JEDI July: Day 20 - The one with the last-minute rush

It's Lydia's 18th birthday tomorrow, and thus today was proclaimed by Mum to be a day of preparation. As usual, I have foolishly left everything until the last minute and with 24 hours to go had no card, presents or anything to hand over on the big day.

To remedy this situation a dash into town was required and, with Mum and Grandad also needing last-minute purchases, it was agreed that we should all take the plunge and go in together. The birthday girl too wanted to come along for the ride and, although it was possible for us all to squeeze into Mum's car, Lydia and I elected to follow behind in Jalopy so that I could work to my own agenda in terms of timings.

A great triumph (and source of much frantic jollity on route) was keeping in convoy with Mum and Grandad for almost the entire inward journey, especially as they were able to accelerate away far better than ourselves. Once parked we all split up and, following speedy visits to WHSmith and HMV, I was able to tick two out of the three items off my list. Town was fortunately not too busy by its standards, though despite much searching, the third present eluded me and I concluded that I would have to pick it up out of town on the way home. I also planned to stop at the ticket office at St Mary's, having spent most of the morning arranging a trip to see Saints v Hearts this weekend, following on from the success of the Ajax game last Saturday.

Next came a moment of dimness as I arrived back at the car and paid for my ticket before realising that I had forgotten to buy a cheaty chipping net that Ernest had (very apologetically) requested yesterday evening. Fortunately 30 mins of free parking just across the road came to my resuce and I was able to sprint back into West Quay and the madness of the Sports Direct shop in order to fulfill that particular errand.

After these exertions came another dim moment, as having planned to head further into town for the stadium ticket office, I rather foolishly ended up driving along the road leading OUT of town instead! Nevertheless, this proved a blessing in disguise as I was still able to pop into the Comet store in Millbrook and complete my present purchase list - though only after being hampered by an overenthusiastic sales assistant who conspired to talk me through an entire display of bangin' bass headphones!

After this debacle I battled my way back through the town traffic, made it to the stadium to collect the tickets (lower Itchen stand this time) and then had to turn around and come all the way back again! Surprisingly, I was the first to arrive home, though Mum and Lydia weren't too far behind and having reconvened we enjoyed a well-deserved lunch together.

For the afternoon I had planned to make Lydia a birthday ditty, though a constantly-crashing Windows Movie Maker soon put paid to that idea. I'm sure it's even worse in Vista than it ever was in Windows XP...!

Having barely recovered from the tyranny of town, it was soon time for Dad and I to set out to Bramshaw for our fifth church cricket match of the season vs Netley Marsh. With usual skipper Gareth away, Dad was to captain the team, though with a side already put together his duties were fortunately limited to collecting the match fees and shouting a lot.

With the toss won Dad elected to bat first, meaning that we would for once be protecting a total rather than chasing one. Unfortunately, the novelty of this quickly wore off with a pitifully slow run rate over the first 10 overs. I was handed the tricky duty of filling in the score book and, though the severe lack of runs did make the task slightly easier, it was still useful to have the eyes of big JH and Phlipflop to help me along.

The run rate picked up slightly for the final eight overs, though this was in no way helped by my worst batting attempt to date - out first ball! After a mini batting collapse, St Andrew's finished on 89-6, leaving the team with a difficult battle on our hands to record our first win of the season. As it transpired, our fielding performance was actually not too bad, especially with a depleted side, and I was very chuffed to take two wickets - one through Dad catching on the boundary, but the other clean-bowling leg stump and gaining revenge for my earlier dismissal.

Despite a solid showing, our fear that we had not put on enough runs in our innings came to fruition, Netley Marsh reaching their target with a couple of overs to spare (although they were aided by what was, in our opinion at least, a rather over-generous umpire...plumb LBW waved away with 'the bowler was in the way so I didn't see it'!) Nevertheless, an enjoyable match had escaped the weather, been played in good spirit and provided another opportunity for fellowship with one another, which is surely the foundations upon which the team should be built.

Following the match there was much socialising to be had and although I wanted to get home reasonably early, Dad got tied up in working the bar and tidying the pavillion, so we didn't leave until getting on for 10pm.

Once home my already hectic day was far from over as I spent a good few hours drawing, scanning, colouring, printing, cutting and writing Lydia's birthday card, as well as wrapping all her presents and finally crawling into bed at half two in the morning! Despite being totally whacked, I was pleased with the outcome of the card...and the day as a whole has certainly been very memorable. My guess is that tomorrow may well follow suit!

JEDI July: Day 19 - The one where I cycled twenty miles

Today may have been quite hectic, however in order to get in practice for a lack of blogging opportunities over the coming week (likely to be one of the busiest of the year), I'm going to try and keep this one as short as possible.

