Safe Home

Tenerife was good. It’s a long way away so that means that it is warm. Unfortunately that doesn’t prevent it being wet – which it managed on a spectacular scale on four of the six days we were there.

Tenerife does have one place where there is guaranteed sunshine – up in the El Tiede National Park where one finally emerges out of the cloud at 2000m and into bright sunshine. Even more impressive was the sight of a cool – in every sense – young lady riding an Airnimal pausing only for a coffee at the same 2000m mark.

So there was great reading. We always bring far too many books – but not this time. Nice hotel but we’re not really hotel people. I began to find the buffet breakfast seriously unnerving. By the end, I could name the dishes left to right blindfold and the stiff silence was getting to me. A bit like church for some, I suspect.

Strange to return to a world which has suddenly discovered ethics and values – in football and MP’s expenses. Not so clear at the Chilcot Enquiry where Tony Blair was as fleet of foot as always – for ever in my mind in the accents of Portadown as Mr Blur.