A Spectacular week!

A week with a difference and one to celebrate.

In the World Athletics Championships Mo Farah managed to stay on his feet, in spite of several pushes and trips (definitely accidental!) from the Kenyans, and win the 10k gold and fight his way through to the 5k final.

Greg Rutherford soared through the air to a remarkable gold which means he's won the World, Olympic, European and Commonwealth championships in one period. A feat only achieved by 5 other athletes and even Mo hasn't done it yet! Surprisingly he's underfunded by UK Athletics and has had to build a training long jump pit in his back garden.

Usain Bolt confounded everyone, including Justin Gatlin, by winning gold in the 100 and 200 meters, which means he's now won 10 Wold Championship golds. To his credit he never once alluded to the fact he'd beaten Justin Gatlin and his ex-drug usage. He's a perfect gentleman. To Gatlin's credit after each race he had a broad smile on his face and gave Bolt a hug of congratulations. 
To Bolt's greater credit, when he was upended by an enthusiastic TV cameraman riding a Segway, he did a backflip and smiled broadly before coming over to help the cameraman. The next day the cameraman presented Bolt with a wrist tag that would warn him when the man and his Segway were in the vicinity! Broad smiles all round.

I played three rounds of golf this week. Two with my son, who only started playing a few weeks ago and already has a superb swing, and one with an old friend. Asides from the fact that the rain poured down all morning on all three days and then cleared just as we started playing we had a great time. The course was virtually empty and yet it was the best playing conditions I've seen for ages.

As a person of a certain age.... I'm retired and spend my time writing books. To supplement my meager income I do agency work as and when it's available. This has ranged from heading a sales operation for an illegal drug testing company, to being an exam invigilator for a 6 form college. Usually these roles and reasonably short in duration and can be one day, or  a maximum of a month. Next week I start a new and rather exciting assignment as part of the IT support team for Winchester University. It's initially for 3 months, but is likely to last much longer. The money isn't bad either!

My car passed its MOT. A great result.... but at the same time I had to get it serviced, insured and taxed. An expensive car week, but I love my car so do I care?

It was confirmed this week that in October I'm taking my 7 month old cocker spaniel to my beloved Gower Peninsular for a week of walkies on the beaches and on the coast paths that I walked for so many years with my previous sadly missed cocker. I can hardly wait!

Terry Pratchett's last book "The Shepherd's Crown" was released this week. Most of his Discworld characters appear in it, almost as though he was getting them to say goodbye. Reviews of the book say it's one of his finest, so that's one Christmas present solved!

Blog on, Dudes!