Elders and betters

First off, I didn't take this photo. It was taken on a crappy old Blackberry by a not so crappy - but quite old - other half.

He, his dad and our second son have been in France for the day.

Grampy is 86. This year has been pretty shit healthwise. He's never been ill before so I guess you could say he was overdue for a hiccup.

Anyway, after coming close to corpsing permanently a couple of times between Feb and June, Grampy thought he'd never travel again.

But after a spell in hospital and some excellent treatment (and huge amounts of cost expended) from the NHS, he is pretty much back to his old self.

And that means Grampy can once again indulge his parallel loves of boats and travel. There's nothing he likes more than being on the bridge of some rust-bucket Channel or IOM ferry, in a force 9.

Today it wasn't quite that windy and he didn't get to go on the bridge. And, for any libel lawyers watching, the ferry was far from being a rustbucket.

But he did have a fantabulous time. I say did - they're still on their way home as I type. Thanks, car fire on the M25.

Here he is with boy 2, who's recently turned 15. They're watching the boats from a sea wall somewhere near Calais.