Well, I had a lovely week off work and was lucky enough to have booked it to coincide with some really good weather.

Unfortunately we must have punctured the blow-up mattress pushing it up the stairs but luckily it managed to stay up long enough to survive the two nights Jim and his girlfriend slept on it in the spare room although I think by the end of the second night it had become a bit thin.

We had a brilliant but tiring weekend involving a lot of food and wine and late nights, staying up the first night until "him indoors", who had gone to bed at a sensible time, got up at 4am to go fishing.

He joined us for a last coffee before he went off on the high seas and we retired to bed.

After a few hours' sleep we spent the next day strolling round The Lanes, stopping off for a much-needed restorative coffee every now and then.

My parents arrived on the second day while Jim and his girlfriend were still here which was good as it gave them all a chance to meet up.

Of course this meant yet another late night was in order.

"Him indoors" got up at 4am to find a crowd of merry revellers in the kitchen once again with Mum and Dad demonstrating to the rest of us how to dance.

He declined to join in a quick polka, stating there wasn't room for all 6ft 4in of him and he thought he would just go off fishing instead.

The next day we decided to be a bit more sensible and just had the one bottle of wine with dinner.

I mean, isn't it supposed to be us younger ones who wear the pensioners out rather than the other way round?

Is my dad the only 78-year-old who polkas in the kitchen in the middle of the night?

I am sure other people have much more sensible parents.

After dinner Mum decided she had to phone and check the other grandchildren were all fine.

This took some time as she is in much demand and they all needed to speak to her to tell her all about school plays, good marks they had got etc.

We spent the rest of the week lazing around the garden in the sunshine, exerting ourselves once a day to take the dog for a marathon walk before sinking back into respective hammocks and deckchairs and reading books.

All very nice and much more relaxing than my usual weeks off work when I do things like paint the spare room.

Sadly all good things come to an end and it's back to work this week.

Daughter has just broken up for the summer so she has seven weeks off to look forward to whereas I will have to put my nose to the grindstone once again.