Chloe, Graham and the Duke’s abode

After breakfast I explained how I did the easy cryptic crossword in the Guardian and Chloe had a go. She’s very good at anagrams. Mr C drove them to Alnmouth for the train. They’d hoped to walk in the woods before leaving but it was raining.

This is them with Alnwick Castle in the background. I’m surprised Graham managed a smile as he is very anti-aristocracy!

Thomas WhatsApped to tell me about his French trip. He’d had a wonderful time. He didn’t know what the best bit was as it was all interesting and exciting. He bought cheese at the goat farm but had to eat it because since Brexit we aren’t allowed to bring it home. Their visit to Mont St Michel was marred by them seeing a body being carried down on a stretcher and there being a lot of police with guns. EuroDisney was good but the queues were too long to get on many rides. He was excited to see Notre Dame, the Eiffel Tower and Sacre Ceour and bought prints of them for his room. A boy in the group broke his arm playing football. I said I’m glad I wasn’t a teacher having responsibility for 40 children. “But Granny you’d get a free holiday!”

More worrying news for my record. When Mr C’s blood clot was discovered he had blood tests and one found him to be anaemic so further tests were done. One showed he has symptoms of bowel cancer and is to have a colonoscopy. We don’t know when yet. He is very calm about it - seems mainly concerned about the difficulty in applying to get his new annual travel insurance while investigations are pending! I’m determined not to get in a state about it - hopefully because he had no symptoms it will be caught early - if it is that.