The leaning house of Canterbury

A famous local fixture dating from the sixteenth century, it featured in Dickens’ David Copperfield and now has to be held up by an internal steel frame to stop it falling over completely. I wonder if they will be able to do that for me when I get really old…

We had gone down to collect Strider from Uni. Had a spot of lunch in a lovely little cafe and did a bit of shopping before heading back. The weather tried to turn wet on us but by sheer force of will (I scowled at the clouds and telepathically told them not to rain on my parade) it held off. The car was like something out of Beverly Hillbillies as Strider had overestimated the internal capacity of our little Citroen; there were books, boots and people stuffed into every corner. Still, we made it, creaking and groaning up the M20 and around the M25.

We only had a couple of hours  before heading off to friends in north London, during which time we shopped for veg and tofu, cooked a Thai curry, and watched the highly entertaining Portugal v Germany football match which Germany won 4-2. The Dizzle and Mystic Em returned from their lovely trip to the Cotswolds having fallen in love with the place. As well as the countryside they made a couple of trips into Bath, and enjoyed some first class eating.

Been a good week for my children’s travels. TGR has been on a yoga retreat on an island in western Canada and her daily photographs of the scenery, food and wildlife have been stunning. 

Our evening out was excellent. Fun conversation with friends and hardly any booze, interestingly. We rocked up at home at half past two in the morning having clocked up over 300 miles’ worth of driving, which TSM insisted on handling herself and with great aplomb. We won’t mention the crabby half hour on the way down to Canterbury when a road closure forced us on to some narrow country lanes, which was the only blight on the proceedings.

Excellent day. Really good to see Strider again, as you get older a hug from your children is more precious than anything else in the world. Making the most of having him home for a few weeks …