The nearly completed build as it still requires an aerial. A Fiat BR 20M 'Cicogna' in the colours of a Battle of Britain aircraft circa Winter 1940 -41. I have started on a Fiat CR 42 fighter to accompany it and it is progressing well. A biplane and it will require rigging so I will approach it with care and some trepidation because it is tiny.

I am currently full of cold or my hay fever has notched up several gears because I am sneezing a lot and my nose and sinuses are bunged up. We get some decent weather and I feel dreadful. Hey ho! This happens every year but hopefully I won't be sent home as happened last year by panicked work colleagues who thought I had the plague despite telling them I suffer from hay fever.

This was my view in Mablethorpe during one day at work this week...marvellous. I took some time owing after a failed visit and enjoyed the sunshine, watched people play bowls and listened to the ducks and geese noisily run riot. In other work news it has been agreed that I work four days a week from July and I will have Fridays off. It feels like a new chapter in my life and a very welcome one. I will have time to do more around the house and do some more local trips out, walking and otherwise anything but work which is beginning to feel like a treadmill. Depending on how things pan out I intend to work  possibly four more years but during that time I intend to reduce to three working days at some point before calling it a day. I have seen too many people either having to work until they become ill or drop off the perch and moving the state pension to 67 years hasn't helped, particularly women who were born in the fifties. I will be eligible for my state pension in 2027 so another six years to go and Sue will get hers this autumn but it won't be much as time away from paid work raising children means not enough contributions paid in. Raising children, the future workers that politicians are so fond of saying are needed somehow does not count as work!

Otherwise it does feel like the world has returned to normal with busy traffic, shops open and very busy and inadequate lying politicians scrabbling for another excuse to continue the lockdown. It does look like health passports will come in despite statements they won't and I guess I won't be travelling abroad for the foreseeable future. The ridiculous extreme green agenda announced by the government plus the inevitable fall out from shutting the economy down is likely to lead to fun and games. I have no idea really what the future holds but it will continue to be interesting times as food and fuel prices continue to rise and the parlous state of the economy begins to impact upon people. It might behove the government to look back at history and possibly to learn from it but I may as well prepare the landing strip for the Porcine aerobatics team to land safely on.

Hopefully your weekend is a warm and sunny one. Stay safe and TTFN.