Once again, I seem to have packed a few weeks work of stuff, activities and socials into a matter of days! Not particularly to be recommended to be honest, but all rather necessary this time around. To catch up briefly on the week – a super day was had on Wednesday, doing safety cover on a paddleboard, at the lake for a student triathlon event.

The event ended on time, but it was a late night by the time I’d returned all the borrowed kit, dived off the pontoon for an evening swim in Padarn and had a brew with Ed on the way home. Equipment and kit checking followed the next day, with an astonishing 16 left hand gloves in my stores, missing their partners?!! It was a long, dusty, but ultimately productive tidy up/clear out before locking the place up for summer.

After checking through the climbing kit etc, I caught up with Tim and Angela, then later, a quick drink with Dave before a late night tussle with the ironing board, so that I was looking vaguely presentable on Friday. A day of giving speeches about outdoor education, plenty of handshaking and a super celebration of the year’s achievements.

I could barely still stand up by the time I got home from the Speech Day (especially after a detour to have a drink at Matt’s birthday party with Clare). There was no time for resting on Saturday though as we had to get the car packed for an alpine summer and The Cottage ready for the arrival of its summer residents. Somehow we got that sorted (and the grass cut), then nipped out to see Colin’s band playing at a local village festival! (Very cool by the way – you can find them on Spotify – the band name is on the big tuba).

All that was left of Sunday was to drive south! As usual, the summer fruits are almost ready to eat but not quite!

We snuck through the channel tunnel on a slightly earlier train. After the slow and heavy traffic of London, there was barely any cars on the wide open toll roads that lead south. Just 1001km to go!

There are lots of very pleasant service stations and pulls-in to stop at and we found a nice shady spot to cook up a really nice dinner in the barmy 30°C heat.

Eventually we called it a day at a town called Troyes. A budget hotel room that was supposed to have air-con, gave us a very warm, but big room and shower. Sleep came very quickly… We’re on the way…