I'm on classic blog form, writing about bloody last August in bloody February!! I mean, it's not as if I can plausibly claim to even remember back that far! Ah well, good job I take a few rudimentary notes of things...

So basically I was in Croatia with all my lovely family. I drove down from Munich (with a stop in Salzburg to catch up with Rupert) and it took 13 HOURS!! It really shouldn't have been more than like six. But I made the big mistake of driving on the day the whole of southern Germany started its summer holidays...

In Liznjan (formerly Lisignano), near Pula in Istria, we had a villa with a pool and we went diving and we cooked and ate and we were cooked for by our Istrian landlords one afternoon and it was all fab. And then it was a 12-hour drive home with Michaela, Russ & the boys, with a stop in Italy and a stop in Austria. Lovely. At least I could share the driving on the way back.

Next stop Dachauer Volksfest with Bénédicte and her cousin's family. Then some more dinner parties at mine, a trip to the Gäubodenvolksfest at Straubing with Marko, Franz & Otto (where I bought sexy new Lederhosen), more Sri Lankan curries for Susi & Chris, who popped in for dinner, more catching up with mates, Felix's birthday party, hanging pictures at mine with Russ, and dinner with Johannes (who was over from Sydney) and his two friends Les & Andrew (who were doing Europe).

The month drew to a close with a weekend with Matthias & Pablo, who were up from Zurich. Thanks to them, I learned that my underground parking space is too low for a Smart. No, really. It's teeny.