Rather pleasantly, I’ve been on holiday! Coming home from my usual place of work on a Friday, it was suddenly announced that a holiday at the bank holiday weekend should happen. For some reason, we decided that the New Forest and Dorset were nice places and a quick scour of the internet revealed that the only vacant room in Dorset in a B&B with both a swimming pool and a sauna, was the most expensive suite in a rather lovely place by the sea in Highcliffe. We booked it.

Therefore, on Saturday, we embarked. It was meant to take 2 hours and 4 minutes to travel the 108 miles from leafy Greenwich to drizzly Dorset, but, alas, it took a rather lengthy 3 and a half hours or so. Therefore, we managed to arrive at about 4pm or so. The subsequent evening hours were spent exploring our room, getting lost on the beach, swimming, sauna-ing and eating. The next day was quite sunny and we had grand plans to go to into the New Forest and hire a bike. So we drove to Burley, a nice village about 7 miles away set in a nice bit of countryside. All illusions of a nice cycle through the aforementioned countryside were shattered when the bike shop told us that all the bikes for the day had gone. We booked one for the next day and went for a wander. In the afternoon, we decided to go to the Isle of White, as the Lymington wasn’t very far away and the ferries were quite cheap. We drove there and managed to get on the first boat. After dribbling around a bit by the seaside, we came back for more sauna time. The final day, the weather was great and we managed to hire the bike (a tandem!). The rest of the day was spent careering around the back lanes and tracks of the local area before eventually giving in and coming back to London.

Joyously, a hailstorm started as we got back.