This morning was church, as always, which I had to rush to get to after my alarm, set for 8.30, failed me when I needed it most! I sat with the Butler family while big JB preached an excellent sermon about us being a church in the New Testament sense of the word - united as a group of God's people, rather than getting caught up in the politics - ie the church building. During communion I found my hand stuffed with a huge piece of broken white loaf, so large that it would almost have done for lunch if accompanied by a sneaky slice of cheese!

Afterwards I spoke with Matt, making plans for a cycle this afternoon, Simmo and also Richard Thomson, who has requested my help in getting him started with his brand new computer. I agreed to pop round on Friday afternoon. My pigeonhole contained information about our upcoming trip to Soul Survivor, as well as the obligitary C of E newspaper for Mum and Dad. I was also asked to write an article for the church magazine about the activities of the church yoof, so a busy morning all round.

Back home Dad made a hash of re-hanging the dining room mirror while Mum treated us all to a lovely Sunday dinner. Matt arrived at 2.30 ready for our cycle ride and, in consultation with my rather battered route map, we carved out a spontaneous ride which eventually led us around both roads and cycle tracks between Marchwood, Ashurst, Totton, Hounsdown and Dibden. The cycle paths between Marchwood and Ashurst proved only to be a good bit of exercise as they ultimately circled an area of forest in a large loop. Fortunately, unlike on our ride a couple of weeks ago, these tracks were mainly flat and thus were a pleasure to cycle on. The path between Ashurst and Totton was also fairly fast, although we did get a bit of surprise after emerging next to the dual carriageway going into town! The only really nasty part of the journey was when the heavens decided to drench me for the third time this week going back towards Marchwood, though the sun soon returned to dry us off ready for the final uphill leg on the way home.

Once I was home and recovering I retraced our route on Google Earth and was surprised to find it totalled nearly 20 miles! Not bad going for just a few hours out on a Sunday afternoon! At this point Mum had gone into work to finish a few things off before her holiday this week, Dad had gone to the evening service at church and Lydia and Ernest were too busy canoodling to be much fun so I decided to drop in on Nanny, having been unable to do so while with Lydia a couple of days ago.

It turned out that Nanny had been down in Worthing visiting Joyce with Sue, Janet and Kevin over the weekend, so she told me all about her trip along the coast while I got her up to speed with events in the McGill family, as well as looking ahead to the birthdays this coming week. Apparently Sue, Janet, Jean and Charlie will all be able to make it to Lydia's birthday on Tuesday, which will certainly add to the atmosphere! French fancies were lurking in Nan's larder, which was obviously an offer too good to miss, and these contributed to my staying for nearly an hour and a half before heading home in time for another popcorn-fuelled Top Gear.

Ern, Lydia, Dad and I all viewed in the lounge together, surrounded by giant bowls of microwave popcorn. Mum arrived home halfway through and, despite being tired from the extra hours of work, very kindly made us all some sarnies for tea. Top Gear featured another cheap car challenge, where the presenters each bought a rear-wheel drive car for less than £1500. The punishment for breaking down was having to drive an old Morris Marina, which was a source of much mirth for us as Mum and Dad used to own one back in the 1980s!

After this I fancied a trip to the pub so me, Ern and L bundled into Nice Fat Motor and headed for the Bold Forester. Here we chatted to the landlords for quite a while about their holiday desires (of all things) before escaping to enjoy a good hours' chat and jollity. Much fizzy and crisps were downed and Ernest took great delight in pointing his camera at anything that moved.

We stayed til past last orders, leaving me hardly any time in which to write this blog. In spite of this, it has naturally overflowed into a huge, rambling mess so I think I shall leave it here for now and maybe edit in the morning, if I have time. Which I won't!

JEDI July: Day 18 - The one with Saints v Ajax

After writing yesterday's post I rather geekily worked out how many words I have done so far in JEDI July blogs and it turned out to be over 11,000! That may sound a lot, and in some respects it is, however to put it in perspective the figure is still way off the pace of Lydia's nanowrimo project, which by this point would have passed the 25,000 word marker. I must therefore conclude that I am by no means a writer but simply a rambler, lacking in imagination, emotion and literary flair. Nevertheless, we are now in the final two weeks and though my technique may be clumsy, ugly and somewhat dull, the important thing is to get the job done...so here we go!

Today was the day of the much-anticipated Saints v Ajax match and for once I was up early at 7.30, awaking to the sound of the front door closing as Dad left to take Mum to the station. (She was catching the train to London to meet up with friends.) Once Dad had returned we both walked round the road for a paper and some sweeties, then watched a bit of Open Championship golf on TV.

