me and jem set off for an adventure to find the arlington baths and found the land that time forgot. old ladies in armbands, racks of flip flops, wooden loungers in a star-ceilinged steam room, a room full of swimming costumes drying on hooks set out from floor to ceiling, and those showers that you see in national trust houses where the jets come at you from horizontal pipes set at four different heights.

jem pounded the lengths. i did a bit less but more that i would have done if left to my own devices. exercise rewarded with cafe calories and finding more french graphic novels. at home i made a pretence of doing some sorting out of work stuff but not with any great enthusiasm

took kids back for another visit later on - cb2 discovered the joys of reaching the trapeze and worried my gp pal with the deep purple colour that his lips went, and cb1 and i discovered the joys of footballer-style communal baths
(we all had our cossies on i hasten to add).

spent evening surfing for holidays for week after next but after randomly looking for anything from boston to goa, decided i needed a) a budget and b) a realistic idea of what i wanted.