The Panther has arrived!

Picked up Monday from the Fiat dealer in Cambridge and drove home, popped over to Pidley for ten pin bowling with workmates in the evening... and it's sat in the garage ever since. Working days on Tuesday and Wednesday meant transport was via the Pashley. But verdict so far is great... nice direct feel, engine quiet (I think there's an engine in there, even if it's only 1.1 litres), comfortable to drive and looks good. See photos below. Major opinion to come today when wife Linda has her first ride in it... even if I'm only crawling along she's usually in the back complete with white knuckles. No more alternative names from the family yet other than Beth's Fiat Pansy, but I'm sure they're just working up to it.

Another major event this week was my winning the pool/darts competition against my sons on Sunday evening. Regular readers of this tome will have noticed a distinct lack of commentary recently on family cups (the winning of)... 'cause I haven't been winning! Really close on the squash and pitch and putt, and only just started playing the tennis again following small things like wedding and honeymoon getting in the way (not mine, Becky's and Barry's). Of course I'm not the actual possessor of the pool/darts cup... David has got so used to its ownership he seems strangely reluctant to actually hand it over and keeps finding all manner of excuses. At least I can claim to be the pool/darts champ (suitable alternatives suggested by sons being chimp and chump).

The pitch and putt match on Monday was an interesting one. With only me and David able to make it we decided to take his young dog Jazz, a Jack Russell Terrier. All went well until Jazz did a dump near the seventh green, resulting in me blowing my chances of a record by three putting and holing in five. Won't be able to pitch to that green from now on without worrying where my ball will land!

Not much been happening on the allotment. No progress on digging the raised beds up. Been so dry you could hardly get a spade in... the official result for September showed we had only 23% of normal rainfall, and that's in one of the driest parts of the country. My weather recording only noted a trace on a single day in the month. But at last we've had some rain in the last couple of days so hopefully I'll be able to make progress and get the rest of the potatoes up as well. Raising lettuce, and the tomatoes are still going well in the greenhouse.

Had a great family get together on Saturday, though unfortunately John's girlfriend Penny and her boys couldn't make it through illness. Stuffed ourselves with pizza, the kids LOVED the picture bingo games, to print them from the web site click here. The mazes were a great success as well, particularly with Sammy, who amazed me by doing the really complicated ones I printed for the adults to try! To access the maze generator click here. See photos below.

Finally, I forgot to complete the tale of John's king sized mattress, sitting forlornly in his flat awaiting collection as the days ticked by to the handing back of keys. Got down to a matter of hours before the deadline with no solution in sight before I made a few calls and fixed up a man with a van to collect and deliver to our house for £25... about thirty minutes from call to arrival of mattress at our house. What would I do without sons to keep me employed!

Thanks for reading my blog, John

	Picture on the front door that welcomed the grandchildren at the Saturday family get together (click to enlarge).
	The grandchildren... from left Izzy, Connor, Sammy & Paige.
	Paige and Izzy.
	After more than a month, at last some sign of decent rain. No wonder it looks really dusty... probably gathered the dust on its way down!
	Greenhouse tomatoes still going strong, even though now dark before 7pm.
	Lettuce seedlings. Think these are cos lettuce....
	... and all year round lettuce.
	The Panther front.
	Panther lateral.
	Panther inside front.
	Panther inside rear.