The holiday in the peak district last week was very tranquil. While my last holiday brought back the fun this week brought back an inner sense of calm that has been missing for quite a while.

Highlights was were visits to Eyam plague village, on a rather gloomy Sunday afternoon, Bolsover Castle, which was one of the best castles/stately homes I’ve been to in years, and a visit to Chestnut conservation centre so Rachel could play with the otters who live there. MORE PHOTOS of the week

We came home a day early to start work in earnest on sorting out the house. So on Sunday I cleared the garden, lumped boxes into the attic, while Rachel went through 4 boxes worth of course notes, throwing out 99%, and tidied up the computer desk (which hopefully is being taken away today). Very productive and very tiring.

Back at work today in sunny Manchester. I’m having a slack morning sorting out ten zillion emails that have arrived in my absence. Fortunaltly none of them are angry epistles saying that I am crap at my job like I feared, most are just the automated “To All staff” which clutter up your in-tray when you turn your back for five minutes. The rest I’ll action this afternoon. Oh happy days….

In other news. While we were away Rachel got her result. She is now a qualified Midwife with a 1st Class degree , with an overall mark of 79%. Feel free to call her a swot when you next see her next.