Mulhouse, France

The alarm went off at 3.30am which is a horrible time to wake up. Despite mostly packing the car last night it still took so much time to pack up the last bits and pieces this morning, shower, clear the fridge, strip the bed etc so we only set off at 4.50. 

After days of hot and sunny weather it rained last night and the entire journey through Switzerland and France was with grey skies and smatterings of rain, until we neared Calais when it was sunny. 

The car satnav plots the route home and works out where and when to charge to be most efficient. In every case this meant coming off the motorway to a Tesla supercharger which is usually located in the grounds of a hotel or Burger King! I would prefer to stop at a motorway services with all the amenities but then those chargers take more time. With the supercharger you can charge from 25% to 75% in about 15 minutes. 

I really wanted a cappuccino this morning and as France is generally terrible at accommodating dietary restrictions, I tried to find a Starbucks as they always have non dairy milks, although I don't like their coffee, but needs must. There are none at the motorway services, but Google maps indicated there was one in Mulhouse. We came off the motorway and ended up having a big detour all because of a coffee...and we never found the Starbucks! Gavin was not pleased about the extra time on the journey all because of a sodding Starbucks coffee, which we never usually like drinking! Anyway this was a shot at 8am this morning in Mulhouse when the town still seemed to be asleep. (We later found a Starbucks in Colmar, another diversion which was not on the trip plan...)

We got home at about 7.15pm which was just in time for my call with a doctor at Bupa (medical insurance) regarding my pelvis. When I saw the GP the other day she could not really assess without a CT scan and therefore could not give an accurate diagnosis. As the pain has still been quite bad I wanted to check with a doctor in the UK. Given that I have osteopenia in my one hip I have been referred to a consultant, so I will phone tomorrow and see when I can get an appointment. Since getting home and running up and down the stairs while unpacking and sorting things I have got a fair amount of pain again.

Now we have a couple of days at home before we are off again on our sailing holiday around Corfu. When the boys were young we did sailing holidays every summer, it’s a relatively inexpensive holiday (caravaning on water is how I describe it) that they used to love doing, and they all are good sailors. We have sailed in Croatia, a few times in Greece, Spain and the Caribbean. Last summer I suggested it would be fun to do another sailing trip - stupid of me to suggest it as I get very seasick! I am hoping for calm waters and not much wind! So we leave on Saturday to go sailing for one week and Adam and Anna are joining us for this family holiday.

Gavin got the date today for his next scan - 21 October. It’s only 10 weeks since the last one. He is enjoying good health at the moment and we are enjoying life while we can.