Girl back

Carenza has been thinking outside the box. 

Her workplace is fully remote. There is no office. 

So if one can work from a flat or a cafe, why not a train or an air BnB?

Carenza was hoping to meet up with university friends in Tbilisi, but was trying to limit her air travel.

So she would work from home while travelling all across Europe.

Her five week solo trip would take her along many railroads less traveled. Not to mention bus trips on winding roads through snowy mountains.

As when she went travelling alone to south east Asia, she gave us a copy of her itinerary. As before, we had no idea what we could do to help if anything went wrong.

Off she went.

To curb my fretting, Carenza rang regularly - 'All is well'. 

However, she forgot I follow her on Instagram and posted an account of hitches and horrors, both major and minor.

My hair stood on end. 

Even when she reached Tbilisi, their mountain walking was blocked by an avalanche. When she returned to the UK she travelled via Armenia, landing her only eight miles from the Iran border on the day when Israel launched an attack on Iran.

However, now she is back, returning on the day she promised, with all her fingers and toes still attached. And I am glad.

'Would you do it again,' I asked. 

Not even the tiniest pause.

'Oh yes,' she said.

Family Holiday

We just had a family holiday. In many ways it was excellent - we stayed in a capacious holiday-let overlooking the Fal River. The weather was brilliant, so we walked and swam the coast every

day and cooked wholesome meals together in the evening. 

 

However, a family holiday always ends up as a microcosm of what is going on in the family.

 

Pascoe, Carenza and Perran are all busy at work so we made sure the house had good wi-fi in order to accommodate a certain amount of working from home, also great train links in order to allow anybody who had to arrive late (Pascoe), or leave early (Perran).  

We stayed close to Truro to allow us several visits to my elderly parents who have had a tough year.  

We were late departing on changeover day because one person had an important phone meeting, plus we had to take something to the dump for my dad, which meant we then hit heavy traffic all the way home, exacerbated by a train strike.  

Which in turn meant it was a close thing for Nigel to catch the train north to support his mother in the act of moving house from the north to the south on the following day.

When I look back, however, I shall choose to forget all the stresses and to remember only the sun-filled days and the evenings sharing plentiful food and wine. After all, there's nothing to beat a family holiday.