What a day.

Certainly not a day for a day dream (if you are old enough to know what I mean.  My birthday began with a drive up to Carlisle Crematorium  for the funeral of a friend and colleague.  I sat beside Steve for the morning briefing every working day for 30 years.   He was a great friend and a fantastic Head of Year for me to work with.

We retired together, he had had enough of the farce which modern education was becoming and I had "done my time".  It was with horror that I learned on 31/10/16 that he had died through the night aged 63.

The funeral was as good as you can expect a funeral to be, the clergyman was brilliant and managed to inject humour into some situations particularly when the organist failed to play for the last verse of a hymn.   The crematorium was full with standing room only and after we went to the very pub we had held our retirement "do" in.  While a sad occasion  it was lovely to meet so many people who had worked with us and then moved on/retired.

After the service we needed to buy a leaf blower as ours had packed up and I have two gardens thick with leaves.  The shot is looking out of the garden centre cafe window as we had a coffee.  Returning home we had my birthday meal Mallard and plum sauce, Pate as a starter and Eton Mess to follow.

A very strange day and one I will not readily forget.

RIP Steve.