Brancaster beach

It was lovely to see Luke, Meriel and Inca last night. Inca had a 45 minute walk to the Cambridge station as her bike chain broke, so she got to us later than expected, and Luke had to finish off some work so he and Meriel only arrived at 9pm. Luke had his appointment with the shoulder surgeon after a repeat MRI, and is feeling very chuffed with his 'super performing body' as his shoulder fracture has healed and as he is doing so well with his shoulder movement that the surgeon says he no longer requires surgery. The joys of being young and healthy! 

This morning they all left at 4.30am for the airport to fly to Seville. Unfortunately Tommy's plane from Munich to Frankfurt (no direct flights) was delayed so he missed his connecting flight to Seville. The poor lad has spent literally all day at Frankfurt airport as there was no other flight to Seville other than a much, much later one and he will only get there at midnight tonight :(

Gavin and I had a leisurely drive to Norfolk and arrived in time to meet the agent from the holiday letting company at 1pm. She went through all the things that are required - quite frankly so many requirements that I was balking and saying forget about letting the house out, but Gavin, rational as ever, took it in his stride. If we have toddlers we have to provide a cot, feeding chair and a security stair gate (simple solution - no toddlers), we must allow dogs as most people have dogs and our rentals will be severely limited if we don't. Although they have a rule of no dogs upstairs how do you police that, and avoid some hairy, smelly dog sleeping on our beds? My natural anal concerns have been in overdrive today!! We have to order all sorts of security measures - fire extinguishers, fire blankets, carbon monoxide alarms - plus extra bedding. I have also decided to give our rather expensive and lovely Denby dinner service to Luke and order a cheaper dinner service for the house, as one is required to have a set of replacements as things will get broken and I didn’t want to order more of the expensive set. Why am I so ridiculous as to get sentimental over a dinner service? Okay don't answer that...

We took Xena for a wonderful walk along the sea defences and on to Brancaster beach. It was. perfect day here today, sunny, mild with blue skies and sunshine and not a breath of wind. She loved her walk and we saw so many birds, including a barn owl later in the day. 

We spent the rest of the day going through the cupboards and ticking off inventory lists and making notes for the agent, and deciding what to take home and what to leave here. It was a bit emotional but we will still come for weekends when we can.