184. Villager

Holyport UK

After the late last last night, Amelia aged one's wimper, at five in the morning was the sound of doom. I feigned sleep, on EnT's fold out sofa, as did the rest of the house until about six I gave up and got dressed. I could hear lego being constructed upstairs and it was not long before Holly joined me downstairs. Mustn't grumble (and didn't luckily) as it turned out Elizabeth had been up during the night with distressed children and I had slept right through it!

The lads still meet for tennis at Ed's at eight fifteen on Saturdays so it was a joy to join them again as, while living in the village, the Tuesday evening and Saturday morning tennis was at the high point of the week. Tim, Tony and I played in the snow, joined by Ed and Bryan. It was a fantastically mad English pursuit and a joy to be out with the lads. Eventually Ed got smacked by the ball in the eye which gave us the excuse to stop on compassionate grounds though the real reason was that we were all frozen.

Back at EnT's I lost my voice due to the combination of exhaustion, cold and tiredness. Eventually Ent did a drug run to the pharmacy and on her return Elizabeth bullied me into the shower after which I felt significantly better. EnT's gorgeous little terrace house was the first house I have been in for six months and at twelve feet wide felt incredibly spacious to me.

Elizabeth dropped me at terminal two where we enjoyed lunch giving us the chance to have a proper catch-up.

Would have loved to catch up with the Clarks, Pickerings, Harris', Dimoch's and others but no time. Maybe on my return.

Lucky LHR wasn't closed to long haul also.
Amelia, Theo and Holly outside the house.