Day 5

Day 5 - Re-awakening

Usual early start to the day, re-issued the draft agenda for the meeting I was supposed to be hosting in Brentford today, blogged, wept, wandered through fb and G+ for a while and began to try and figure out where I am with the draft design that I need to complete by COB Friday. Hope the guys will be alright without me being there, not because of my wonderful presentation skills(!!)  or anything like that but I am pleasantly surprised that my passion for team-spirit, technical socialisation of experience and knowledge and professional communities is strong enough to jump start me a little. Give Brian a call to check he's okay with it all - sure and steady, of course he is.

After much confusion we all three (Karen, Michael and myself) head off to the reg office in Portsmouth to register the death and obtain the certificates - ten of them at £3.50 each and guess which mug was the only one of us to have any cash on him !! Never mind, whatever makes things easier, Jake's football and Athletics clubs can wait a few more days.


Straight from there to the funeral directors to make 'arrangements'. A fairly painless process at the end of the day, a couple of minor skirmishes en route over cars, coffins and ashes but nothing too drastic so far. The biggest problem seems to be the final resting place. Some want Crem, so there is a place to go on special days but the ashes are scattered I think there or buried in open ground and no memorial plaques are allowed, whereas others want a scattering of some sort at the Castle or Sailing Club and get permission for a plaque or sponsor a bench or something. Can't do both as splitting is not good.  Mum worries me though as she is trying to keep out of this part of it all as much as possible and I can't blame her at all for that but I don't think she has ever questioned that they might be apart when her time comes and scattering could be disastrous :( Still we get a few months to think about this, personally I like the idea of the Castle somewhere, maybe not scattered if we can find a slot in St. Mary's and definitely have a permanent fixture or plaque down there - we can have an annual family day out with a pot of varnish each :)


Back home, grab some munchies and disappoint Heather once again about going to see Harry Potter but we've got to meet the Very Rev Paul at 4:15 :( He seems okay, enthusiastic, loves to sing, drives one of those little, pretend 4x4 Rovers with the black plastic bodywork to make it look butch and I suspect thrives on being an atypical minister :) A bit of a juxtapose really, a happy man in a sad job. 
We all have to work together to put our collective thoughts down and email them through - that's going to be a messy process and might be the death of my draft design that I have said wil be ready by the end of the week :(


Back home to a hungry, hungry Heather who picked up on an earlier comment of mine and refuses pasta and wants to go to the Seagull instead but I'm not in the mood because of a late lunch etc. and I need to have something for Angie and Jake when they get back later tonight - Heather suggests a doggie bag for them :) Adequate comprise reached in the form of a Ruby's instead with enough to reheat later for the stragglers, as ever delivered by the ever-smiling little guy from the Car Cabin.


Heather vanishes while I'm talking on the phone to Karen who is beginning to panic as she thinks her keeping it simple plan is about to be compromised - it's not really, the complications are just bumps and she has to realise that people will want to commemorate the day in their own way. If someone wants to send a life-sized boat made of flowers or a fresh fish tribute made of cockles, winkles and seaweed, then let them, each to their own and Dad meant different things to all of us. People realise how we feel and the simple message has gone out, nothing more needs to be said and no-one will think anything less of anyone for not doing more. I keep thinking it might be nice to create a 'Bob Turp- RIP' fb page. No don't throw your arms up and roll your eyes like that - Dad was never really 'online' except for his Kindle and I know most of his friends probably aren't either but it still might be a nice way of collecting comments, anecdotes, photos etc. - we'll see.

Need to place another announcement from Mum apparently tomorrow to publish the details of the funeral etc. More deep and meaningful one-liners to compose :(


Jake eventually gets back from his sprints evening at Lee Valley (Enfield area!) and posted a time of 11.49 for the 100m which got rounded up to 11.50 - Still brilliant and will put him in 22nd place in the whole of the UK and 2nd in Hampshire. Said his 2nd round race was scary as they put him in lane 4(!) in the under 20s where he came 2nd but lining up on the startline were 7 Linford Christie look alikes, all pumped up and focused with this scrawny, little white kid in the middle !! So hopefully that will count against the school record as well - very proud and he has definitely caught the bug for sprinting.