And I have been camping (yes, in a tent) and have a sun tan and look and feel healthy…

And many beers were consumed…

And I have seen the Eden Project which is strange and huge and wonderful and space agey, with large biomes of geodesic domes creating the perfect conditions for plants from around the world. A totally self-sufficient project in energy and water and resources to run yet marked out by only being accessible by car. A sign of new hope and a new dawn for this Millennium. Definitely worth a look.

And yesterday I visited Glastonbury and climbed the Tor on the mythical Isle of Avalon and pondered the legends of Merlin and Arthur and saw many shops selling mass-produced souvenirs. Souvenirs hinting at ethereal beauty yet not quite achieving it for people lost in cultural obscurity, seeking spiritual meaning in a cloying fog of modern mass production and choking in a relentless marketing strategy not of their devising.

And more beers were consumed.

And I spent three hours looking around other people’s fascinating junk at a car boot sale on the site of the cow-free cattle market in Gloucester at the end of last week.

And maybe some wine was consumed somewhere then or was it cider? I remember a campsite somewhere between a motorway and a major road where the sound of the traffic never stopped. Yet the sun burned down and I moved myself to the sweltering heat of the Florida coast and out to the Bahamas with Travis McGee through the miracle of fiction. And my back burned red…

And the sun still shone during a wander around Mevagissey with fish and chips and scavenging sea-gulls and the town’s model railway museum on a whim and why? Because it was there…

And the sea mist rolled in at the weekend in Cornwall as hundreds of old Volkswagon Beatles and VW Campervans made their Run To The Sun only to find it had disappeared. The mist was haunting and beautiful. Cider was definitely consumed then and roast chicken and salad. Playing pitch and putt and crazy golf and losing the ball several times in the water and falling about laughing at that.

And during that mist a trip was made out to Perranporth to a huge beach and the sun broke through and the surfers did their thing. And more beer.

And then moving on again, another day, and a trip to the Lost Gardens of Heligan strangely sunlit too during a three hour walk around areas with enchanting names like The Jungle and The Ravine and New Zealand and the crystal grotto on what was once a huge sprawling estate of the Tremayne family. Funny to think they grew there own pineapples and exotic fruit right there in England at the turn of the century. Then the whole place vanished under sprawling weeds and vegetation until only ten years ago.

And today stopping at Avebury, the village surrounded by a stone circle created in around 4000 BC and which covers an area of 28 acres. Eating ice cream (with a chocolate flake and strawberry sauce) and touching the stones. Cool to the touch in the noonday sun. Towering much higher than the visiting people. No message from the past except its crumbling resilience. Stoicness in the face of the present.

And other memories and experiences and so pausing…

Then returning home to phone the graphics people about the Last Train and finding it has been typeset and a test has been shot and I can go in and check it tomorrow and I will. Film one nearly finished and the bills and bank statements arrived during my absence to prove the financial reality of that.

So now I am back.

And I smile.