So glad you could join us.

We decided a couple of weeks ago that unless the exchange rate dipped any lower we would cross The Channel for a shortened trip. In fact the length of the trip has been determined by other commitments. The Chef wanted to accompany a family member to our district hospital for an appointment, and I’ve moved my follow up appointment (nothing serious thank goodness) forward two weeks to create a window of just over three weeks between the two. It would be more sensible to stay in the UK and tour around, but where's the fun in being sensible?

So now we will only be doing the latter stages of what was to be a 5-6 week tour around the French coast before picking up where we will now start. Never mind I'm hoping we may be able to include the missing locations on our way back from our extended tour of Spain starting next March.

Due to the time constraint we’re off for a flying visit to Ypres in Belgium tomorrow before driving straight to the South of France. We’ll base ourselves there for about ten days before nipping round the corner and doing a bit of Northern Italy visiting old haunts and a couple of new ones.

I’ve finally got around to posting an ‘Advice & Tips’ section on the end of the trips under ‘More’. I will continually revisit it for editing, and do my best to keep it up to date adding bits and pieces as I think of them.

I don’t think too much has happened since our last trip. We took the motorhome to my brother Richard’s in Suffolk to celebrate my 70^th birthday with he and his wife Sue, who very kindly made me a birthday cake in the shape of ‘Freddie Fendt’, how about that.

Politically things don’t get any better. The Wicked Witch was deposed, to be replaced by Boris the Clown. After his appointment there must have been a lot of disappointed kids across London due to his being unavailable to entertain them at their birthday parties.

Pinocchio continues to lead what used to be The Labour Party until he got his hands on it, whilst Yoda retired from the Lib-Dems to be replaced by a deluded sixth former who will lead her party in between hockey match commitments. Jimmy Krankie continues to search for excuses to hold yet another 'once in a lifetime' Scottish Independence Referendum so that she, holding a staff in her hand, can part the waters of the Caledonian Canal and lead the people to her Promised Land, and Nigel Farage is back in politics again having come out of retirement more often than Status Quo.

Meanwhile whilst China continues to build coal-fired power stations at the rate of one every few days, and the Amazon rainforest, the lungs of our planet, burns like fury, Mr Spock from 'Star Trek', the co-leader of the Green Party, seems very concerned about the pollution caused by cow farts.

The Parliamentary Pantomime ‘Never Mind What You Voted For - You’ll Have What WE Want’ rolls on. Not being able to watch the BBC News every evening for the next three weeks is going to be a blessing. So let's all go on holiday and bury our heads in the sand for a little light relief.