Yeah, sad, but true, holidays are over. So I thought I might let you know all the fabulous things I’ve learned while I was abroad…
You can spend a week in the UK with absolutely no rain. It is possible. Also, you can take a train from London Gatwick to London, but if you’re a party of four, it’s actually cheaper to take a taxi. I kid you not. The Peter Pan statue in Kensington Gardens is a disappointment, the Princess Diana Memorial Playground is not. Oh, and five stars to the blue whale in the Natural History Museum.
Lee Valley Campsite is a good place to stay. They have cabins, too, if you don’t feel like living in a tent. And beautiful pebbles. The site manager asked us not to take them all, which tells us he understands children. His wife kept calling me ‘love’, and their accent was straight out of My Fair Lady. They also had this tree. 
Yes, of course we climbed it. What sort of question is that?
Vienna can heat up to 43°C. Which is quite hot.
Apart from all that, I’ve not quite managed to get through my to-read list. I’ve managed 2/3, but then two other books came my way and, ah well, you know how it is. I’ve read A Cold Day in Hell, and Demon Divided, but then dived into Mermaids (the Pankhearst anthology) and now am halfway through Mot – A Memoir (by Sarah Einstein, it will be released in September, I got an ARC). Anyway, as soon as I’ve had enough sleep (still need to recover from 11 hours of driving in an overheated car…and by overheated I mean the kind of heat where the traffic jams were caused by trucks with burst tires), I’ll start writing up the reviews so you’ll know those books are absolutely worth reading.
Hope you had/are having a summer as great as mine!
Angelika Rust 