Well, that certainly filled a weekend. Eight shrieking loons dragged to Guildford Airhop on Saturday, then the usual houseful on Sunday. Much lovely food, cake consumed by the sackload and, I dare say, quite a few beer and wine bottles emptied. 

Abby is 12. I can't quite get my head round this. Her birthday gifts now include crap like Nike Airmax, hair-straighteners and hoodies. And cash (hurrah for Catholic families). On the plus-side, quite unexpectedly, she seems to have excellent taste in friends, old and new. Long may that prevail...

Where does the time go? etc etc

Two fantastic weeks away in one summer, lucky us frankly. I had no idea what to expect of Mallorca really, it was all a bit of a last minute decision - our best friends had found a super villa just North of Alcudia, we managed to find an apartment overlooking the bay about a five-minute walk away, a notional conversation one Saturday night a few weeks ago was suddenly a reality.

Well... I quickly dispelled any concerns that Mallorca might be a bit '70s-style Costa Del Sol, catering to a peculiar breed of English tourist that would rather have stayed in England on the whole.  It's one of the most beautiful places on the planet

They partied long. They partied hard. They dropped a fistful of Gaviscon on Sunday morning. 50 is the new 15.

You can download the full size originals - and the videos - from here. Click on the dropdown arrow next to the 'Download' button and you can download the whole lot as a .zip file - but be warned, the whole lot's about 340 MB and will take a while...

But they can fill a weekend with small-person activity in jolly convenient fashion...