Today I was in Sandhurst for the dedication of Ava, my friend Paul’s daughter. I didn’t really know what to expect other than “it’s a bit like a christening”, which it was.

Of course I was really there just to catch up with Paul and to see Ava for the first time, so I’ll skip the religious bits. I think she was really very energetic and surprisingly happy to perform for people’s cameras, resulting in a number of very cute shots.

It was also great to see old work friends Chris and Simon to catch up with their lives over the last ~2 years, some good, some bad.

I would see all of these people more often if I could drive; that is getting a little irritating now, so I really should try to find the time from somewhere. Either that or Berkshire needs to get a transport network a little more like Greater London.

Oh and not forgetting the bonus appearance of my favourite domesticated animal, the greyhound!

On Saturday I was invited over to Jenny’s dad’s open day for the narrow gauge railway he has in the garden. Yes, a train track in his garden that you can ride on! Except there was no way I was going to ride on it myself and risk looking very silly. I just took a bunch of photos and made myself useful as a teaboy. A fun day though, and it was good to meet most of the family for the first time.

There’s some pictures of previous open days too.

Since I needed to go to Sandhurst the next day, I ended up having to get home that night using a selection of trains and night buses from Beaconsfield via Northolt Park and Heathrow. On the upside the 3g dongle with the Eee PC is working quite nicely for email/irc in the middle of nowhere.