Abi & Izzy - the next 5 years

For those of you who read last week's post... it's still raining. Having had a beautiful 6 weeks or so as we moved from late spring to summer we are now at the 'height' of summer and it hasn't stopped raining since we got back from France. I can't complain though - the forecast today was horrible and actually we ended up being able to spend most of it in the garden - you have to take your chances where you can! It's a good job we've been able to get outside as we are still clearing up from our builders. So much for them leaving everything spick and span. At the point they finally finished the work itself on Tuesday we'd just had enough - they asked us if we were satisfied with the end result and basically we said yes - the house itself looks great, but the surrounding areas needed loads of tidying up to get back to what we would say is normal. Anyway - having spent 4 hours this afternoon, plus the time over the week we are finally getting back to ...

  So we are back and it hasn't stopped raining since we got home - the holiday is definitely over! We travelled up from the Dordogne on Thursday having spent time reflecting on the fact that for us this year 10 days was too much - we were all missing home and the dogs and were very much looking forward to our own beds. Before we left we stayed in a brilliant little B&B near the Normandy coast, location for much of the WW2 American landings. The place we had chosen was a great setting, themed in WW2 memorabilia and very near to St Mare Eglise, the first Normandy village to be liberated in June 1944.   We went to the Airborne Museum which gave the kids a reasonable idea of what happened (as much as they can take in now), particularly the exhibits which combined sound and visuals with relics, many of which bore the bloodstains of the men impacted at the time. The thing that hit home for them, other than the story of the Parachutist who got stuck on the village ch...

So after a slightly cooler start to the holiday (i.e. mid 20s and perfect for me), the weather has got properly hot and we're all melting. Currently it's plus 30 at 6:30 in the evening and we're hiding inside - even the pool is too hot. The rest of the family mainly love the heat. I love it when it cools down and we can move around without collapsing into a sticky mess. The good news this year is that a) the girls understand that suncream is a good thing if you don't want to burn and are pretty good at remembering to apply it, and b) they love, love, love reading on the sun loungers when not in the pool and so it's been an amazingly peaceful time. We've also been blessed by having some friends here for the first part of the week and the kids have loved having Del to play with in the pool - he may be in his 50s but he acts like a 5 year old around water - perfect for them! We've been here so many times that I snap straight into relaxation mode within m...

This week has been a long one - partly as we are almost there before 2 weeks off (and 10 days in France - yippee!), but also because I had 2 nights out with work on the bounce and both nights resulted in horrible journeys home. Wednesday was a black tie dinner at the Guildhall - lovely venue but very dull speeches - not surprising I suspect if you let the outgoing Head of the Financial Conduct Authority in front of a microphone! Despite being made to feel like a naughty school child by him (which in turn made everyone act like one and get very giggly), it was lovely to catch up with so many people I hadn't seen in ages. The night took a turn for the worse however when I realised that the car booked to take me home wasn't there - booking malfunction! This meant tubes, trains and automobiles because the last train to Newbury had gone and I finally got home at 2am - thank goodness I'd hardly drunk anything. Thursday night was definitely more splendid - Adele at Wembley court...