My folks have popped in to see us today and I could not have been more pleased to see them. My Dad, despite being ‘retired’ is working for a company based in Devon so they are in the area but we thought that for this time we’d have to forgo seeing them. I am hoping that they will be able to pop in more often.

Anyway, the thing he was down here to do was delayed by something outside his control so Mum got on the jelly bone and asked if they could come. I have a suspicion that they contrived it a bit because they know I’ve been very glum of late.

So, they blustered in on high winds, rain and thick fog.

We sat down for a coffee and a chat and I poured out my turbid woes to them. They agreed with what DM has been telling me all along. Firstly they told me I need a holiday – a proper one, not a ‘holiday’ at home decorating or building. Then they say learn from the disappointments. Learn from the failures and be better because of them. Make sure that next time I do better in playing someone else’s game. That’s the problem you see – I’m trying to win at someone else’s game and I’m just falling over all of the time.

They make the rules you see so I have to learn to play by them.

Most of all, the message I have got from today is a straightforward one – don’t give up. NEVER give up. Keep on fighting and fighting to make it work but try fighting by the rules of the people who own the game. Keep biting away and sooner or later there will be something sweet………I hope they’re right.

A year ago today, I was also with my folks....we were playing 'we're the Park Lane' to my Dad's 'We're the Shelfside'!