Tuesday - Peter, Rory, Calum & Chris on the beach at Studland

Who would believe it! After a great day and evening on Saturday with a fabulous coaching session from Leicester Tigers, we awoke on Sunday ready for two matches against local teams - only to open the curtains and see 3″ of snow. Matches cancelled so ten pin bowling hastily arranged…we had taken two coaches and were just getting our bags together when…one coach wouldn’t start, flat battery, then…second coach drove onto a grass area covered with snow thinking it was concrete! Coach sunk 2′ into the mud and couldn’t be moved.

Two hours later and after a visit from a massive tow truck we were on our way…too late for bowling but time enough for hospitality from Leicester Lions.

Boys very disappointed that they didn’t get to play a game but a good, and memorable, time had by all.

Rory and I wearing our tour shirts ready for dinner on Saturday night. After dinner there was a rugby court which was great fun and a first for the boys! Rory was very disappointed not to have been accused of anything…

As part of the Leicester experience the boys paraded around the Leicester pitch at half time. Chris, the coach, posed the boys under the posts.

We spotted Bryan Redpath, ex-Scotland player on the pitch at Leicester and I called him over to us. We had a good chat with him and he kindly posed for this photo with Rory.

Went to an Apple Final Cut Studio event this evening to launch the new product. It was held underneath a Concorde at Manchester Airport. After the presentations I got to take a tour around the aircraft.

Rory and I went to see the annual re-enactment of the Battle of Nantwich in January. Just posted a slideshow of images from the day here.

The website for our local village cricket team that the boys play for, Aston has had a website for a year but with no content. I have now taken on the responsibility of updating it and you can see it here: www.astoncricketclub.co.uk. It’s very basic as it has been build using something called PageMaker which is very restrictive. Will try to change that over the next few months and move to html.

Have posted a new gallery of a walk we went on over new year with our friends. (Click here to see gallery) We walked for about six miles along part of the Sandstone Trail near Beeston. The weather was very cold and foggy, and when we walked past Michael Owen’s stables (very grand) it was too foggy to see much.

We are lucky enough to have Jill and Martin for a few days. Off for a brisk walk to Llangollen today!

Went for scooter ride down towards Wrenbury Hall with Calum & Dad after tea

I had my first day on my ECB Level Two cricket course today. It ran from 9 am to 3.30 p.m. at Wilmslow School. Great fun but very, very hard work. I think I did more exercise today than in the last month - even the 15 minute warm up was hard.

The course consists of five consecutive Saturdays, after which I have to do a session coaching with my club. Then it’s back for an assessment at Wilmslow. If I pass the assessment (not a sure thing, I can assure you) then I’m a qualified ECB coach, tracksuit and all!

This week we focussed on how to coach, observe and give feedback and on catching, throwing and wicketkeeping skills. I learned loads which I can hopefully share with the boys over the coming months.

The aim of getting the qualification is to be able to run coaching sessions for the Under 11 team at Aston CC, where the boys play. For my sins I am the Under 11s manager this season, which will be the team that Rory will play in. Calum has now moved up to the Under 13s.

Calum went over to his friend Adam’s house today. He was in pain all day and had to come home early due to it. He had a good time while he was there though. Rory went to a friend’s birthday party for a few hours, leaving Chris alone to watch Scotland lose the rugby!

We all (Peter, Chris, Calum, Rory, Margaret, Neil, Ranald, his girlfriend Lyndsay, and David) went to see Edinburgh play Glasgow Warriors at Murrayfield. A very close match ended with Edinburgh winning - just!

Short movie to follow shortly.

We all (Peter, Chris, Calum, Rory, Aunty Margaret, Uncle Neil, Grandpa, Gavin, Ranald, Carolyn, Uncle David, Euan & Neil) went to see Joseph at the Playhouse in Edinburgh. Above is a picture of Chris with Craig Chalmers after the show.

Had a long lunch at Aunty Margaret’s house with 16 for dinner.