The aftermath - or lack of it.

In the past, I cleared up after parties. Now I'm grown up, I tidy up beforehand!

In preparation for my barbecue, I did the hoovering, cleaned the bathroom, made up a spare bed and generally put the place in order. Afterwards there was little more to do than put the garden chairs away and load the dishwasher! There was a time when it would have taken an army of hungover lads an hour or so to straighten things out before starting again. There was no morning beer this time.

The barbecue went well. There were eight people, myself included and consequently ample food and drink. With 3 friends from Taiwan and two from Japan there was plenty of talk of Asia, ex pat living.

It seems we got the last of the summer too. By Sunday Autumn had arrived in the form of an Atlantic depression driving rain in waves at 45 degrees.