That was the summer that was

Bloggage has been a bit light recently because this is August and I’ve been on holiday. Two weeks involving a few days away with the extended outlaws (like in-laws, but without a marriage contract) and then a week at home.

I have to admit that I enjoyed the time at home much more than the time away. It’s not that I have anything against my partner’s family, but I do find having to be constantly upbeat and endlessly sociable to be very tiring. It doesn’t help that we have such a divergent view of what constitutes a pleasant excursion.

Even though it started to rain pretty much as soon as we were back in Belgium, it wasn’t bad enough to keep us from going outside and enjoying a bit of time together. And when it did rain, we managed to play plenty of board games and even managed a trip to the cinema to see The Lion King, which was impressively animated although I don’t really see the point of a shot for shot remake of the original.

I was also able to really appreciate the fact that, once we’d had enough of each other, the boys were more than happy to spend some time with their tablets while I quietly filled the bin and reorganised some of our endlessly cluttered living space.

I have spent a lot less time online that I expected to — which is probably a good thing — and have also failed to catch up on my reading backlog. Still, with my holiday being over, I suspect that I will fall into my usual rhythm quite quickly.

The boys are still on holiday of course, and from Monday they will be attending the week long and slightly misleadingly named Sport Camp. There is no camping involved but they do get to try a variety of sporting activities and to find out what the various local clubs have on offer. And after this, they will start ramping up for the new school year.

For now, however, it’s barbecue time, after which I shall fire Newsblur andf try to catch up on what I’ve missed over the past couple of weeks.