I'll think of a good title later

I really wasn't looking forward to today, but it has turned out to be a truly wonderful day.

Today was the funeral of my grandfather James Warner who died at the age of 87. I have never seen such a huge turnout for a funeral.

At age 15 he lied about his age as they all did to sign up for the Royal Navy. He was serving in the mediterranean (where he enjoyed swimming naked with the local girls & once tried to bag a sea turtle for lunch by dropping a shell on it, only for it to shake its head & carry on swimming) when world war 2 broke out. He spent the war serving on various destroyers & minesweepers patrolling the Atlantic & escorting the supply ships. He was part of the crew on HMS Rye that towed in the USS Ohio which was so vital to Operation Pedestal. He didn't talk much about the war, one Christmas I remember how he came out with, "One day we were strafed by 16 German aircraft... They didn't hit a bloody thing."

After the war he worked as a builder & a gardener, he spent his retrement years divided between the golf course, his allotment & the village pubs.

I will always remember my grandfather as a gentle giant, as a kid I would clamber over him as if he was a climbing frame. He used to pick me up in one of his bucket like hands & sit me on his knee. Many people commented on how much the 6 sturdy pallbearers struggled with the coffin. He had a real mischevious sense of humour & would have enjoyed that.

The last year of his life saw him deteriorate quite rapidly, he suffered from skin cancer & leaukaemia. The last time I saw him alive he didn't know who I was, he kept confusing me with my 2 brothers which really hurt. There were times when he didn't recognise his daughter which must have been unbearable for my mother. My eldest brother Andy was much closer to him than I ever was, they shared a passion for golf, darts, local football & most notably local pubs. Andy's first trip to a pub was at age 2 weeks after granddad offered to take him for a walk. My loss seems insubstantial in comparison.

Today was unlike any funeral I've ever been to. It was an appropriate service for a start, it was about my granddad's life & not an advert for Christianity. The vicar was so kind & thoughtful throughout to my nan especially. After the service most people came back to one of his local drinking spots where everyone was reminiscing, everyone was catching up & everyone was actually having a good time. I particularly enjoyed spending time with my cousin & uncle who left England to live in Ireland 15 years ago. It was like getting to know them all over again. My mum who I feared would struggle the most through the day, said after it all that she didn't feel that she had been to a funeral.

Today it really hit home how much I love my family, especially my 2 brothers.

Bear with me while I dust this thing off...

Right then quick catch up time.

• Nix & I are still together...


• ...inexplicably, because I keep forgetting when she is supposed to turn up. While waiting for me to get ready she picks something off of my bookshelf. She is making steady progress through my Asimov collection.


• We had a fantastic 2 week break in Cornwall


• During that break we spent 4 days at BJC 2006...


• ...where I picked up a Kendama & have been hooked on it ever since


• I was back at work for almost 20 minutes before I felt I needed a holiday


• Lauren is still doing very well


• My Grandad is very ill & is receiving blood much faster than I'm donating


• My cat has had a tooth out & has been on a course of tablets for a liver problem. During this course I have learnt the true meaning of the word 'devious'


• I've been getting far too involved with work again to the point where I think of nothing else, although that said I have been enjoying it more recently I have actually created programs that have impressed myself!


• I have started trying to learn how to hold a decent handstand


• I will be going to the European Juggling Convention in July & I am very excited about seeing two legends from my world: Kris Kremo & Sergei Ignatov snr.

So yes, I am still alive!

It is a truly dire blogger who summarises the past few months in a bullet point list

My mum loves doing codeword puzzles(1). She goes through quite a few of these codeword books & often comes across new words she doesn't know & enjoys looking up their meaning. she often complained that kept coming across words that weren't listed in her current dictionary so I bought her one of those dictionaries that you could seat a family of 4 at for dinner.

A recent conversation went like this:

Mum: One of my puzzles today had a word that wasn't in my big dictionary.
Me: Really? What word was that?

Mum hands me the book & points out the offending word. I was all set to scour the internet for this rare & beautiful word's meaning when...

Me: W-H-E-N..WHENOMENA!? Mum, do you not think that should be a 'P'?
Mum: ...Oh, I suppose it is.

A friend of mine remarked that it could refer to the time that something extraordinary happens...

(1) Not many examples of these online but here's a simple puzzle for those of you that don't know what they are: available as a point 'n' clickable java applet or in printable format for those of you without java (they're both the same puzzle).

The instructions on that page tell you that each letter of the alphabet is represented by a number 1-26, & from that I'm sure you can work out that once you've found a letter that goes in a box labelled 9, you fill every box labelled with a 9 with that letter.

It doesn't tell you how to use the applet though. Click on a box to select it (it will turn yellow) then click on one of the letters in the alphabet below the puzzle - this autofills every corresponding box with that letter. Make sure you get it right though because there is no way to undo a mistake other than by clearing the whole puzzle with the 'revert' button.