rested

Loving these cottages and amazed and delighted by the ease of rejoining this branch of my extended family. We worked together in Vernier in 97/98 and although I've missed most of the proper reunions, working abroad or stuck in the attic in my head, I kept up with Géraldine, James, Rupert, Sarah, Deb and Alistair with meals out in London and strange meetings at Waterloo Wetherspoons which was the most central point to wherever we were working at the time. Geraldine, still on maternity leave, and I are the only people here who still work for CG, and Nick was giving me a serious talking to about going contract : tempting; no hostages.

We already booked May Bank holiday for next year, this place is *that* good.

It's been great waking up to sunrise through the bedroom window, and sitting on 'the terrace' next to an immaculate lawn with landscaped shrubbery and flowerbeds. The place only opened last year the people who run it are really lovely. Their website doesn't do the place justice, and doesn't mention the default tea/coffee/sugar/milk that is provided, or the flowers and homebaked Victoria sponges and fairycakes waiting for you. That did mean that we're all caked out since it was Sylvia's birthday on Friday and Géraldine brought a carefully iced birthday cake big enough for fifteen people, and John/Sylvia have about a week's worth of haphazard holiday shopping for their next three days here as everyone has offloaded food they don't want to take home again.

I've been in Tyning, the cottage with the spiral staircase (photographs duly taken for my brother's information and comment) and it feels like the lap of luxury, all mod cons, Sky fancy screens in every bedroom as well as sitting room, DAB radio and seriously comfortable bed and settees.

Bath is lovely, I hooked up with Gabby and Richard yesterday afternoon after a long drive to enjoy the weather and scenery, and we had a leisurely and gossipy cream tea before a too-short visit to the fashion museum. I found a fox figurine to add to the collection, spent not too much in Laura Ashley, and nothing in East, but was fascinated by the saleslady of a certain age wearing sparkle gel not only on her face but in her hair: weird!

All packed now, about to get back in the red devil and wend homeward to the real world; work tomrrow but I'll think about that tomorrow, not today.

Ah, bliss, my gorgeous blonde just called me to demand to know if I'm coming home now "in a minute" - time to boogie