deserves Olympic Gold they do…

Proud to be British

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And at the other end of the spectrum, nay, universe, it’s NOT good to have:

Boris “Buffoon” Johnson making a complete & utter fool of himself to the whole world yet again. Stuck dangling on a zip wire sort of sums him up nicely, should’ve left him there…

Ashamed to be British

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[Sorry for all the links, if I was going to do my own report on this lot I’d still be sat here next year]

In other news: My mum & dad came to visit yesterday, it’s also their first visit to Mercia Marina. It was forecast heavy rain, but in a strange quirk of events we got “hot & humid” with no wind. So after lunch at the Willow Tree, we took them for a walk through the marina nature reserve, then down the towpath to “The Dragon” for a drink. This might be July (well yesterday was), but amazingly it was warm enough to sit outside & watch the boats go by – WOW that’s really something eh…???

When we got back they followed us through the security gate, & the quarter of a mile to our little car park. Then I played a game of “ok then, spot the boat called Takey Tezey.” (He He). But my dad noticed TT’s bow in the distance straightaway, so much for leading them up the wrong pier then… 

Anyway, after lounging around at the boat & catching up on things, we took them for a meal to the “The Bull’s Head” in the “village next door” called Repton. I’d recommend that pub to anyone, lovely food, a massive marquee outside, & an enclosed beer garden beyond it. However, there is one small thing, their food portions are HUGE. We each only managed about half of what was on our plates…!

Later on, we dropped them off at the hotel they were staying in overnight, it’s too far for them to drive here & back in one day. And guess what, I forgot to take any photos,, come to think of it so did they – too busy wittering between us. All in all a lovely day…

So from today, we’ve got to concentrate on the fact that there’s just 5 days left till we go to Germany, & we’ve got what seems like a thousand things to do first. Dave went & got the Euros today – sod everything else, that’s enough for me. I could set off tomorrow, passport in one hand, & a stuffed purse in the other…

Yes, it’s good to HAVE