Holiday happyness

Halfway to the ferry, the car started to run roughly, I stopped at a lay-by and so did the engine. No sign of trouble in the engine compartment and when I tried to re-start it, it ran perfectly. Dilemma - stay in England or continue to the Vendee - chose the latter.

Engine management light came on north of Rennes. I can recommend the Volvo agent - and they didn't even charge for their help.

This was not the only holiday mini-mishap. I expect the bruises will disappear eventually.

Bad things come in threes. How did I manage to book the B&B for our last night - for the wrong night!

But did I have a good holiday? It was fantastic.

Northern Lights

The Northern Lights are in my mind, from the song of the Seventies (for pedants I believe it's 1978). The Aurora Borealis - there's been a spate of sightings (this cliched phraseology seems to be often associated with UFOs, which are sort of similar, so I'll stick with it). Quite rare in the UK, best seen the further north, which is where we've been this weekend for a family wedding. I say the north, we were a bit short of sighting chaps in flat caps with whippets but the nearest town was Northampton so we must have been a long way north.

The wedding was a stylish do, with a peacock theme and all the tables were decorated with peacock feathers. I didn't know that peacocks were indigenous to the north - we didn't see any but I suppose if they were all bald they wouldn't want to be seen. The tables were all named, after places where the Happy Couple had spent happy moments. We were on 'Blackpool'.

I'd been discussing the Northern Lights several weeks ago with a friend. 'Yes', he said, 'I've seen them, lovely they were, all shimmering away - we were in Blackpool at the time'. I wonder if any of them looked tower-shaped.