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Yes, sadly, the holiday has come to an end so no more excuse for unhealthy eating. From tomorrow I must start in earnest undoing the damage of the last 8 or 9 days and getting that cholesterol level down again!

So, we’re back home! And a quick look at the ‘onboard computer’ reveals that since last Monday: we’ve driven 1205 miles in 24.5 hours of driving (amazing, that’s more than a day just driving!), at an average speed of about 49 MPH. But that’s it now, until next time - back to normal life, work and choleserol control!

It’s funny though, because Hilary and I have completely different reactions to the end of a holiday. For her, returning home is exciting and she looks forward to it; for me, it’s depressing, and I try not to think about it until I absolutely have to. I’m not sure what that says about us or about our normal, ‘not-on-holiday’ lives but it is insteresting how she really enjoyes the experience of returning home to familiar things and surroundings whereas, for me, the closer we get to home the heavier hearted I feel. And that feeling was encouraged greatly today by the fact that the nearer to home we got the colder, greyer and wetter it seemed to be! And then, of course, there’s the length of the grass on the Rectory lawn - neglected now for over two weeks. I’m going to have to do something about it I suppose, and that really is depressing.

But we had a good holiday. It turned into a bit of a nostalgia trip for both of us. Kent is where my mother is from, and I spent a lot of my childhood there. So we visited Hildenborough and saw the house in which my grandparents used to live; and Framfield, in East Sussex, and saw the church in which they were married on Christmas Day in 1925 (they were married for 69 years!).
Also, lots of visits to the numerous village pubs that we saw in our travels, a visit to Hever Castle, home of Anne Boelyn and plenty of time just relaxing in the garden in the sun.

And then, on Saturday, we went off to Tring, in Hertfordshire, via Oxford and Cuddesdon where Hilary’s parents used to live, to a gathering of Hilary’s family for a meal on Sunday to celebrate her cousin’s 10th wedding anniversary.

And, in a moment or two of rebelliousness on Sunday morning, we decided not to go to church but to have  lazy morning drinking tea and reading the Sunday papers. It felt good!

Sadly, it’s all a receding memory now! It’s up bright and early tomorrow, and back to work for both of us. I think that might come as somewhat of a shock to the system!