Thursday and I am up and in meetings by 9 o’clock. The meeting and work go on till 12 o’clock. The afternoon meandered by into the early evening when my youngest daughter arrived to stay the evening. The following day we faced the prospect of collecting her engagement ring and being faced with a demand for more money.

Friday and I am up and showered early so I could accompany my youngest to the jewelers to collect her ring. We have small breakfasts and I then drove her into town. We headed into the jewelers with masks on and determined that we were about to enter into the arena for a difficult discussion. We presented the receipt and sat and waited. The pleasant assistant sat down at the desk with us and began to interrogate the IT system. There was clearly a difficulty but we held our tongues adn waited. The ring appeared and sat in front of us, having come out of a bag with a price on it. We had bought the ring in a branch of this jewelers which had since closed and there had clearly been a difficulty transferring information about outstanding sales. Another assistant appeared with a key pad, not a good sign. The assistant says something about there being money to pay and we confirm without being asked that it was bought in a sale. There was more key tapping and she conferred with another assistant about how to put it through but eventually a receipt was printed, my daughter slipped the ring on, we took the paper work, thanked the assistant and we left, waiting till we were well away before smiling and being relieved. We drove straight home and celebrated with coffee on the patio. I noticed a hover fly on the flowers of the Hosta.

I spend the afternoon doing the crosswords and watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics games. My youngest daughter goes off to get her hair done. Inspired by the concept of the Olympics I decide to train and get myself into my kit and head for the garage to the rower. Its time to do an hours session after having been on holiday and only trained once since coming back. So I climb aboard and set off.

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It turns out to be a good session and I am surprised it has gone so well. Perhaps the walks on the beach last week preserved more fitness than I thought. I’m probably at least two kilos more than I want to be but that will come off over the next three weeks. I change out of my kit and order the family Indian take away for the evening meal. We eat as a family round the table and just chat about the day and the various things that are going on. I settle to catch up on the blog while the family watch a program about Amy Winehouse followed by a recording of one of her Radio one sessions. Tomorrow starts the great Olympic watch in between the Lions tour and catching up with the garden and the house work.