Ernest arrived early and once Lydia was ready we were able to set off for town by 11.20. We parked in the Marlands and our first stop was M&S to buy some lunch, which we ate together on the benches outside the shop. I had virtually the same luch as last week (croissants, crisps, cookies) and it was just as yummy as before!

Being a Saturday, town was very busy, but we had about an hour before we had to start thinking about making our way to the stadium. So, after Ernest had talked Lydia round, we all trooped up to the sports shop as I wanted to show Ern where I had bought my 7 iron and cheaty chipper. He ended up buying a ball-collecting device, while I spotted some tennis balls on sale for 39p each. I have been on the lookout for these to use at the family picnic as we are running a bit short and Kaye/Ern are bound to lose a few, so I seized the opportunity and got five of them!

After this I split from Ern and L and had a mosy round a few shops, mainly browsing electrical goods with wishful thinking. By this point the crowds were becoming a bit suffocating and I was glad when it was time to reconvene at 1.15. We made our way back to the car and, once Ern had panicked over losing the parking ticket before finding it again and then forgetting to pay(!!), we drove to Ocean Village. I had done my research which suggested this to be a good place to park and I was proved right as the walk to the stadium from here took less than quarter of an hour, even though the route was in no way what you would call scenic!

Ern bought a programme then we skirted round to the megastore to find Matt and Will, who were already waiting. Will had kindly offered me his nearly new Saints shirt for a bargain £10 (they are usually £40 from the shop), so money and shirt swapped hands and after a quick look in the megastore we made our way through the turnstiles.

I nipped to the gents to don my new shirt, which fitted rather well, then Matt and Will departed for block 33, while me, L and Ern headed for our seats in row FF of block 32, 816 to 818. The pre-match entertainment centred around the dawn of a new era for the Saints, with the recent takeover of the club by wealthy Swiss businessman Markus Leibherr, as well as the appointment of new manager Alan Pardew yesterday morning, a rare opportunity for Southampton fans to celebrate. Both received standing ovations just before kick off and many Swiss flags were in evidence among the bumper 20,000+ spectators - not bad for a pre season friendly!

The match itself was largely dominated by Ajax, although Saints made a game of it in the first half, taking the lead after quarter of an hour before being pegged back by what seemed a rather dubious penalty, the score at half-time being 1-1. In the second half, however, Ajax showed why they are one of the top teams in the Dutch league with a dominant and classy display, taking the lead early in the half before grabbing two more in the final 10 minutes to give a final scoreline of 1-4. No disgrace to Saints, who had done well to keep them at bay for the majority of the match, however it was Ajax's captain and not Saints' Kelvin Davis who lifted the Ted Bates trophy to a somewhat muted and dignified round of applause at the end of the match.

Matt and Will decided to leave quickly but the rest of us stayed behind taking a few photos until there was hardly anyone left inside the ground. Upon making our way out we discovered that it was raining and also rather cold, which therefore necessitated a brisk return to the car.

The traffic coming out of town was horrendous, but this presented us with an excellent opportunity to beep, wave and generally wind other people up as we battled our way through the ever-merging lanes. The pinnacle of this experience was forcing a women passenger into hysterics by attempting to 'hide' behind the tennis balls I had bought earlier, eventually causing her to jovially mouth 'you're mad!' as I attempted to use them as replacement ears!

We made it through after nearly an hour and decided to treat ourselves by stopping off at the chippy on the way home. I ate mine upstairs while Lydia and Ernest watched Doctor Who and Dad arrived home having had his cricket match rained off midway through the game.

I spent the remainder of the evening on my PC, looking through and editing photos from the day and reading the first reports and reaction from the match on the internet. Also broke out an old season review and some of my Saints shirts which I used to wear incessantly in my early teens!

It has been a tiring but enjoyable footy-filled day. Church tomorrow, then hopefully a relaxing afternoon...if I'm lucky! See you later chaps!

JEDI July: Day 17 - The one with an impromptu visit

Today has been dominated by very wet and blustery weather, meaning there wasn't much opportunity to get out and be particularly adventurous even had I wanted to. As it happened, I was perfectly happy to spend the morning at home listening to Ashes test cricket on my laptop in the lounge. It's days like this that I will look back on once I have resumed my studies and find myself envious of such lazy luxuries!

Mum was at home this morning and it was nice to have lunch together for a change, though she had to leave for work soon after. I received a call from Matt Lawes letting me and Lydia know that the CU social planned for this evening would have to be postponed as not enough people could make it - a shame as it is now nearly two months since we saw the rest of the CU leaders, a good group of people who we have enjoyed spending many hours planning and praying with over the past year. Hopefully we will be able to agree on a new date within the next few weeks.

