No sleep till.................

Memory is a funny thing! The things that you remember tend to be the good things, after the London Marathon I remembered the elation, the sense of achievement but not the sore feet and the inability to negotiate stairs for days afterwards. I remember that when Freddy arrived I was elated once again, what I didn't remember was the fact that Susie had almost no sleep at all for the first few weeks.

I have just been reminded by Rupert.

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Yesterday I took Freddy to my godson's first birthday party. Paul, his father, is in the Gulf at the moment and missed it, he has also missed 3 out of 4 wedding anniversaries while overseas with the army. He is a member of the TA, so no more comments about not taking it seriously.

Family first

You may have noticed that I haven't been updating the BLOG. Sorry. At the moment Susie is still a little sore and slow due to the C section, Freddy needs lots of attention as does little Rupert. I will update when I can.

New addition to the family

At 15.14 on the 20th of September Rupert James Temple Cleverly came screaming into the world.

Susie and I had arrived at University Hospital Lewisham at 7.00 in the morning and one planned and two emergency caesarean sections later meant that we didn't go down to the delivery suite until well after 14.00. For some reason the spinal block didn't work well enough so Susie was put under a general anaesthetic and I had to leave the room.

In the end everything went well and Freddy had a new brother, Susie and I had a new son and Rosie gets pushed a little further down the pecking order at home.

Little victories

You don't win all in one go.

But..... given enough little victories you will win in the end. At the moment there are a number of campaigns that I am involved in, the crossing at Lee Green, the phone mast at Lee station and the pool at Ladywell. While none of them are won yet there has been movement in the right direction with all of them.

The consortium of organizations involved in the crossing at Lee announced the public consultation a short while ago, the council have relented and agreed to a public hearing about the phone mast and the council meeting where the pool was discussed was "interesting". To read the details click here.

Leeks in their berets

The Welsh Guards wear leeks on their berets. Not real ones but small embroidered badges. They wear their berets when in combat uniform, quite a contrast to the bright red tunics and bearskins that people normally think of as their preferred order of dress.

No ceremonial work for them for a few months at least, the battalion is about to deploy to Iraq for six months and the command group (the commanding officer and his key planning team) have spent the last two days in Catterick practicing their planning skills.

The army regards planning as a skill that needs to be learnt and practiced, it's a pity more civilian companies don't realize this.

I have been working with them as their artillery advisor and I have had a very fulfilling couple of days. I have met a number of people, both within the military and outside who think that the Guards are only about marching and polishing, I have now spent two very intense days working with their leadership team and I can testify to the very high level of professionalism that they display, they also happen to be a very down to earth bunch.

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Catterick is not too far from Hartlepool, the government have called the by-election there on the last day of their party conference, very clever. Party conference week pretty much guarantees wall to wall coverage of the party whose conference is on, this means that the news will be full of Labour party spin for the week leading up to the election making it almost impossible for the media to present a balanced picture. There's cynical and there's cynical.

Busy, busy, busy

The early part of last week and the beginning of this week have been nothing if not hectic. On Thursday various tasks forced me to embark on a marathon driving session, from home up to Luton, then to Romford, then to Bristol and then on to an army dinner in Taunton. The dinner was with the Wessex RFCA (Reserve Forces and Cadets Association) and was a good opportunity to meet other people involved with the TA and cadets. The cadets are having a huge problem recruiting adult instructors at the moment, the ongoing threat of vindictive legal action is scaring many away and now that Julian Brazier's private members bill was talked out there doesn't look as if the situation will change.

The dinner finished at midnight and I drove back home, getting to bed at about 4 in the morning.

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I was up at 7 for a golf day for the employers of TA soldiers who have deployed to Iraq, this was held at the Bedfordshire Golf Club and gave these business people a chance to talk about the TA in a relaxed environment. The day culminated with a dinner and a talk from Capt. Mark Thurley who is a teacher by profession and who had deployed to Iraq earlier this year, the talk was a very personal account of his experiences and was informative, funny and moving. The event finished at 10pm and I got to bed at midnight.

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Saturday was a political day, campaigning in the morning about a phone mast in Lee and about the swimming pool closure in the afternoon. Sunday was the first day, in what seems like an eternity, that I was able to spend some time with my family.

Lib Dems all things to all people, except themselves

Interesting story about infighting in the Liberal Democrats party. We have all been aware for some time that they have tried to be all things to all people, soft Tories in the south west of England and in south west London and left of Labour in Brent East and Leicester South.

