As time goes by...

Yet another action-packed week has flown by. Well, truthfully, another week has flown by but it hasn't really been action packed TBH!

Main event was a meeting of the Trustee Board of our company pension scheme on Wednesday 21st June. As trustees we have to ensure the scheme is run properly and we are complying with all the requirements of the Pensions Regulator. (The number of requirements seems to increase every month as they think of new angles of regulation.)

I joined the Trustee Board not long after I retired and it's an interesting task. I didn't fully realise the responsibility which sits on Trustee's shoulders before I became one! To be fair though, I quite enjoy attending these meetings because as well as ensuring our pensions are safe, they're held at my former place of work so it's a chance to say "Hi" to some ex-colleagues.

The rest of the week has seen more gardening, more doctor/nurse appointments for The Duchess (diabetic and blood pressure monitoring) and a little bit of photo-editing thrown in. 

We also spent an hour at  Oliver's Mount on Saturday June 24th watching the new 1st team squad going through their paces in their latest pre-season training session. The lads are working hard in advance of the first pre-season friendly which takes place on1st July.

Training and preparation sessions 3 times per week shows how much they are prepared to put into it and I am encouraged by what I've seen so far. Matches are a different thing of course but the early signs suggest Handsworth should be able to hold their own next season.

My little piece of heaven!  Can't wait for the games to start!

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The Heat Is On...

Didn't get up to much during the last week apart from spending a total of around 12 or 15 hours over 3 days in the warm sunshine, cutting hedges, grass and so on. The stuff just won't stop growing!!

On Saturday morning, I popped up to Olivers Mount to see the first pre-season training session for the Handsworth FC 1st team squad. The lads worked hard on a warm, humid day and it was encouraging to see the effort being put in by all of them. Bodes well for the new season. Saw some old faces and a few new ones too but names will be revealed when those who make the squad have been registered - after 1st July!!

Almost forgot. We booked a holiday in North Yorkshire during 1st week of September. Staying near Runswick Bay with Whitby (one of our favourite spots) and the North York Moors all within easy reach. Looking forward to it.

So that's about all for now. Got quite a bit done in the last week although when summarised in a couple of paragraphs, it doesn't seem that way!

Saturday Night's All Right...

Managed a few more hours cutting and hacking in the garden during the early part of what was a fairly hectic week. Believe it or not, I actually cleaned the car on Friday!

To help me recover from the shock of seeing a clean, shiny vehicle on the drive, on Saturday evening, we went to Oliver's Mount after tea and spent a couple of hours at the Handsworth Reserve squad Awards Presentation. There was the usual banter of course but that for me, is one of the reasons we enjoy events such as this.

A selection of shots from the evening can be seen on my Flickr albums pages. See here:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/62126085@N04/albums/72177720308966986

They're a good bunch of lads, players and coaches and although we can't get to all of their games in a season, whenever we do manage to see them, there's usually some good football on offer. They play in the County Senior League, Premier Division which is not a bad standard of football. They acquitted themselves well last season, finishing 6th of 14 teams in a very competitive division.

There's really nothing much else to report from another week which has absolutely flown by. Still seems like forever until the new season starts though!

More follows as soon as I can think of something else to say. (I am avoiding comment on politics, television news, television generally so the options are a bit limited!)

Killing time until football's back!

Since we got back from holiday - that seems much more than just a week ago BTW - there's not a lot to report.

I've spent a good few hours in the garden, cutting hedges, grass and shrubs. Whatever possessed me to buy a house with 120ft of garden at the back I do not know. Mind you, when we moved in, (25 years ago) the back garden looked like this:

Yesterday afternoon, it looked like this - all our own work incidentally 😎😉:

It's still very much a work in progress but I'm finding that as I get older, I need to take more frequent breaks when I'm mowing and trimming. Everything seems to take twice as long as it used to!

What I'd really like is to find someone reliable to build us a large patio so the amount of grass that needs regular mowing would be greatly reduced. I'll keep searching...

I've not used the cameras since we got back from Anglesey. Been busy editing my photographic efforts and I've posted a Flickr album if anyone is interested:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/62126085@N04/albums/72177720308676671

No football to record or report but player registrations for the upcoming 2023/24 season started on 1st June, Handsworth's 1st team training starts on 17th June and we have the first of six pre-season friendly games scheduled for 1st July. 

That's 26 days away at Oliver's Mount. Can't wait! COYA!!! 🧡🖤⚽👊