Good morning all! How are you? I wasn't on the site yesterday as I was up in the north-east visiting my Geordie in-laws and taking my husband up to Howick on the Northumberland coast where BBC Radio 4 were recording an episode of Open Country all about Doggerland and The North Sea - perfect timing as his book was launched last Wednesday. The presenter and producer were brilliant and we had lunch afterwards in Craster - home of the world famous Craster kippers! My son and daughter had a great time on the beach - him scamperting around the rock pools getting soaked and covered in sand, her listening to Radio 1 and reading Twilight (oh how times have changed!) The show will be broadcast on Radio 4 at 6:05 a.m. on Saturday 25th July if you're interested with a repeat at the more civilised time of 3:00 p.m. the following Thursday. It will also be on 'Listen Again' on the BBC site after the first broadcast for about 6 weeks. Listen out for the Geordie with the Gaffney surname.

As to sport - England are out of the World 20:20 Cup thanks to the dreaded Duckworth Lewis (sp?) rule for recalculating the overs when the time is reduced because of pouring rain. Always a problem with our summers. West Indies had to get 80 off 9 overs, England had 161 off their 20. West Indies won with 4 balls to spare. Oh well, time to concentrate on The Ashes nesxt month. As for tennis - Andy Murray won at Queens - first Briton for over 70 years! I hope he can keep thisup for Wimbledon. England did manage to beat Andorra in the World Cup Qualifier (football/soccer) 6-0 last week so that was pretty good for us. Hopefully that's sealed the place for 2010.

I've watched almost nothing else except Cricket highlights as I have just been too busy doing everything else. I watched Hope Springs on BBC1 on Sunday out of the corner of my eye but didn't take much in. It has a good cast though. And of course Big Brother carries on. I saw the eviction show on Friday but haven't yet caught up on the more recent ones.

Helen