"Measure twice and cut once"

Meticulous, orderly and highly organised was our dear friend Mike, whose funeral we attended today. The "Measure twice and cut once" maxim is something he taught his 3 sons when they were growing up.

The church in Ponteland was packed for the service of celebration. In the eulogy we heard so many things we did not know about Mike. To the 17 of us walkers, he was a member of our Wednesday group. He had time off for a hip replacement and time off when he needed a pacemaker. Otherwise he was a regular, who was great fun and always positive. When the snow came, Mike was the first to throw snowballs. He never moaned when his pacemaker could not give increased power on the hills; he just walked steadily and we waited for him at the top.

Other friends were at the funeral because they played bridge or golf with Mike, or were colleagues from his time at work or from Rotary. It was a grand send off and he would have enjoyed the party. (When the Northumbrian piper and the church organist were playing in competition with each other, we did wonder if he might have suggested shooting one..........with a twinkle in his eye.)

Mike kept a record of every walk he did with our group. The last one was our Christmas walk and party.

We will miss him. RIP old friend.

(I took this picture of Mike in 2008. Today I put it on the computer screen and photographed it, hence the quality. There is no one else I wanted to blip today.)