A has these wristbands which are supposed to stop travel sickness by focusing her ying and yang or ley lines or something, they don't work, nor do Kwells. Anyhow, what I observed is the features on the box. They are from Boots. There are bullet points like:
- quick to work
- do not cause drowsiness
and then this one
- multicoloured.

Multicoloured? What difference does that make? How can that possibly be construed as a benefit of the product. Like, oh, this conversation:

'I walked into Superdrug but theey only had drab grey ones, but in Boots they have MULTICOLOURED ones!'

The bit from Aunty June's to the M6, past Joddrell Bank gets A every time. We must remember not to go that way. Once it was Ribena. That made for a great sick clean up spectacle in a layby, with me hopping around and R cleaning her clothes in a gutter, while a near naked A stands shivering on a grass verge while we find dirty clothes out of the bag in the boot to clothe her for the rest of the journey. The journey home was really bad, but I won't dwell on the M6 when you want to know about my holidays!

Yesterday I was cleaning the car. I do it regularly, once a year, and did a bad job yesterday as I don't have a chamois. Can't bring myself to, as a vegetarian, find them a bit dry. Anyway, thing is, these 3 ladies came past me 'ouse ( thats my northern accent) riding ponies. One of them shouted out ' Can you do mine' refering, I assume, to cleaning her car, and not her horse. I shouted back: Where do you think you are? This isn't Buckinghamshire, you know, this is Thornhill! Take your horses back where they belong!' The only ponies we have ever had walking past before have been pit ponies. No, they have been galloping ones with their nostrils flared in a fashionable 1970s way. No, seriously now, they have been pulling little carts along with one man with tatoos sat on a little shelf in the middle, looked a bit like Prince Philip actually. The man, not the tatoo.

Where was I? Cleaning the car - so today I went to Beloved Bitterne and bought a pack of cloths for car cleaning. I also bought an atlas for £1 as we got very badly lost in Leeds trying to find a gym. It was worth finding, as virtually empty and a lovely pool and view for a picnic. bought myself a new swim cap as mine was a stop gap one and is plastic and squeaky and hurts. My new one is made of some clever fabric and is comfy. Also bought H some new swimming goggles, as despite our goggltastic Christmas, she had none to be found. Bought those items in Tescos, actually, along with a new camping blow up bed for me. Back in Bitterne, I bought some presents for a couple of children and wrapped and posted them ( did the wrapping at home and the posting in Hedge End, where I also went to the dry cleaners cos I forgot to go to the one near home earlier, so excited by being in Bitterne). Other things I bought were: a can of diet coke and a newspaper. A pack a mac for H. Earlier I had been to Towsure, one of the most depressing shopping experiences ever, and bought a collapsible water carrier. Before that I had been in Debenhams - again, a bit dated and jaded, and bought R a pair of swimming shorts - not Speedos I hasten to add. Oh, in Sainsburys in Bitterne I bought myself and R a new sports bag each, as we had got to carring our tennis kit in carrier bags. My tennis balls are in my Holy trinity Claygate cloth bag, which I was given free at the Claygate flower show. We played Tennis the other night, think it was last night, with a couple from my tennis course, and luckily I was on R's team, as he is very good. I did 2 great shots, both at the end of the game, and although my serve is puny I am pleased that I mostly get it in the right place. We played outside, lovely evening to be enjoying the air. I mostly stood near the net and kept out of the way of R.

The last few nights R's cousin Kate has been staying, as her boyfriend is in the General and she lives in Weymouth, so easier for her to hang out with us and see him than travel for 2 hours to see him. She is so easy going, the girls really like her and we secretly hope her boyfriend remains in hospital for weeks so we get to see her every weekend.

Bit of a cousin thing going on, as on Saturday we were at the wedding of one of R's other cousins, from the posher side of his family, although the Bowens think they are, the Chalmers have blue blood. This was cousin Louise, who is stunningly beautiful and clever and it was a very elegant wedding at Wadham College, Oxford,where her dad, R's uncle, is the Warden, which is a kind of full time retirement job in academia for someone who is a Sir. The setting was awesome, I constantly kicking myself that I didn't know such places existed. I could have applied and had a hope of getting in to Oxford when I did my A levels! I could have swished around in a gown shaking hands with C S Lewis. I honestly did not even think of it, no one at my 6th form suggested it for me, althought some others in my year did apply and I know of one who went to Cambridge. One of my favourite books is set in Oxford colleges, its called a Severe Mercy and is an autobiography by Sheldon Vanaulten or similar. At one point I had 3 copies, loved it so much. Its up there with Keith Green's 'No compromise'. So now I am working on becoming an academic so I can go to Oxford and float around the quad and eat breakfast in a vaulted hall and so on.

More pressing is Sunday's triathlon, and the complicated childcare needed to achieve competing. Seem to have thrown off the long lurking illness and am match fit, have done lots of running and swimming and a bit of cycling, sometimes 2 out of 3 on one day. On holiday I did 3 runs, 1 swim and 2 cycles, but the mileage for the bike is going to challenge me. I am up for a 7.50am start so think of me over your bagels or lavender flavoured porridge. My next challenge is a 10k run in October, and I have started training with Vicky for that, she lives in Netley which is very flat and we have done 2 good runs, pushing ourselves on distance.

Will tell you more about holiday next time.