The last month has been a bit unusual for us because we've travelled more in the last few weeks than in the last few years. So below is a chronological diary of that period, starting off with our stay in Holland. We went up to Leiden, where we stayed at the beginning of August, to help our mates, Steve and Andrea, do a house makeover for a planned house sale. Anyway we were fed and taken to the pub once a day, which is the ideal method to achieve a healthy and shiny coat. We loved being there and think our mates liked us being around too. House dog, Fudge, has fallen for Graham and looked a bit upset when we had to leave.
By the way, that's Andrea posing in front of the newly painted and re-door-knobbed sage green kitchen cupboards. Rosalind, the daughter of the family and queen of chill, had her first scary night behind the bar. She didn't look scared though and has been working there ever since - after which, next year, she will venture out to the even scarier world of veterinary science.
As usual I couldn't resist the Saturday Guardian feature: 'Why we love each other - misfits in love'. I think the pictures speak for themselves.
We're back there in November to finish the job off and spend our birthday in a comatose state.

In between jaunts we had to pick up our wood for the winter. A local farmer has turned out to be a great supplier of really good quality wood, so we picked up 12 cubic metres of the stuff. That took about a day and a bit to complete and we've still got to cut it in half, but we'll cross that bridge when we need to.

Almost last, but by no means least, was the wedding of our neice, Louise to Matt, which took place in Putney. Louise is Graham's brother's daughter and she looked wonderful and radiant on the big day, Matt was pretty dapper too.

The sun shone, the champagne flowed and everyone became somewhat tired and emotional, which is compulsory at such events.

Louise and Matt went off to Portugal for a few days as a precursor to the proper honeymoon to South Africa in November. Meanwhile we had a great time with Graham's brother Keith, who used to be my old drinking chum, and sister-in-law, Lin (the French expression Belle-Soeur sounds much nicer, doesn't it?) They were great hosts and as we haven't seen each other for about 3 years, we had loads to catch up on. They've just renovated a house in Richmond and did it with their usual energy and good taste. We had a few trips out and went to see Mick Jagger's house in Richmond Hill, but he wasn't in so we had fish and chips by way of compensation.

The young chap possessed of demons is Gareth, Louise's brother, and the delightful person next to him is Rachel, his sometime partner.

And speaking of demons, the church in Fulham, near to where we stayed, was the location of the priest impaling scene in the original Omen movie - good or what?. That one's for Steve, who is often possessed of demons and loves 'The Omen' (original version only).