Time to play ...

After years of wishing we could have more to do with two of our four grandchildren, we’re getting a shot. Today we had the chance to collect #1 grandson and take him to football after school, a change from merely tagging along when he played - so it seemed - all over South London and beyond.

It was fascinating to watch the familiar interplay of skilled and not-so-skilled small boys, not as small as when we began watching youth football but still children, against a chorus of encouragement and criticism in the accents of home; good that the weather was perfect and the AstroTurf gleaming in the sunshine. But most of all it was good to be with my boys as readily as in the past we’ve been able to help with their cousins.

I think I’m very fortunate.