Back off our hols

We had a fantastic three weeks off work. We went camping for only two of them, but we were determined to have a break from everything else as well, and so we stayed away from everything for three whole weeks. We certainly needed it.

When we arrived in Welsh Wales for the first leg of our trip, we had to put the tent up in a semi-gale. It wasn’t put up properly, or completely, and a lot of stuff was left in the roof box on the car. It rained on our first night, and it was very, very cold – and the bed wasn’t up properly either.

With high-speed winds forecast for the next two days, we decamped – took the tent down again – and booked in at a dog-friendly hotel. Then we were back, putting the tent up again, this time properly.

Only four days later we were taking the tent down again, and we drove 100 miles for the second leg of our trip. And we put the tent up again … By the end of our holiday, we were shattered! (It’s a big tent.)

But the break did us good, and we had a lovely time in both North Pembrokeshire and the Brecon Beacons.

When we got home, there was a contract waiting for me from my publisher, Pen & Sword Books. This is for the sequel to A History of Cadbury, and will be called The Life of Richard Cadbury. Regular followers of this blog will have already noticed this title sneaking into my schedule, but with the arrival of the contract, it’s now official.

We also came back to be greeted by our swallows. They nested in the porch last year, up in the join between the wall and the ceiling. This time, they’re on top of the porch light! We won’t be discouraging them – they’ve flown a long way – but we would like them to move their nest back to the join between the wall and the ceiling if possible, as they’re very, very messy.

It was back to work this morning. Lovely-new-boss had promised to have an editing job waiting for me, but by the end of yesterday afternoon, nothing had arrived. So I spent some time on this week’s diary and was looking forward to a lot of writing work …

… and then this morning I was greeted with an email from lovely-new-boss and the promised job. It’s a nice one, to ease me back in to work this week.

I presume I’m still due to be a telephone guest on the radio in two weeks time, although I’ve not heard anything since the initial request.

Other quick jobs this morning included bringing the scheduled to-do list up to date, a short dog-walk – to ease us both in to that – and I created a Facebook event for the poet’s band, Monkey Dust.

And that’s today’s very quick update. I think I included everything.