Wales part 4 (aka home again)

Still on deadline… not helped by the fact I’m dying to start on the new nonfiction and the new MX and the Med duo has really taken shape in my mind. Need to focus on my Spanish doctor. Focus, focus, focus. (Had I not had the dental problem then I wouldn’t have been out of it and the book would’ve been finished before I was on holiday – because I’m officially en vacances for the whole of August, but methinks it isn’t going to be that way. Sigh.)

Saturday 28 July – Home
We travelled home via the motorways on Saturday – very smooth and easy journey back, and no queues. Dropped in to see my dad and stepmum on the way back and it was lovely to sit outside in the garden in sunshine instead of dodging showers. Home, did the unpacking, sneaked into my office - and then DH went all fidgety and hauled me out again. ‘We haven’t been to the seaside for a whole week. And we’re still officially on holiday.’ Madam’s face lit up. ‘Yes! We can go to the funfair!’ So we headed for Great Yarmouth. And, bearing in mind we were on holiday and hadn’t weighed ourselves at this point, we did indeed scoff doughnuts. DH and son went on the dodgems, and Madam insisted on going on the roller coaster. And as we were right next to the Nelson monument, I reminded DH that I have a bunch of pics to take for the new book. May have to go back and redo it because I think the new camera will be better: the full-zoom pic from this one isn’t really sharp enough.

Sunday 29 July – Dog home
DH picked up the dog from kennels in the morning. Byron was SO pleased to see us. I did wonder if he’d be in major sulk mode (because we’d left him for a week), but actually he spent the rest of the day trotting between the living room (where DH was reading the paper), my office and the garden, just to check we were all present and correct. (He has since settled down to normal.) Did some work; rang John Lewis and it seems Panasonic has underestimated demand. John Lewis in Norwich has over 200 advance orders and no idea when stock is back in, so advised me to try elsewhere. Sigh. Finished reading Michelle Styles’ The Roman’s Virgin Mistress and enjoyed it thoroughly – if you like Regency romance, you’ll love this even though it’s Roman, because of the setting. (As always, the setting is very vivid and beautifully drawn.) Definitely a hero to fall for.

Monday: did some work (DH took the kids to see his mum to give me peace and quiet). Also rang local camera warehouse to see if they had stock of the camera. They did indeed – better still, it was in the colour I wanted. Including extra 1GB SD card and new case and delivery charge, the total was still less than it would’ve cost at John Lewis, and the EEN photographer says they’re really reliable, so… it’s being delivered today.

Plan for today: work, dentist (check-up for the kids and me, and a polite query about just how scary the sedating dentists are), more work, and… if I do enough, play with new camera. Possibly location visit later this week. Might need to be super-sweet to DH as there are a couple I took last year that I’d like to redo…