Looking out of my office window right now all I can see is grey skies, rain and the trees being blown about. Some July huh? It’s been a really sunny summer so far so I can’t really complain too much I suppose, but it’s got me wishing for brighter skies, which in turn reminds me – only three weeks until holiday! In 22 days my friends and I are jetting off to Spain for a week to share a villa and have a damn good time. We have a pool, barbecue area and lots of space, so I intend to do a lot of relaxing, plenty of swimming and no doubt partaking in the odd sangria or two . Usually foreign holidays for those of us living in ‘The Country’ have an added annoyance, and that’s the sheer amount of travelling involved before you get anywhere.

Cornwall has traditionally had really poor transport links – we’re talking 90 miles to the nearest stretch of Motorway, trains that take forever, no airports – but all of that has begun to change. Most of the above is still true, but with the advent of Newquay Airport and its subsequent improvements, the rest of the world has started to move a bit closer. Take this holiday I’m due for example. In the past it might have meant a drive to the nearest airport (normally Bristol – 3.5/4 hours, sometimes Gatwick/Heathrow @ 6.5/7 hours) before even starting. This time however we’re flying direct from Newquay (20 minutes drive away) to Alicante (30 minutes from the villa), and I feel so much happier and more relaxed about it. I have a really small list of things I want to take with me, mostly various swimming shorts, books and hopefully a very trashy inflatable for the pool. I’m fancying a giant inflatable dinosaur, but I think I might be out of luck there .

It’s back to the dojang tonight, time to infuse those mats with some more hard work and sweat (and hopefully not too much blood – it’ll stain!). I’m still aching all over from Wednesday’s antics, my shoulders aren’t used to things like dragon pushups any more. Between that and a stiff back from the Kickboxing warm-up which involved slapping the mat a lot as we changed direction, we ended up looking like apes (anyone who knows me can kindly refrain from any further comment there please), I’m not moving so freely. From the looks of things at least we’ll know if there are any leaks in the building.

I managed to find the single other person in the world who seems to not only have read Hyperion, but loved it as much as I do. Good day!

I can’t post songs from here, but I shall definitely be singing along to Snake River Conspiracy on the way home tonight, probably Breed followed by Lovesong.