Perfect day...almost

My work ethic is based on rewarding myself - but only when the job's done. So today, with the kids off on half-term and a deliberately light work schedule, I bashed out what I needed to do by 10.30am. I'll do some more after 3pm when Jac's back, but have just come back from spending an hour and a half on top of Whiteleaf Hill overlooking Risborough.

Last night we went to football at Wycombe Wanderers, but the game was called off after just 22 minutes due to heavy snow. It was an icy and dicey drive back home (I miss my 4 wheel drive Subaru!) but we awoke this morning to a good two inch blanket of snow.

Sophie and I headed up into the Chilterns mid-morning and found a lot of timber down across the minor roads, collapsed under the weight of snow. While it's melting off now, I can't remember having this heavy a snowfall in October.

Up on the Chiltern escarpment the snow was deep, powdery and crisp, the sky blue and cloudless and the scene was beautiful. Frankly there's no-one better to spend an hour and half in the snow with than an eight year old.

Taking a bit of time off is one of the great perks of freelancedom.........I just wish I'd remembered to bring my camera......!

The only team in the bible

I'll be at Adams Park this evening cheering on Wasps as they mount a late-season charge for the Premiership play-offs. It's now 10 years since I reacquainted myself with my childhood rugby heroes, and over the past decade, the side has managed to win three Premiership titles, two Heineken Cups, a Parker Pen trophy, two Tetley's triumphs and the Powergen Cup. Twickenham has become a second home to the club and half the side is regularly away on international duty.

Wasps fans have come to expect success, yet strangely this season we might win nothing. But victory over Sale tonight and at Sarries at the weekend should set the black and gold hordes up for at least a play-off place.

Unfortunately Dave Walder (pictured) won't be part of the squad having fractured his fibula against Worcester at the weekend. Dave's one of those guys who epitomise all that's good about rugby players - skillful on the pitch, with a fantastic kicking record, and a great club ambassador off it - and was just returning to his best form when he picked up the injury. I wish him well for his recovery.

Meanwhile I'm both a rugby and footie fan, so I'll have one ear on Wycombe Wanderers' match at Grimsby in the basement of the football league. While my rugby team regularly picks up the trophies, their landlords in High Wycombe have been stuck in the Football League's bottom division for a few seasons too long. They've only been in the League for about 16 years, and I was at Wembley back in 94 to see their one and only promotion triumph. Snce then, there have been a few close-run things and now, at the sharp end of the season, the play-offs and another possible Wembley trip loom again.

If Wycombe, managed by the Scot, Paul Lambert, need any inspiration, they should look north of the border at the fantastic achievements of Queen of the South last weekend. The 'only team in the bible' - it's a reference to the Queen of Sheba - stuck four goals past Aberdeen to book their first ever Scottish Cup Final appearance - there's a cracking little video feature about the triumph of the tiny south west Scottish outfit here.

Sometimes things work out well for the underdogs.