Back to Civilisation

So that was that and all's well that ends well and all that, we had had our time in sunny Somerset and it was time to return to similarly sunny Essex.

Eloise had been most excellent throughout and been a good friend to everybody.

Lyra had been less good, with difficulties sleeping and an unfortunate tendency to bite Erin in particular but probably everyone really. Jet lag had clearly been a problem and probably combined with teething and perhaps separation anxiety as well as the general confusion and disorientation of suddenly unfamiliar territory and people. Well what can you do with a pre-conscious being other than keep an eye on it?

Notwithstanding all that, we drank wine with no hangovers, watched the World Cup and England's not entirely disappointing but still far from electric first performance, burned fires and slept passably well.

The swimming pool that Mr Owner (who it turned out had lived in Brisbane for a while) had lent us had only a little lawn-dart hole in it, and only one plate got broken so all in all I think we got away with it.