Freedom from work!...

...for the next two weeks at least.

Things here have been getting very, very hectic of late; basically, since the beginning of April two of us have been trying to do three people's workload, and it simply isn't working. Unsurprisingly. As the spring advances towards summer we get more and more enquiries in Visitor Information at Kew, and more and more off-the-wall weird requests, and more and more complaints; and we can't keep up.

So I am very relieved indeed to reach the beginning of my two weeks' annual leave. I'm taking ten at the end of Friday afternoon to write this, and then I'll probably be totally silent, www-wise, for the whole fortnight.

I managed to book a late holiday, by changing some other things I was all booked up for in order to give myself more flexibity on dates. This enabled me to get a late-deal trip with Olympic Holidays (who unlike certain tour operators I could mention not only will "undersell" but also give thumping great discounts to last-minute travellers). I'm now going off on Tuesday morning for a week in northern Crete, in what looks from Google Earth to be a very small quiet place indeed, with a huge beach that has scrubland and olive trees coming right down to the sand in places. I will paint, read, write, swim, eat too much, and walk. At present the BBC world weather forecast for Chania (nearest weather station) is for a sunny week next week. Bliss; sunshine, swimming, solitude, and Cretan food.