Jack Bolton

Hiya!

Mad busy recently.  Lots of work with the RICS (I am a property management surveyor and the RICS is the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.  Basically, they make the rules that surveyors work to); I have been to London about 20 times already this year and also done talks at RICS Roadshows in Cardiff, Birmingham, Leeds, Manchester and Cambridge.  In between times, I have been twice to Scotland.  The first time to see my Godfather, Gordon, who was very poorly and the second time sadly to his funeral.  In one week, I did over 2,000 miles.  My feet haven’t touched the ground!  All that and running my business, Bulmer Estates, too.

In between all that, I had a weekend away in North Shields.  Oscar and Garfield came along too and we went for a walk along the seaside.  We found some great big old cannons by a monument to Admiral Lord Collingwood.  Who he, I hear you ask?  Well Admiral Collingwood had a warship called the HMS Royal Sovereign and he was the first ship into battle at Trafalgar.  He must have been very brave; he sailed his ship into battle against the French alone ( I mean the ship was alone, obviously he had other sailors on his ship, DOH!) and it was an hour of close fighting with cannons before Lord Nelson (on HMS Victory) managed to catch up, get within range of the French ships and join in the fight.  We won the Battle of Trafalgar but Lord Nelson was shot during the battle and died.  So, a great naval victory for England but a sad end for poor Nelson.  If you haven’t already, you will do this stuff at school.  It’s quite exciting.

HMS Victory is now moored at Portsmouth, on the south coast.  She is a ownderful old ship and you can climb on board and have a really good look around.  I recommend you go as soon as possible.  Do you remember going to Portsmouth and the Isle of Wight for a summer holiday?  You would have been about 5 years old.  We stayed a night at my friend Brian Fowler’s house.  You might remember we went fishing for crabs by a little harbour.  Also, Brian had a huge trampoline in his back garden that we played on.

Anyway, here are a few pictures of the monument, some cannons and of course Oscar and Garfield.  Enjoy!

I gave blood today, for the very first time. A bit scary as I don’t like needles much (but then, who does?)

As it turned out, it was perfectly fine and I hardly felt a thing. It felt good to do something good; I wonder who will get my pint? There is an old joke that goes

“how much do they take?
“About a pint”
“Blimey, that’s nearly an armful!”

Anyway, felt fine, had my biscuit and left. No worries at all. What was nice is I bumped into an old friend. My nurse, Carol, was one of a group of friends from about 13 years ago. So that was nice.

Here’s a piccie of my badge. Hey that reminds me. Do you remember hitting your head on the playground gate? I still have your “I am brave” badge in my wallet, where it lives. It reminds me of you.

Bye for now!