... with a bump 
So my holiday is all over and am very sad...
I've been off for two weeks (with a small gap in the middle for month-end) and I've had a really lovely time.
I had to go to Prague (as you probably already know) for the bank holiday, which was a little bit better than I though it would be, but headed off to Suffolk for my proper holiday the next day...
I spent the first week sailing, swimming, rowing and generally having fun - quite a lot of my family were there so there were plenty of people to play with and I don't think it rained at all - the weekend was utterly glorious, in fact...
Then I had a brief break-in-holiday to do month-end and ran straight back to Suffolk afterwards - my dad was there with me for a couple of days - again we had a good time, but it was very windy and we managed (not our fault, I hasten to add) to slightly break the boat (or, at least, the biggest of the boats) - the forestay (which is one of the things holding the mast up, for people who don't know) snapped and the mast fell down - it all fell into the water (rather than onto the boat) so there was no damage (actually, it was weirdly undramatic - one minute we were sailing along, the next, the mast was in the water...), but it was very windy and it took us an hour or so to fish it all back onto the boat (v heavy and the sails were full of water) but we managed it without significant injury (just a few small bruises) and motored back to the mooring after lunch (we have a small outboard on the boat - we only got it a few years ago - if we hadn't, we'd have had to wait for someone passing by to rescue us, or we'd have had to tow the boat home from the rowing dinghy, which would have been no joke... I'm not a big fan of the outboard generally, but have to admit that there are times when it comes in handy 
).
I had to go home for rehearsals on the Saturday, but I brought LBF back with me that evening, and it was just the two of us for a little while...
LBF isn't overly keen on the outdoorsy things (to clarify - I'm not maligning him in any way - not everyone likes that stuff - and, as such, it was v nice of him to come at all) so we had a few days of different type of holiday - we slept inside in the cottage and not in the tent (which is what I normally do when I'm there) and didn't really play any boats at all, other than to row out to the (mastless) yacht to drop off a few things - LBF is a pretty good rower, given that he's only tried it a few times - most people just go round in circles
We went walking, pubbing, wine-shopping and blackberrying as well as to Colchester Zoo, which was great (I can utterly recommend to anyone - you're allowed to feed the elephants and giraffes) - they have loads of really good animals and enclosures, and there are lots of fun interactive things to do - I've never been before, but would definitely go again 
LBF went home on the train on Tuesday night (after helping me take the sailing dinghy out of the water, which was extremely nice of him - is much easier with two), to look after the cats and because he wasn't feeling very good, and I spent yesterday morning alternately basking in the sun and packing and the afternoon hiding on the boat before I had to come home...
I'm back at work today and v v sad that my holiday is over.
I'm tired today already and always feel a bit grim when I come back to London after being in Suffolk-based-happy-place - I think it's to do with the change of air - it's all headachey and oppressive here...
Expect I'll get over the disappointment soon though - holiday will be distant memory in no time!
Hope everyone else (and particularly anyone who made it to the end of this post - well done!) is having a lovely day 