Lydia and I then had to embark on a secret mission which I have to keep hushed about, other than that we briefly visited Hythe on route. On the way back to the car the heavens decided that I had not been punished enough at golf yesterday and began to unleash their watery wrath, so we ended up huddled under Lydia's tiny pink umbrella, probably looking like a right pair of numpties!

After completing our mission we stopped off to surprise the Boilos and ended up spending a good hour and a half catching up on events and chatting about all sorts. Grandma broke out the garibaldi biscuits before nipping out for a haircut and Grandad talked me through his backlog of painting projects that he needs to finish in time for exhibition. Lydia was pleased to learn that she had another mention in the Herald magazine for her poetry achievements. Honestly, I think she'll earn a page to herself sooner or later!

While we were there Will Simmons phoned saying that he had bought tickets for himself and Matt for the Saints v Ajax game tomorrow and we arranged to meet outside the stadium megastore.

Lydia and I left the Boilos at around 5, planning to drop in on Nanny on the way home, but alas she wasn't in so no jam tarts on this particular Friday! After getting back a nasty surprise lay on the doormat - a letter informing me of an increase in my car inurance premium. How lovely.

I spent the vast majority of the evening playing around on the computer upstairs, breaking off only for a soup and sandwich tea once Mum had arrived home. Dad and I spent the final hour or so before bed sat at our laptops at opposite ends of the dining room table, with me having to jump in to offer essential copy and paste assistance on a number of ocassions!

Ernest was lurking about with Lydia and we chatted briefly about plans for the football tomorrow, which I am now thoroughly looking forward to.

Time now to get some shut eye and prepare for the busyness ahead. Night all!

JEDI July: Day 16 - The one where golf became a water sport

So, we find ourselves at the middle day of the month, which means that by the time you have finished reading this there will be fewer JEDI posts to come than have already been published!

That's right folks, July is positively flying past, and the second half of the month promises great excitement. Next week we have both Lydia's and Mum's birthdays to look forward to, as well as the fourth family picnic (weather permitting!). Add into that mix the football on Saturday and the promise of a bowling trip and there is certainly a cause for eager anticipation.

The only downer, of course, is that summer seems to have deserted us. If anyone has seen where the fine weather has run off to, then we would very much appreciate its return!

In stark contrast to the many events lined up over the next fortnight, today turned out to be one of distinct averageness. After getting up at around 9 (I really must get out of that habit), I spent most of the morning and early afternoon catching up with programmes on BBC iPlayer. This may sound lazy, but in reality I rarely watch anything on TV as I am readily occupied on most evenings, and thus it was most enjoyable.

Whilst on the computer I also did a bit of Googling, trying to find a suitable place for hosting the website that I want to build. This was going to be one of my summer projects (along with clearing out the loft and doing my Bible notes every day, to name but a few) and as the holidays are fast disappearing I need to decide to stop procrastinating and get on with things. In fact, I may well write up my list of holiday aims in a future post, so that I have incentive to actually carry them out...watch this space!

The only noteable event of the day came in the early evening. Ernest and I had arranged another round of golf and, despite a threatening sky looming overhead, we made for the first tee at around 6.20. Unfortuately we found ourselves stuck behind a group of three young lads who conspired to be the slowest and most tedious set of players we had ever had the arduous task of following.

To give you some idea of just how slow they were, in the time it took us to play the entire lengthy, 260-yard, par 4 first hole with scores of 6 and 5 respectively, they had barely finished teeing off on the 2nd with no-one holding them up in front. Teeeedious!

The wait between the second and third holes took over ten minutes, during which time it began to rain, and by the time we had finished the fourth the heavens had really opened. The remainder of the round was played in very uncomfortable conditions as our clothes and equipment got steadily more and more saturated. Ern initially claimed that the experience was quite enjoyable, but by the time we found ourselves trudging down the eighth fairway soaked to the skin, having both played dreadful shots and lost some nice golf balls, even he had to accept that it was simply 'an experience'.

The foul weather (and foul players) had definitely taken the fun out of the game, with the desire simply to finish overriding any lingering desire to play well. In truth we both felt a bit cheated, with a lot of time, money and effort wasted on a disappointing round which failed to improve golfing credentials and succeeded only in creating a bedraggled mess of us both.

Back home I gained little sympathy (apparently it's 'just one of those things'), but was glad to rid myself of the feeling of taking a shower fully-clothed. Mum took time out of her and Dad's home group meeting to provide tea, and soon a replenished Ernest returned to finish watching Lydia's 'Becoming Jane' film, which we had all started watching the night before.

