Now I have just wondered past our local community centre, in the past it was used for Scouts (they left because of the high cost)and local resident groups, nowadays from Friday evening and throughout the weekend it is the home to various churches, not something I have a big problem with, what does wind me up is the volume of the preaching, or should I say ranting and the music, being from Methodist stock I am more used to more traditional stuff, I have vivid memories of good old fashioned hymns being drowned out by one particular member of the congregation who thought she was top banana at the singing thing, I suspect no one had the heart or the bottle to tell her that she was singing the right notes but not always in the right order.... so these new gospel places springing up are not my idea of fun (to be fair churches in general are no fun for me, unless there is a scout loft where I can be very naughty), and what really gets my goat is the damn singing, some rotten bastard has told these poor souls they have a voice like Whitney Houston, its like your worst nightmare, they sound like some of the worst X Factor auditions ever....man alive I wish these poor tortured souls (to sing like they do they must be tortured) woudl pick just one note and stick with it!!! You also get the preachers, now they are a strange breed, in my younger days I was used to the preaching of Sidcup's quiet men, no ranting and raving about the fires of damnation there I can tell you, but this lot down the road are hollering at the tops of their voices that we are all sinners, and all condemened to the fires of hell! now if these buggers are going to heaven, its hell for me....

Missed Eurovision last night due to a previous enagagement but caught up with it on iplayer, man alive it was hilarious in places, the Albanian entry complete with Green Gimp was worth watching for on its own, I did predict on Facebook that smiling boy from Norway would win and he duly did, and the UK finished 5th, a good result in the end and the new voting system seemed to work! An honourable mention for the girl who performed with 3 Roman Centurions in hamster wheels.....stunning, shame about the song... Graham Norton took over Terry Wogan's mantle well.

Well the new cricket season has begun, and what a painful day it was all round, we were up against what is labelled in the Kent Conference as a weak team....weak my arse, young fit with 4 quick bowlers, still we lost the toss, and inserted them to bat, they got about 162 -5, Old Finch copped a ball in the shin at seconf slip, the swelling was impressive, after a nice tea it was the turn of The Star to bat.....oh dear, wickets began to fall rather quickly, Bill managed 3 before being caught, whcih brought me to the wicket, I made 7 got hit twice and was then bowled...... for me the day was not over, oh no, as the last wickets were falling I was watching a ball drop into the fielders eager hands and forgot all about the two foot high rope outside the pavillion....crunch....the Finch was beached, brushing myself down to the sound of a few titters, I went and sat down, luckliy only my brother from the team saw this incident! as result of my unscheduled fall I seem to have sprained my wrist, we have a Twenty/20 game Wedsnesday evening, I cannot grip a bat (no jokes please) but will play at Greenwich Park tomorrow evening...

Morning all, been a while, very sorry! not a lot has happened since the show, just me laid very low with a bad cold, so have to be a bit careful with that, dont want to end up in hospital again!

Cricket practice has now moved outdoors to Avery Hill, our pitches are now being looked after by Blackheath Cricket Club, which is great news as frankly they have been dangerous over the past few years, we had a good look last week and they seem very good, as the summer kicks in they should get even better. It seems the team has had a rethink and yours truly has been pushed up to opener with my brother in at number 3, he reckons two balls and he will be in...charming. Used a different bat last practice, its like a railway sleeper, I have been reluctant to use the beastie until last week when I discovered when you hit something it says hit.....

Been interesting going through my family tree, have been doing this for a while now, got stuck with my Dad's parents, problem has been both my parents are dead! so it is difficult to do without first hand knowledge, my two brothers have helped where they can, we have plenty of relatives on my mums side, but none that I can talk to on Dads, I have finally found out more about my dads parents, which was fascinating, my grandfather served and was injured in World War I, and my grandmother was married twice, her first we are sure died in the Great War. My dad had a sister who was two years younger, I have no knowledge of meeting her, it seems she is still alive, and had at least one son, so I am trying to hunt them down.