Earlier this evening, Keryn and I were in the pool discussing journeys. I was recounting last November’s attempt at getting to France from St Pancras wherein I’d inadvertently forgotten to pick up my case after it went through the scanner. Only after I’d passed through the first of the Brexit security posts, and was in the crocodile queue for the second, did I notice that I didn’t seem to have as much baggage as I owned when I entered the station. I looked back and saw said case sulking at the end of the conveyer. Fortunately, a railway employee, stunned that someone could so readily abandon their worldly goods at such an early stage in proceedings, lifted several ropes and escorted me back past passport control to retrieve my life. Having regained ownership of the case, I was then taken through security for the third time in half an hour to rejoin those waiting for French clearance.

Should you be travelling alone, Keryn asked? Fair point given Saturday’s fiasco at the toll booth. Just as I was thinking of something witty to say, I looked up and saw a glorious sight: a white female sparrowhawk circling above the pines. There she is in the snap above. Well, one of her relatives as even I don’t take my phone in the water. The photo is courtesy of Wikipedia.

Poolside in this neck of the woods is a great place for spotting nature. Only yesterday, I was standing at the edge gossiping and looking upwards just in time to see a red kite flying past.

I didn’t take this photo either; that fellow from Wikipedia got there before me. Just as well as I don’t take my phone…

You can probably tell I haven’t done much since arriving in paradise; although I have read the first of my holiday books and am some way through the second. Life is tough. One more thing of beauty though to report. In the early hours of this morning, unable to sleep in the heat of the night, I ventured outside just in time to see a shooting star.

You’ve guessed it…I didn’t take this photo either. My star was much larger, brighter and closer, almost to the point of landing. This is how to be happy when sleep avoids one.