As the lounge was occupied we piled upstairs to view part 2 on my computer. Ern had provided a steady stream of nosh (probably too much) and the film - which continually swung between the emotions - kept us quiet(ish) for an hour or so. I thought it was a good watch, though obviously lacking in that 'essential' comedy element - is a jolly ending really too much to ask?!

Considering today was fairly quiet, I have ended up writing rather a lot. I do hope I haven't bored you. See ya tomorrow for the much-anticpated CU leaders' social!

JEDI July: Day 15 - The one with a ticket and a wicket

Yet again it seems that I am the last to post my blog and yet again it will mean I go to sleep late and wake up at a silly hour tomorrow morning. Fortunately, my excuse is perfectly valid, for I have been busy all afternoon and if I had blogged at lunch time then the entire post would have been no longer than this first paragraph!

Yes folks...this morning was, once again, pretty much a write-off, as after dragging myself out of bed, having breakfast, surfing the net for a while and then indulging in a shower, it was almost lunch time. The only real event of note was Phil coming to collect Lydia for a driving lesson and only being allowed in by virtue of me noticing a shadowy figure standing outside the porch. We really must get that doorbell fixed!

I waited for Lydia to come home before having lunch, and walked round Tesco to get some 'supplementary' food as the contents of the larder were largely inedible. After we had eaten Lydia agreed to accompany me to town in order to purchase tickets for us two and Ernest to watch the Saints v Ajax friendly at St Mary's on Saturday. This meant battling our way through the city traffic in Jalopy and, although I knew roughly where I was going, being unfamiliar with the area (ie which lane to be in and when) made the journey a bit more of an adventure!

Upon arriving at the stadium we found parking tricky as the signs seemed to contradict eachother - 'pass holders only - clamping fine £25' placed next to 'visitors and megastore customers only' - very confusing! In the end I left Lydia with the car to tell a sweet story of innocence if necessary and walked round to the box office to collect the tickets. Fortunately, as all of us are classed as 'young adults', I manged to get them for the bargain price of £5 each, which is excellent value considering Ajax are a regular champions league side (admittedly they are likely to tonk Saints but that's a story for Saturday).

Thankfully Lydia and Jalopy had not been seized and, after briefy getting lost due to the one-way system, we successfuly navigated our way onto the familliar road home. Lydia wanted to stop in Hythe so we diverted through Marchwood and once L had made her purchase we bought yet more ice creams to eat on the sunny promenade, which made for an excellent half-hour restbite.

We arrived home with not much time to spare before I had to go to church cricket, so I set up some stumps in the garden and did some bowling practice for around 20 minutes in order to get warmed up. Dad was held up with work and, after getting back late, had to make a quick turnaround for us to be at Paultons cricket ground for the 6.15 start.

The ground is very picturesque, with the only downside being its location - right beside a junction of the M27, with traffic noise a constant presence. Fortunately we were blessed with excellent weather and a good number of friends from church had turned out to support the team.

Gareth lost the toss meaning that we ended up fielding first for the fourth match in a row, with me alternating mainly between the square leg and mid-off positions. I bowled in the 10th and 12th overs and was lucky enough to grab my second wicket of the season, the batsman edging his shot into the hands of wicket keeper James. However, I didn't have it all my own way as the next man in tonked a couple of sixes and I finished with figures of 1-20. Dad also got a wicket, clean bowling his man towards the end of the innings. Overall the fielding was pretty good, with only a few loose balls letting us down. A disappointment was the disruption to the flow of play caused by balls landing in bushes which could then not be found, and as Paultons hit quite a lot of boundaries, this caused a problem on a number of occasions. They finished on 154-5, leaving us chasing (yet again) a large but not entirely unachievable target.

I was put in at no.7 and, with St Andrew's making a strong start, I sat on the sidelines chatting to Sam and Simmo, suspecting that my tonking 'talent' may again be surplus to requirements. However, after the departure of the two openers, wickets tumbled fairly quickly and I found myself in bat alongside Dad with four overs remaining. The very first ball I faced took a huge bounce and I somehow manged to knock it away for 4, despite the real intention being to maintain the current shape of my nose! With a high run rate required, Dad was understandably keen to stay on strike and hit three sixes in succession. I added a few more runs to my tally, but knowing that much more was required, I took a final over swish at the ball, which turned, the bat missed and that was me out for 8. A few balls later Dad suffered a similar fate and we finished on 140-7...a 14-run defeat. Again we had come so near, yet so far, but the team had once more done itself proud against 'proper' cricketing opposition.

