Christmas message 2018

What a lovely summer it was! I particularly enjoyed the first three days of the England v India test match at Southampton at the end of August / start of September. I decided that neither my liver nor my wallet could handle a fourth day, but if I had gone, I would have seen England complete a fine win. See the match report on the BBC web site.

Last month I persuaded a mate to join me to watch the FA Trophy qualifying round fixture of Basingstoke Town v Torquay United (oh how the mighty have fallen). I recognised the chap in a Torquay scarf who was just behind us buying a pre-match beer at the clubhouse: it was Chris Lintott, co-presenter of The Sky At Night. I remember him saying that he became hooked on astronomy when Patrick Moore visited his school (Torquay Boys Grammar School, also my old school). We chatted for 15 minutes; even stranger was that my mate's father was an astronomer at Herstmontceux, and Chris had heard of him!

I took inspiration from a BBC programme I watched in the spring that highlighted bad eating habits, and thanks to eating more earlier in the day and less later in the day, together with cutting out drinking beer at home, I have shed 3kg this year, and I am both looking and feeling better for it. I just need to borrow a drill to make some extra holes in some of my belts now.

On the debit side I noticed this year that during intense exercise I sometimes get mild pain in my chest, which eases quickly if I rest. I've had some tests, which were mostly clear, but I've joined the ranks of those on statins and aspirin, both at a low dose. Hopefully further tests will identify the cause, and after a cure I shall be able to fully enjoy my bike riding again.

I played a handful of games of cricket this year, including a couple of matches in Exeter for a team for whom an old school friend and his teenage daughter now play. I made a few useful contributions, and as long as I'm still appreciated as being better than a gap in the field, I'll turn out occasionally next season too.

I still also enjoying my mountain biking, tennis, beach volleyball, sea kayaking in and around Poole Harbour and swimming, again achieving 2000 lengths over the year.

I'm doubly fortunate in that I do enjoy my work for Dorset Software, and having chosen not to work on Mondays, I get three-day weekends as well. I have no plans to drop to working three days a week or retire completely just yet, even though I could probably just about manage if I did.

As a treat for completing 15 years of service at Dorset Software, they paid for me to join a group session of coasteering off Dancing Ledge in the Purbecks near where I live. The idea is that dressed in a wetsuit and wearing a buoyancy aid and helmet, you jump into the sea off a rock, swim around to the next rock, climb out, then jump back in again, and so on. Yes I found it as exciting as I have made it sound, but I did enjoy the swimming and the walk down the hill to the beach. Worth doing once, especially if somebody else is paying.

A few of us went skiing in the Dolomites at the start of the year. The trip got off to a bad start, with the hatch door of our minibus taxi falling open just after we set off and our luggage tumbled out into the road. We picked it up in the dark, but on arrival at Bristol I was missing my boot bag, which also included some toiletries and my smalls. It wasn't the end of the world though, I just had to do some unexpected shopping at the airport. The rest of the week was excellent.

I also had a lovely week on an organised group walking holiday in the Pyrenees in September. The scenery was magnificent. Surprisingly given the amount of climbing (typically 400m per day of ascent), I was the second youngest in the group!

On a virtually-deserted dual carriageway at 09:10 on Remembrance Sunday, I was snared by a roadside mobile camera doing 59mph in a 50mph limit, giving me my first ever speeding ticket. It's particularly galling as I normally stick to the limit and watch everybody else speed past me, but ultimately I don't have an excuse. I have been offered the chance to complete a half-day driving awareness course, which saves me having to take the points.