Having watched the weather forecast for weeks, the boys finally decided Wednesday was an auspicious day to go on their long-awaited motorcycle trip to Andorra. It was very hot, 35º to 38ºC in the shade, but they found hundreds of miles of twisty, narrow roads, great restaurants, a motorcycle museum and good bars where they could rehydrate in the evenings.

They were in a pizzeria on Friday night, when the sky began to darken and it started to rain; within minutes they were in the middle of a huge hailstorm, with hailstones the size of golf balls and by the end of the storm, some 15 minutes later, the ground was several inches thick in hailstones. Leaves were ripped from trees and flowers in planters in the village looked as if they’d been strimmed; Kieran was relieved that he’d left his towel to dry on the tank of his bike; the towel was soaked, but the tank was undamaged. The seat of John’s bike was ripped by the ferocity of the storm.

Their gear thoroughly soaked, they arrived home a day earlier than planned.

We weren’t idle while Kieran was away; it was far too hot to do anything on Thursday, so having a look around the sales, in air conditioned shops seemed like a good option. We found a new (to us), leather three piece suite in a brocante and another exciting purchase which I’m not allowed to disclose yet, as Nick wants it to be a surprise for the girls when they visit. So you’ll just have to wait and see!

I also finished the tiling in the arriere cuisine and grouted it all; it looks good, if I say so myself.

Today was Julie’s birthday so we invited them to ours for lunch. Julie loves chickens, so it seemed like a good idea to make her a chicken-shaped birthday cake; I’m not much of a cake decorator, but I was very pleased with the result. That is, until the head fell off! Kieran stuck it back together with lots of cocktail sticks, so eating it was quite interesting!