Thursday 18 August
This morning was chores central – the Mate tackled the laundry mountain while Skipper scaled hose-gate to fill my water tanks from the distant source. Eventually they were ready to head across London to celebrate the second mate’s brother’s brilliant A Level results, which will see him off to Nottingham University to blow up the Chemistry Department. The whole family enjoyed a day of treats and treatments, and came home late but a lot less stressed than they set off this morning.