It seems that this political split personality is for their public face only, differences in views are causing a bit of a commotion up at Lib Dem HQ in Cowley Street. There is a publication called the Orange book that has been put together by a number of "modernisers" within the party, it outlines some policy ideas which they feel would make the party more electable. There are some heavy weight (for the Lib Dems) supporting the publication including a forward written by the party leader Charles Kennedy.

There was an almost immediate condemnation of the publication by senior Lib Dems including the party leader Charles Kennedy!!!!!!!!!! Talk about the tail wagging the dog, Champagne Charlie is so keen to be on the winning side he is willing to support and then oppose ideas at the same time, now that takes some doing.

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Labour seems also to be tearing itself to pieces, the resignation of Andrew Smith follows a summer of back biting and negative briefings from within the Labour party itself. This looks like it is the public face of the ongoing rift between Number 10 and Number 11.

Walking the dog

Manor House Gardens is a park not far from where I live. It was refurbished a few years ago and is a very well planned area, there is a large open area in the middle of the park which is a dog free zone, as is the swing and slide area. Because there are limitations to where dogs can go the planners have thoughtfully fenced off a dog exercise area which is marked on the park map and on the gate to the area itself.

Rosie is a puppy, she is now a little over knee high at her shoulder but she is still a juvenile. It is for this reason I take a great deal of care as to when and where I let her off the lead, she can still get over excited easily, the dog exercise area in Manor House Gardens is a god send. She can run around, off the lead, burning off all the excess energy which would otherwise be consumed by chewing my house to bits. I don't let her off the lead anywhere else.

This morning Rosie was running around in the well marked "Dog Exercise Area" when a man came through the gate with his two toddlers on tricycles . Dogs move faster than people and Rosie ran over to investigate the new arrivals, excited as usual she bounded up to one of the children and jumped up. I am trying to teach her not to do this but as any dog owner will know curbing the natural energy of a young dog is not easy.

Both of the children were frightened, quite understandably, and as I restrained Rosie the father told me off for not keeping my dog under control. I know how tense a parent can feel when one of their children is crying so I decide not to push the issue but he brought his children into the dog area, I did not take Rosie to where the children play. I make sure that I don't put Freddy into situations where he will be frightened if I can help it.

This is not the first time a situation like this has occurred, I have seen a number of people walk through the dog area and shout at owners because a dog has got "too close" claiming that they don't like dogs or are afraid of dogs. For goodness sake if you don't like dogs, if you are afraid of dogs, if you have small children who will be intimidated by dogs don't walk through the dog exercise area because there will probably by dogs there.

Our Birthday

Susie and I share a birthday today and a very chilled out event it is too. We don't get lie-ins any more so it was an early start as per usual. Susie and Freddy got me some music, the new albums by Keane and Maroon 5 both very good albums and well worth a listen to. My sister in law got me the second series of 24, when I will watch it I have no idea. I got Susie a new Filofax and a pen to go with it (very 80s but she still lives by it).

I treated myself to The Streets new album "A grand don't come for free", if you don't mind the swearing it is well worth getting, Mike Skinner is proving himself to be something of a pocket genius. I don't expect that the critical praise of an aspiring Tory politician is something that he seeks but he's got it anyway.

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I don't imagine that anyone is unaffected by the hostage situation in southern Russia but seeing the images made me feel physically sick. I have found that having Freddy makes me even more sensitive to things like this. I can't imagine what I would have felt if I was not a parent but I am sure it would have hit me less hard than it does now.

Protest planning

A small group of people met tonight in a back room at Ladywell Leisure Centre, I was one of those people. We were working out the next stage of activity in our efforts to keep the leisure centre open. There are a series of activities over the next two weeks which will culminate in the presentation of a petition to the Mayor before the full council meeting on the 15th of September.

Steve Bullock's face will be the fashion item of the Autumn, you mark my words.

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It's nearly my birthday! I share my birthday with Susie, so the 4th of September is usually a big event in our house. This year neither of us have organised anything because of the imminent arrival of baby number two, we will probably go out for lunch and exchange something small. At least I hope that we will exchange something small because If Susie has bought me something big I am in a lot of trouble.

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If there is any doubt in the mind of anyone about how evil terrorism is, you only need to look at the taking of hundreds of children as hostages in Russia. While I am not at all happy with how the Russian government is handling the situation with Chechnya there is no justification for terrorist action such as this.