Oh, to be in England...etc etc etc!

First - some awful news...There are no apostrophes on this Portugese keyboard, so I have to write without them!  The pain, as some of you can imagine, is almost unbearable, but the alternative is to let a weekend go by without blogging.  This has caused me a sleepless night, but I have decided that communication is more important, so I apologise profusely in advance for what you are about to read.

It would have been lovely if we and our luggage had all arrived together at Heathrow last week. However, this was not to be.  The small blue backpack went on an unplanned trip to Mumbai or Doha and was only found 3 days later, by which time we had had to buy some "essential" items.  Luckily the insurance paid out and we are all fine again, but it was money we did not need to be spending at that point. Apparently, the problem was that it was so small!!  I ask, what is the point of travelling light if they are going to lose the smaller bags; maybe it is better to get one of those ankle-busting plastic/metal cases and heave it all up and down escalators, cobbled streets and unimaginably tiny flights of stairs?! I will get back to you on that one.

So, reunited with Mike, the brother of Richard (no apostrophes, remember!) we were.  Lovely to see him and Chris again after so long - 4 years for Rich and 12 for me.  A niece and nephew turned up for the weekend, which was great - one more to catch up with but she was the one that came to Oz earlier this year and we saw her then.  They are all beautiful young adults with good jobs, lovely manners and not a drug or alcohol problem among them - same as Sarah and Nick.  Chris and I did the right thing, marrying the Hobden brothers, did we not?  Chris was, as ever, very welcoming and we hit the shops and the kitchen together as before and our few days with them slipped by very fast.

Sunday was the 23rd so we were due in Portugal.  Onwards!