Just gotten home after what feels like a long time away. Part of the problem was that I managed to misread my schedule and so booked the Eurostar too close to my return from Beijing – leading to a manic dash home and equally manic repacking and rushing off to Waterloo. The delay to the outbound meant I didn’t get to D’s until really late (1:25am) which didn’t impress her anymore than me. Still, the 2 days in Paris were real fun and she was a gratious host (as always). Pictures may follow!

Home now following a smooth journey home via Eurostar, various train connections and finally a cab ride as it’s raining here! The cab ride turned out to be the most problematic as the police had closed off the access to the area I live due to another accident around the so called “traffic calming” that the council has inserted into the local roads. It’s the really incredibly stupid “make both lanes use the same side of the road type, which seems to be a step backwards to the 1900’s in terms of road safety. The fact that most accidents involve no injuries (just messy car repairs) means that they don’t feature in the official road traffic accident figures, just in our insurance premiums. Maybe now that there have been some injuries on this stretch of road the restrictions will be reviewed. False hope probably given that Crawley council is presently embarked on the biggest farce of a road traffic scheme I’ve ever come across – the SlowWay!

Time for a nice night’s sleep in my own bed and then off to work again tomorrow.