Smoking break

A productive day. Well, it was after an unusually long sleep and a fine brunch (during which there was a quick grab of the camera to catch what almost became today's blip). All that out of the way, we turned to finalising arrangements for a return visit to Grand Canaria and our friend's bungalow.

It's all happened really quickly, with an email from Martin just a week ago, getting in touch and offering us his place if we cared to use it. We'd been toying with the idea of another trip away before Carl returns to college, and had been thinking of either Greece or Croatia, but Martin's offer helped make up our minds. We Skyped last night and we booked our flights and transfers today. We'll spend ten days, between 24th August and 4th September. It was a wonderfully relaxing and revivifying experience last time, and I'm sure we'll return in top form.

It was almost time to watch highlights of the Hungarian Grand Prix when we clicked the last Buy button, so we settled down for that, little realising that we were about to see the best race of the season. Lewis Hamilton's car went on fire during yesterday's qualifying, so he started from the pit lane today. Despite that, he fought his way back through the field and finished third, behind the hugely impressive Daniel Ricciardo and an on-form Fernando Alonso.

I stopped for a while around Dún Laoghaire on the way home, doing a bit of blipping in the dull and overcast weather. I caught this shot outside one of the restaurants in the Pavilion Centre.