Back online after a busy August

Sorry for the lack of blog posts through August but everything's been a bit hectic and somehow I never found the time to write anything.

Our two boys and my wife, Liz, were off for the first two weeks in August with the grand-parents and her brother's family in Cornwall where they had a *lovely* (not) two weeks of rain. I opted out of the Cornish rain and instead went to work. I'm still working at Stockley Park near Heathrow which is too far to travel daily so I tend to stay overnight and commute back a couple of times a week.

Then it was time for our family holiday, to guess where .... France!

Unfortunately our own holiday home had already been booked up for all of August so we went to Paris for 3 days and then down South to near Agen (Lot et Garonne) for a week.

The kids enjoyed Paris and staying in the Holiday Inn opposite to Gare de l'Est (free accommodation courtesy of the hundreds of points accumulated from working away from home this year), we did the open-topped bus tour, went up the Eiffel Tower and visited the Hotel des Invalides (Army Museum and Napoleon's tomb).

Horrendous rain on the journey down to Southern France (uh-oh I thought) but after that we had good weather with temperatures up into the uncomfortable heights of 35-degrees C.

Terrible traffic jam at the autoroute toll just South of Paris on our return journey meant that we got delayed for over an hour and as a result missed our ferry. Only the second time ever we've missed the ferry and it was a frustrating 2 hour wait in the rain for the next boat.

Monday morning back at work, but not for me, as my car wouldn't start and I had to tow it to the garage for them to take a look. Consequently I'm on public transport today which takes forever to get to Stockley Park.

I'm also even later to work as we took our eldest son, T0by, for his first day at his new (middle) school. He's been really looking forward to going and didn't seem fazed by the change at all - unlike Mum who shed a tear as we waved him goodbye.