Gary L

So, the visit to my sister is concluding and tomorrow we head to the West of England, ending up on a cliff top at Lizard Point. My sister hasn’t been on good form and the dementia is more and more apparent, then suddenly this evening at dinner she was sparkling. My brother in law is amazingly patient with her. Also saw my great great niece, Peach, who is two in Jan. So sweet that she knew her wicked great uncle’s name- she’s been trained to get into my will!. 😛

Me too!!!

I have heard someone singing that song on a talent show, I think!

Sadly, yet again I’ve never heard of these songs, but I have heard of Eric Clapton, does that count?

I was so lucky at university to have not one but three amazing teachers, all women and immensely talented. All fitted your exacting standards. @pvtguy. I love the description of Emmer and look forward to seeing a lot more of him, although in one chapter Robert has fleshed him out v nicely.

Poor Travis seems to hand over himself to one person and then another. What a sad mess.

To be honest, they have behaved superbly. Three days of solid driving (plus lots of pit stops), 1,700 km. Now the night in the nice hotel we use. Our little Peugeot is parked next to two Ferraris which roared in just after us. It feels inferior.

001 resting:

Here are the monsters!

And Chris heads back to work, we head off on holiday. 600km getting us an hour into France. Tomorrow anther 600 km to the Loire and next day only 400 to Channel tunnel ( though we go through it on Friday). Then to the glorious W Midlands where solid rain is forecast….. 001 and 002 have been v well-behaved, unlike some wiener dogs we know !

Another fun (?) story from one of our favourite authors, @Lee Wilson. Nice start, my friend.

Totally hooked! V enjoyable build up to them actually speaking.

Another excellent chapter, thank you. Things are going very well….. too well?!

I love driving in Europe. The moment we cross the frontier into France I’m happiness personified. French drivers are so much more considerate, and, amazingly, their cars have indicators….. unlike the Spanish…. Sadly, with the dogs we have a time limit to get to the Channel Tunnel. Entry to UK and Ireland is really strict. Last year one dog was denied entry for a veterinary error 😱 For next year we are looking at going as far as Denmark or even Norway…

Here still reaching 35°, or more on balcony. Looks like rain once we cross the Loire and head towards Calais. Dogs’ raincoats are packed!!!!

Countdown has started to our September road trip. There were so many admin things to do: car insurance for UK, enough treats for dogs, printing bookings etc etc. after two months of heatwaves the rain will be welcome… ok not really. will try to upload some snaps of the girls as they charm the French…….

Agreed. Young Lennart is getting around, as it were!

Before moving to Spain I was a member of the Athenaeum, joining was fairly straightforward. I remember the application form said ‘list your four main academic titles’… (members tend to be academics, ranking civil servants, and Anglican clergy) The key is that these clubs are owned by the members and they need to recruit by members proposing and supporting candidates. Having been introduced to other members, they, hopefully, would sign in your support. I was lucky in that my proposer, a university friend with connections, knew loads of people and so my entry was approved. Costs are not cheap and I gave it up, sadly, on moving abroad and not using it. There were lots of ‘Uncle Edwin’s lurking around and the occasional scandals in the News of the World about Anglican canons and rent boys….

Bloody hell!

Wonderful!

We await some Aussie inspired stories, Chris. Hope you both had a wonderful time. Looking at forecast for uk next week it looks like rain, rain and more rain. ☔️

Not sure what it means in some parts of the world, but where I’m from “packy” is an offensive racist label. Just so you all know. As is “wog” which I saw someone saying elsewhere yesterday.

001 and 002 are growling at you!

Membership standards have just gone up! Welcome!!