Spirit level

Nothing like an evening cycle to the very end of the west pier, with no kids, and a bottle of chilled bubbly to level the spirits. Onto a higher plain.

Although I must admit that a bottle of Buckfast on the Lidl carpark would have been enjoyable too, provided these obnoxious kids, for whom we have (unfortunately legally binding) papers stating that they are ours, are not in the vicinity. Mimi and Luca were particularly tough today...

Anyway, it is time to be grateful.

Thank you the Irish weather for (reluctantly) admitting a smallish pocket of high(ish) atmospheric pressure over our shores (well, the east coast anyway).

Thank you Pepe for the baby-sitting.

Thank you the mums from Luca's school for the bottle of champagne. We know that you couldn't wait to see the back of us, but that was a nice way to mark the occasion.

Thank you for ultra long evenings and bicycles.

I even got within 100 yards of my work place on a Sunday evening and did not get that feeling of gloom normally associated with this precise moment of the week.