A post-match drink was in order (though two cokes may have been a little excessive), after which Dad made like we were heading for home, but in fact spent quite some time phoning round the Bramshaw side trying to patch up his team for Saturday!

We finally made it back by around 10 and found Ern and Lydia, fresh from table tennis escapades, watching a 'Becoming Jane'. I joined in the viewing and also aided them in the consumption of tooty frooties and yet more popcorn. Dad also stuck some highly nutritious potato wedges in the oven to top it all off! The film proved too long to finish in one sitting so we shall continue tomorrow evening after me and Ern have played golf.

After all that I think my current state of tiredness can be justified so I shall draw this glorified match report to a close. Farewell, friends!

JEDI July: Day 14 - The one with my final Holy Smoke

After just over two years being part of the St Andrew's 'yoof', this evening I attended my final Holy Smoke session. Despite becoming involved with the church youth group at a fairly late stage, I have been lucky enough to experience many memorable events over the past couple of years and have witnessed many changes, none more so than the change of youth leader, a gradual process which has taken the best part of this year.

I also have Holy Smoke to thank for helping me to become involved in church life, which has in turn done wonders for both my faith and my confidence. Before I started I was the silent Christian and generally quite a shy person, whereas now I feel able to share what I believe with others as the key principles of what it means to be a follower of Jesus have been confirmed and reinforced within me. It makes a lot more sense and has become real and relevant, something which had not always been true in the past. Being part of the church has also, I believe, shaped and strengthened my personality, helping me to go about my day-to-day activities with joy and without fear. For this I shall be eternally grateful.

For my final session - and the first since before Easter due to the Just10 event - we looked at whether Adam and Eve had a choice when they ate from the tree in the Garden of Eden. Due to our small numbers we were able to have quite a fascinating discussion, with many theories put forward and questions raised.

We decided that Adam and Eve did have a choice whether to eat the fruit or not, as God has granted us free will, and even though he knows the choices we are going to make this doesn't mean he has forced us to make them. This is difficult to get your head around, however if we were meant to understand everything then in the end Christianity would rely more on law than faith - something which the New Covenant was intended to reverse following the resurrection of Jesus.

I'm aware that I'm waffling here but I think it is important that we shouldn't feel obliged to understand everything before we can believe - that's one of the key lessons I learned from my time in Holy Smoke.

As well as the discussion we spent an enjoyable session catching up with eachother's news, praying for eachother and having a good old laugh. Hopefully the same will be true when I move on to the CU at uni next term (though there is still Soul Survivor to come before I offically leave the group).

Outside of HS, today has been refreshingly quiet. I enjoyed a blissfully peaceful morning to myself while Mum and Lydia were in Lymington (though they did bring back a delicious lunch) before accompanying the girls on a trip to Hythe this afternoon. Here I had another ice cream on the prom and managed to find myself a BOGOF deal on fanta. Bonus!

I have also been trying to improve my bowling in preparation for the next church cricket match tomorrow by aiming at some rather tiny plastic cricket stumps in the garden. In some ways this helps to achieve accuracy, although full size would ultimately be more realistic. I do have my eye on a kwik cricket set from Amazon, but I don't know whether I'll be able to afford it yet. In regards to success of the bowling...let's just say there is still some way to go!

Apologies if you have stayed up late waiting for me to finish this (though I'm pretty sure no-one is that bothered). I'll attempt to organise myself better next time, but Mock the Week on Dave was too much of a lure! Nighty night folks!

JEDI July: Day 13 - The one where the shed was revamped

This morning I made the startling discovery that this isn't the first time I have done JEDI July! Back in the days before Lydia and I were lucky enough to have computers at our disposal, we both used to keep written summer holiday diaries. These diaries usually began on August 1st and continued until whenever we ended up being too far behind to bother catching up. However, for some reason back in 2000 I started one in July and this goes right the way through from the 4th to the 31st.

Naturally, I shall therefore take an extract from the corresponding 13th July for your reading pleasure:

"Mum picked Kevin, Lydia and I up at 3.10pm. We went home but, once again, me and Kevin didn't play football. We watched fifteen-to-one before we watched 'the worst witch' at 4.35pm, which was the programme we really wanted to watch. Kevin went home at 5.00pm and then I went upstairs to play with my electric train track. No sooner than I had done this, Lydia called for me to play skipping with her. I had tea, played more with my track and packed it away. Mum put gel on my verruca, bed at 8.40pm."

I am pleased to report that nothing from this extract (apart from tea) now forms part of my day-to-day activities!

