Hoppo's Blog

Tradition dictates that I watched 'The Apprentice' last Wednesday. Simon's yellow socks saw him through to the final......good work, fella. I was thrilled to see that Rory (sacked in week 2) makes a comeback in tonight's final along with everyone's fave cheese baron, Paul. The battle between Kristina and Simon to be Sir Alan Sugar's apprentice may play second fiddle to Rory and Tre's emotional reunion. Watch this space.

Travelled into London after work on Thursday to meet Laurence at Victoria. An enjoyable evening was complemented by a meal in 'Prezzo'. I ate 'Pollo Mariano' (pasta+chicken+chorizo+peppers+melted cheese=hmmm, bisto...) and we drank a bottle of Mr. Pinot and Mr. Grigio's finest. Laurence told me how his wife, Fiona, refuses to be served by a certain checkout assisstant in their local branch of Tesco following an incident involving a bag of bruised apples. You've got to make a stand. I have my own theory about checkout assistants in Tesco. I'm convinced that the rate at which they pass your shopping through the scanner increases dramatically if you refuse their offer of help with packing. It's almost as if they are saying "Okay, sonny. Let's see how you cope with this." as 2 loaves of bread, a pint of  milk and a melon come hurtling down the conveyor belt. Having spent my teenage years working in our local branch of Waitrose I have some 'form' in this area and am often able to hold my own and leave the store with my dignity intact.

Laurence and I also recalled the time he and Fiona came to spend the weekend at chez Hoppo earlier in the year. We played a couple of games of 'Cluedo'. Unofficially, Laurence won them both (can't remember the exact details but I suspect that Colonel Mustard and Professor Plum were fingered for the murder of Dr. Black). Officially, he was stripped of his first victory on a technicality following a challenge from Fiona. It would appear that FC is a hard taskmaster when it comes to 'Cluedo', perhaps we'll give 'Guess Who' a bash next time.

Gillian and I spent the weekend on the north Norfolk coast with some friends from St.Barnabas. It was good to spend some time near the coast. I lived in Hastings for 15 months after I left university and although the town itself wasn't great the appeal of living by the sea never waned.

Played our first cricket game of the summer after work on Monday. Having travelled into Saffron Walden to buy a box at lunch I then found that I would be batting at number 10. Grrr. Our top order batsmen played well and we only lost a few wickets so I chipped in by manning the scoreboard. I wasn't called upon to bowl either but put in a competant performance in the field. I am Gary Pratt. On the plus side, we won a reasonably tight game by approx. 10 runs.

To mark the occasion of Dave's 30th birthday on Saturday Dave, Stewart and I will be going on a tour of Lords. Stewart and I are then planning to meet with Mr. Scott Lattimer for a few shandies in the afternoon. Gillian will also be in London as I bought her a couple of tickets to see Saturday's performance of 'The Sound of Music' for Christmas. I'm hoping that Dave chooses not to wear the loafers he wore when we met in London for my 30th birthday in April. The sight of Dave going arse over tit into the Ashes urn may raise a few eyebrows amongst the members of the MCC.

We were in Surrey on Saturday for the wedding of Richard (a colleague from GSK) and Lorraine. A great day was had by all....the weather was amazing and the reception venue (Richard's old school) was stunning. The photo below is of me taking in the sun and taking advantage of the free booze.

Having spent Saturday night at the Caterham Travelodge (£26 room....bonus). We drove over to Witney on Sunday morning to visit my family. My Dad had attended a Lord's Taverners dinner in Worcester during the week. The legendary Sir Garfield Sobers was the guest of honour and my Dad was able to bag me the great man's autograph.

After 4 weeks of this season's Fantasy Cricket I have taken the lead and opened up a healthy gap between myself and Monty in second place. I was in a similar position last season only to be overtaken by Stewart in the final 2 weeks of the season. We haven't spoken since......