So very sorry Pete

Oh, Pete, what have they done to you - my lovely boy. I was only being flippant to hide my real feelings. I once took a smack in the chest from a cricket ball when I was playing a very silly mid-on. Thankfully it was not as bad as yours, but it did hurt (a bit). We both (all) hope that there will be no permanent reminder and that the lip will heal.
I was reminded of one of those tragic photos of a little South American boy, who was once helped to repair his face following a birth defect. That was some time ago and it was on an Esther Rantzen programme where she and her husband went out to the Amazon to arrange for medical treatment in the UK. Ugh!! I hope you are getting suitable sympathy from your nearest and dearest. What do the girls think of their injured Dad? Nic and I were only talking the other day about Jen's Uncle and Auntie in Singapore, who are both dental surgeons and they spend their lives re-fashioning jaw bones and the like. I am glad that their treatment is not necessary.
I hope you have benefitted from your visit to Les Cougieux, Ruth and that the sun shone for you. I hope also that Julian and the kittens were pleased to see you. Actually we had quite a lot of sun yesterday, but the winds were cool. Later on today Mum has to go for another consultation about her below the belt area. I hope that this will be the end of her troubles, but I somehow doubt it. I have spent the past week dashing out to try and reduce the height of our lawns in between rain showers, as grass grows, even when you are not there and is 5" high in places. Only the 'hill', left now.
We are going out on Friday evening to a new French restaurant, built on the site of the old Rex cinema high overlooking the bay in Ventnor. It is near to the spot where we stood to watch the Carnival back in August. I hope it is as good as those lovely restaurants in Gigondas and Chateauneauf du Papes, which we visited last month. We've heard some good reports.
Nice to hear from Edmund and Kate. What a wonderful camp she had - did she do all those fascinating things? It looks as if that book "Eat's shoot's and lea'ves" is needed at Nythfa!! Keep blogging fellahs- we know what you mean. 'Tis better to hear from you than to worry about your spelling. Glad that you are all back to normal Nic and Jen and the children are sleeping at the right times, now. Steve, is there any way we could capture all the news and photos from last week? Could I save it on one of those new floppy disc replacement things? Cost about £40. I have been clock watching since about 0430 until I finally got up at 5am and started to blog - What a lot of rubbish I write in the early mornings. We are thinking of you all and hoping you are all well. Love from Dad.