Having had a very quiet Monday morning at home, Lydia and I drove down to the village at around 2 as L wanted to have a look in a few charity shops for books on her uni reading list. Despite not being able to find the ones she wanted, we spent an enjoyable half an hour searching, and even I flicked through a book or two (shock horror!). After this we were going to get an ice cream but it seemed a little too cold so we instead bought some candy sticks and strawberry laces from Martins and ate them on the prom. While we were sat there it became a lot warmer so on our way to the library I decided to pop into another newsagent to get some ice creams after all. Lydia had a quick skirt around the library for books without success then joined me in eating our ices on the bench outside.

We then went for a mad drive around Blackfield and the surrounding area, during which I was delighted to be the recipient of a wave from some random dude by the roadside! After so many occasions where Andy, Lydia and I have been surprising innocent bystanders with our beep and wave antics, it was fantastic to have the message returned for a change (albeit minus the beep)!

On return home I decided to begin the daunting task of clearing out the bottom shed. (I had intended to make a start this morning but had become distracted and ended up procrastinating, as always.) As there were so many cobwebs I thought the best course of action would be to get absolutely everything out, so that I could purge the shed and its 'furniture' of all undesirable ming. This not particularly well though-out idea led to the creation of the scene below...

That's right - a huge pile of muddled mess. And there was more rubbish out of shot.

Naturally, when it came to putting things back in place after tea, everything I wanted to access seemed to be at the bottom of the pile. There was also a rather a lot of old toys and battered equipment that we no longer want or need that seemed always to be in the way of the useful stuff. However, after much huffing and puffing, hoovering, lugging things around and trying to arrange stuff so it all fitted, I finished up with something noticeably more organised than it had been before I started, which surely means it was worth the effort.

The question now is - will it last???

Anyhoo, I'm off as getting to bed on time last night was actually very satisfying and I would certainly benefit from repeating the exercise. Catch you later dudes!

JEDI July: Day 12 - The one where Kev played golf

I was on visuals at church this morning, which meant a hurried breakfast and speedy shower before a brisk walk round the road in order to be briefed by Richard about the service itinerary - thankfully nothing too complicated. The focus of the service was 'Being Adopted', with Reverend John discussing our adoption by God out of our slavery to sin and into His kingdom. The visuals ran smoothly and, despite having a duty to fulfil, this didn't stop me from enjoying the worship and engaging with the message. I spoke briefly with Wendy after the service and also Matt, who was off to Reading in the afternoon to see some uni friends before returning to Swindon tomorrow.

Back home Dad and I had a go with my bumper blackener on Jalopy. We found this worked well in abrasive areas, though on pieces of trim that had been smoothed out we had to resort to using shoe polish, which actually worked just as well as the spray can. As a result of our efforts the wheel arches are no longer a nasty cream and the car is looking that little bit more loved than it had done before.

After Mum's delicious Sunday dinner Ernest called and we went to collect Kevin for our pre-arranged round of golf. A rather dazed-looking Kev was surprised at the amount of equipment that Ernest and I had brought with us, not to mention the luxury of trollies, and thus was not best pleased at having to walk around the course carrying six weary-looking clubs in an overgrown smarties tube with 'HIRE' emblazened across the front. Upon reaching the first green we also discovered that the dopey dude in the club house had given left-handed Kevin a right-handed putter, so me and Ern treated our golfing guest by watching him run all the way back up the fairway to fetch a replacement.

In spite of all this, we still enjoyed a good couple of hours thrashing around the sunny course and I was pleased to finish on 40, four shots ahead of Ern and with two pars to my name. Kev made it round in 49, which wasn't at all bad for a beginner (49 is what I got on my first nine-hole round and I had already been playing pitch and putt for a couple of months previously).

By this point it was a very warm afternoon (26 degrees from the car's temperature reading). Once Kevin had been taken home, Ern dropped me off then I sat out on the patio with my laptop listening to Ashes test cricket, Mum kindly bringing me some picnic tea.

I was supposed to be going to a youth service with Holy Smoke however when I walked round the church to meet in the car park there appeared to be no-one around, so I returned home to listen to an exciting conclusion to the cricket. After a tense final few overs, England managed to scrape a draw against Australia - no mean feat having been 70-5 and still 170 runs behind at lunch earlier today. Apparently it was a match that will live long in the memory, so I felt privileged to have been able to hear it out.

Plainly in a cricketing mood, I decided to bat a ball around in the garden for a while and when Ernest arrived to watch Top Gear he bowled me a few balls and vice versa. We paused to join L and Dad in the lounge, finding the slow one watching the conclusion of the cricket highlights on Five (showing only continual boundaries in between tedious crowd shots and advert breaks). Top Gear was accompanied by two bowls full of popcorn, together with drinks kindly served by Lydia, and featured an interview with 100m record-breaker Usain Bolt, as well as the usual high-octane, testosterone-filled fun.

