AND HE'S OFF...WELL WE THOUGHT HE WAS!!

Well, the day arrived and although I usually stay in bed and let Mr. HCB have an hour downstairs on his own, today I decided that I would get up and make up his picnic for the first day of the cricket season.  I must confess, I felt a little sad, but neither of us said anything at first.

Lunch and tea packed, we then had a little chat, especially as we had heard from Keith’s son, Graham, who lives in America - so we chatted about Keith and how he would have left by 8.30 at the latest, because he liked to get to the ground at Gloucester Road, Bristol, and have a wander around before the match started.  However, today, Mr. HCB didn’t leave until 9.15 a.m. because he said that would be plenty of time!

I did run off the Blip I did on the day of Keith’s Thanksgiving Service on 2nd March, so that he could show the people in the Admin Office, and one man in particular who had been very kind and had allowed Keith’s parking pass to be transferred to Mr. HCB.   This is something they don’t usually do, but after a telephone call from Graham earlier in the year, when his Dad was so poorly, but said that he wanted this to be transferred into Mr. HCB’s name, they agreed to do it.  Keith would have been delighted to know that Mr. HCB doesn’t have to take “pot luck” in finding a parking space, but has one in the ground!

I decided to make a collage and the first shot is Mr. HCB’s lunch box with his Membership lanyard and of course, dear Keith’s hat, kindly given to Mr. HCB by Graham, along with many of Keith’s cricket books.  

Although it is a sunny day, the wind was quite chill, as you can see by Mr. HCB’s face!  As I watched him get into the car, he said that he had Keith’s hat on the seat beside him - and of course, Keith used to nod off for quite a lot of the journey, so I’m sure that having the hat there will be of comfort to Mr. HCB especially today, his first journey to cricket without Keith for many years.  It’s good that we have these memories and personal items to remind us of good friends and good times and I hope that although Mr. HCB will miss his dear cricket buddy greatly, Keith’s name will be mentioned many, many times today as Mr. HCB wanders around and chats to people to tell him about Keith.

As I waved Mr. HCB off this morning, I must admit that even I felt a bit sad - but one thing I did see - in the sunshine, our car is definitely NOT black, but Obsidian Blue, so hopefully Dianne, one of  my dear friends from Church, will stop saying it’s black!

This is a good word for today - as I’m sure Mr. HCB will be doing a lot of obambulating - perhaps not - see below!

OBAMBULATE - Verb
To walk about.
From Latin ob- (to) + ambulare (to walk). 
Earliest documented use: 1614.

P.S.  At 10.19 - just had a call from Mr. HCB expecting him to say he was settled and ready to watch the match, but he said he had just got in the gates when a steward told him that the match had been called off for the day, as the pitch is too wet!  How frustrating - but Mr. HCB did say from where he was sitting, he could see pools of water - ah well, he will be home for lunch and we can have a picnic together - so every cloud has a silver lining!