TUESDAY MORNING

And Charles and Bill have gone off to to take the merc to the garage in Amble where it is probably going to have a new gear box (OUCH!).

That has left Helen and I having a quiet start to the day, but has also given us an opportunity to talk about what on earth we're going to do for Charles's birthday on Sunday. We haven't got a clue to be honest! If anyone has any ideas please feel free to post them on here!

We'll prbably give Cragside another go today as we now know that it will indeed be open today. It's a long time since we've all been there. The last time we'd taken Christina, James and Rachel when they were still young enough to want to play on the adventure playground that they have in the woods. We'd left the car literally 50 yards from the playground and, as it was early on a Sunday morning and there was no one else in sight, Helen and I had foolishly left our bags on the backseat of the car. Of course by the time we returned the car had a shattered back window and our bags were gone.

At the time Helen was pregnant with Hannah (who's 21 now, so this gives you an idea of how long ago it was) and was carrying a urine sample around in ther bag - she'd used a miniature whisky bottle for the purpose. Once we'd got over the shock, we had to chuckle at the thought of our thief having a quick snifter!

On the other hand I managed to get myself into hot water with my then bank, TSB.
For some reason that week I'd been sent THREE new chequebooks. Clearly a mistake on the part of the bank, but also I had made the mistake of shoving them into my bag without thinking any more about it.

It was only when the cheques began to appear some weeks later bearing a very convincing imitation of my signature, that TSB decided I must have been in on the act and I ended up being suspected of theft and fraud and had a number of interviews with CID, during the first of which I was fingerprinted!! (Well of course my fingerprints are on the chequebooks - I put them in my bag for God's sake!)

I couldn't believe this turn of events and, fortunately for me, the culprits were caught red-handed in Newcastle attempting to cash another cheque. If they hadn't who knows where it would have left me. I used to wake up in the middle of the night, imagining spending the rest of my life behind bars. It was not a pleasant experience.