After this Ernie and I returned to the garden to see out the fading daylight by smashing a few more tennis balls about, with Ern's powerful batting out-smashing my more considered stroke play. Charlie turned up talking about Mike Shelley (yet again), then Ernest retreated upstairs to see Lydia, leaving me to clear up the garden.

To try and put a stop to my recent trend of rather late nights, I made an effort this evening to turn in when everyone else did and am writing this on my laptop whilst already in bed. It means I'm already half way to getting some shut eye, as I find that sitting at my desktop PC distracts me from wanting to get ready for bed. I hope no-one minds!

To round off...today, as I'm sure you are aware, is 12th July. This means three things...

1) It is a month since my final exam (though it seems a lot longer)
2) It is one month until Soul Survivor (yay!)

Most worrying of all however...

3) It is six months since my last birthday, meaning that in just half a year I will no longer be a teenager!

And on that bombshell, I shall have to end. Thanks very much for reading. See you tomorrow!

JEDI July: Day 11 - The one where it rained all day

Evening dudes. It's been raining pretty much all day long, meaning today's activities have been fairly limited. It's only on days like this - raining from dawn til dusk - when you don't actually feel guility for wanting to stay indoors, and while in the winter they tend to be many and frequent (consequently being written off as 'another dreary day') post-April they are a treat to be savoured.

However, despite being the perfect day for sheltering inside and getting stuck into a cosy project such as clearing out a drawer, this morning I did have errands to run. Lydia finally nagged me enough to get her birthday invitations printed and for those that didn't need to be posted, I ventured out on door-to-door deliveries.

I called at Nanny's (for the second day running), the Butler's and the Boilos, each for about an hour, and at each location I was treated to a welcome drink and a friendly chat. It was definitely a 'weekend' sort of thing to do and zipping about like this really makes me appreciate the freedom having a car of my own brings.

While I was at Matt's we arranged to meet this evening at the pub with the two Mikes.

Arrived home at 2ish for lunch. Ernest soon arrived and he drove Lydia and I through the rain to Carlo's Ice Cream Parlour, on the way to Romsey. He we enjoyed servings of strawberry and vanilla ice cream, topped off with a 99, though because of the wet we had to savour these in the car as opposed to on the usual picnic benches. Such sacrifices!

On our way to Carlo's Ernest had discovered that his driver side headlight had gone so we had to stop off at Halfords on the way home for him to get it replaced. While he was sorting it out I had an oggle at the various car maintenance stuff. I had wanted to try out my new bumper blackener this weekend but the weather has so far prevented it. We also popped in to Tesco, where Ernest purchased some rather smashing flowers for his best beloved.

After popping home for tea, Ernest later returned with Beth for our second film night. We had planned to watch two movies the previous night, however, it was felt that the excellent (if slightly harrowing) 'Miss Potter' may be slightly trivialised if followed by madcap kiddies animation Jimmy Neutron. The rather substantial food food pile had also proved too much even for yours truly, and thus we had decided to move the second film over to this evening.

Last night we instead went for a very noisy drive across the forest, venturing down the dark and eerie roads of East Boldre, speeding through pointless Pilley and storming through the fords of Brockenhurst. We were, in fact, so loud that Ernest commanded a vow of silence on our way home, breaking up the headache-inducing northern accents, frenzied waving contests and girly chatter in the back for at least a little while.

Back to this evening...and Jimmy Neutron was, I have to say, probably the most nonsensical film I have had the 'misfortune' of witnessing! I will admit that it was funny in places, and that it did provide a good evening's entertainment (not to mention a fine excuse for food consumption) though this hardly made up for the deep sense of weariness that we all experienced at its conclusion! The film genuinely wore me out, so we were certainly well-advised to have a seperate (very spesh) film night, otherwise I think I would have been completely drained of emotion come the bitter end!

Once we had cleared up I drove across the forest to the pub, where I met up with Matt and the two Mikes. As they had already been there a while, we launched straight into several games of pool, first single matches and then doubles. Mike A proved to be pool master supreme, though I didn't think I did too badly either (despite twice conspiring to pot the black!).

James Page was there with some of his friends and I chatted to him for a while, mostly about cricket. He was trying to pursuade me to join the Hythe team, though I in turn assured him this was not a good move in view of my recent church performances!

A final tonking by Mike signalled the end, and I followed Matt home across a very dark and wet forest, making it back safely and in good time to finish this blog.

I'm on visuals at church tomorrow, me and Ernest are challenging cousin Kev to a round of golf and there is a church youth service in the evening. If the weather holds up it should be a good day. See ya then!