Blog of Norman Ralph

I guess that the Almighty wopuld eventually punish me for my infidelity, heresy and down right disbelieving nature evntually. The last week has seen His vengeance in full and glorious Technicolour and Dolby Digital Surround Sound!! It’s almost enough to convert even the hardiest atheist to a religious fanatic. The timing was just too bad to be coincidental.

Now, in case you are worrying that I have gained my faith I can assure you this is just a temprary lapse. I can see why people are religious now, it is amazingly useful to have someone to blame…

It all started a week or so ago whilst I was watching the baseball blue riband event, the Major Leage Baseball World Series, a best-of-seven series of games between the winners of the two professional North American baseball leagues - the National and American Leagues - between the Boston Red Sox and the Colorado Rockies. Game one is a big event, so I was staying up to watch Five’s live coverage of it. During the seventh inning stretch I was popping downstairs to fetch a drink when I missed the bottom step and went over on my ankle After a prolonged trip to A&E I was diagnosed with torn ligaments in my left ankle. After a little wait I left equipped with crutches and a bag of pain killers. It has been a while since I last had to use crutches and the skill required to use them seems to have evaded me. I seem to spend more time on the floor with the crutches than without!

The worse thing about injuring my ankle was the fact that it prevented me from driving, which kind of messed up my weekend plans. Firstly, arrived on Thursday for a quick visit and I was supposed to be driving her home and then on the Sunday i was supposed to be attending a family Christening in Northwich, Cheshire and then on the following Tuesday I had planned to visit Liz in Lincoln! In the end then I had to call my mother and have her drive to Leeds, pick Liz and I up on the Friday and drop Liz off at the train station then take me home to Kirkham. After a rather lazy Saturday we attended the Christening of Isabel Emma, my cousin Helen’s baby. I probbaly wouldn’t have attended this Christening under normal circumstances - I am really not a bug fan of the Catholic way of indoctrinating babies and their families - but it was the first time that my entire family had got together for over a decade. By the end of the day we were only missing three members! This is remarkable as half my family live in New Zealand!

Tuesday saw my mum and I rise at 3.30am so we could drive the 150 miles from Kirkham to Potterhanworth so as to arrve in time to pick liz up and get her to Lincoln for 8.30. It is a long time since I have experienced a day that seemed to last so long. Due to a number of circumstances it was a really tough dayto start with, add to that the fact that I was awake for a good twenty-odd hours and that I had barely slept the night before and you can picture the scene. Anyway, the day went without too many hitches and we all made it home safely, which I guess is the main thing. Many thanks to my Mum for her help and dedication to the cause!

As an aside, Tuesday also saw the first meeting of Liz’s parents and my mother. I think it went ok, although not the ebst circumstances to be honest. Hopefully they got on ok and don’t want to kill each other just yet.

Anyway, as you have just read it has been an eventful week to say the least and an insightful one as well.