I was listening to a podcast about football when in the introduction the presenters were asking each other about their week so far? One mused that on a walk he’d seen a selection of conkers (brown seeds of the horse chestnut tree) lying on the ground.

This pile filled him with some boyish glee and transported him back a few decades to when finding them would have enabled him to play ‘conkers’. You drill a hole through the centre, thread string through and in alternate swings/shots you and your opponent attempt to demolish the conker. The most intact conker wins. He concluded that this was surely more interesting than today’s boys holding a game console? This year I was too tempted to walk past them on the ground, collected a few and deposited them on window sills. Anna is now surreptitiously disposing of them!

An envelope was unearthed by Anna’s sister, Cath, that was used by my father-in-law, Eric, to write his wedding speech for our nuptuals in September 1987. In fairness, he was not a man given to talking unnecessarily but this was admirably on the brief side. As I wrote recently weddings are now packed with various participants making dreary orations. Maybe the issue of white envelopes to those inclined to talk might shorten matters?

On June 30 2021 I pedalled through Lockerbie as I was completing the bike ride from Lands End, Cornwall to John O’Groats, Scottish Highlands over a couple of weeks. It was a sunny day and the ride since crossing the Scottish border had been quite easy bar the very rough road surfaces. Lockerbie was a distant memory as a disaster as it had happened 32 years earlier and this small town seemed unremarkable except for a large Tesco supermarket in the centre. However the scale and audacity of the atrocity hung over me and I cycled a little way out of town to the memorial.

With these memories I embarked on watching Sky TV’s Lockerbie: A Search For Truth that follows the tragedy from before the flight until the conviction of the Libyan, Abdelbaset al-Megrahi for the death of 270 people. The story unfolds following one of the parent’s children boarding the flight to his pursuit for the truth including meeting Colonel Gadaffi, British Cabinet members and attending the trial in The Netherlands. The acting with Colin Firth is breathtaking and the story is not as straightforward as you might expect. Brilliant television.

Since I last wrote quite a bit of time has been spent in Greater Manchester with my daughters and their offspring. Anna has a weekly schedule but due to my lack of child care skills I’m in attendance less frequently. There is considerable cost running two properties but that nice man, the Manchester Mayor, Andy Burnham, has tried to alleviate some of the strain. As a Council Tax payer I can get a free travel card for the buses and if I pay £10/year it can be extended to trams and local trains for all of Greater Manchester.

However, whilst a bargain it does require Andy to ensure that they don’t cancel the trains at the last minute, as they did on our last trip. Clearly ensuring that they’re manned must be part of his Phase Two plan.