So we packed up our tent and left Croyde, after a substantial breakfast and a couple of hours on the beach rockpooling with younger son. I also managed to catch some of the Man City vs. Spurs game – the opening one in the new Premiership season – on the radio. I’d love to think that City have a chance of glory this year, but today’s performance was a bit off the pace.

Had the weather been a bit better (one perfect day, one bad day, three patchy days) our mini-break would have been substantially improved. This is what happens when you holiday in the UK.

The journey home was fraught. Our boys don’t do all that well when they are confined together. It is simply impossible for them both to sit in the back together, because within 20 minutes they will be fighting. We are hoping this is something they will grow out of. We’ve been hoping this for about 6 years.

Now I’m drinking a Kiwi Pinot Noir, purchased for the princely sum of £9.99 from the Cheers Bottle Shop in Braunton. It’s called featherdrop hills (all lower case) and it’s 2009 from Marlborough. This is a Vinoceros (Berkmann) own-label wine, and it doesn’t say who makes it. But it’s pretty good. Sappy, leafy cherry fruit with a bit of spicy bite, and a pleasing savouriness. Good value for money, I reckon.