History Matters Day was yesterday. This, if you had not heard of it, is an initiative by the National Trust to create the world’s largest blog by getting as many people as possible to record what they did. They deliberatly chose a day that had no significant anniversaries “just an ordinary day”, which is exactly what I had…..

I was supposed to be at a breakfast networking event in Oxford, but a combination of a cold, a late night, my wife’s (Ginny) twisted ankle and lost time at the hospital on Monday meant that a later start and helping getting the kids out to school was the right thing to do. Had an interesting discussion with the eldest about History Matters and how to reduce the chances of getting the D&V bug by washing hands regularly and properly. He decided to bring both up with his teacher. They are discussing the Great Fire of London and the Plague today.

I spent the first part of the morning working on revising the NPWD (www.npwd.org.uk) Project Plan, my major client at the moment. I then went for an eye test in Faringdon, suprisingly my shortsightedness has reduced, and ordered a new pair to replace the ones lost at the Opera House. I came home and surfed for a while while completing a roadmap for NPWD next year for comment. I also chased people for money to enter the Sunsail Skippers Charity Regatta on 1st November.

I then went for a bike ride and throught about how much History Matters on the way round. In particular it has become clear that Ian Paisley is looking for Sinn Fein to make an oath of allegience supporting the PSNI before he’ll even talk to them directly. Without understanding the history of Ireland, and Ulster in particular, it is impossible to make sense of his actions. The same is true of the situation in Iraq where the current issues have roots in the breakup of the Ottoman empire after the First World War. No sense can also be made of the situation in the Holy Lands without knowing the history and it was interesting to watch the programme on Vespasian earlier this week.

More work on NPWD was followed by lunch (Ginny’s world famous soup) and I finally started on my letter to Lord Sterling about his ideas about fast ferry services on the Thames. I should note that I was doing this rather than administration because Barclays on-line banking only holds 56 days of transactions rather than 6 month or more with other banks, what century do they think they are in?

I then took the eldest to his Drama Club where they did proper improvisation for the first time, very exciting. I spent the time in the car talking about NPWD and working on the Sterling letter. Supper was steak and veg. Ginny put the kids to bed and I finished off drafting the letter. Bath and then bed.