Typically I spent the whole of the summer teaching English at the college - BMC is undergoing many changes in funding and many of the staff have left so there was no way I was going to turn down the chance of earning some much needed cash as there is never a guarantee that there will be work for the part time tutors like me come September.

Summer school was good fun though - it usually is to be honest. The two classes I took were great fun and a nice mix of nationalities - if only I could have this mix of students all year round.  

Come the end of the summer school I flew to Birmingham to check out Desmond's resting place and to catch up with a few friends. It was a pleasant enough three days but the city still bore some of the scars of the recent rioting and even without them I have to say that I am glad I don't live there anymore. It was lovely to see people though. My ex partner came down from Runcorn (or 'Funcorn' as he sarcastically calls it) and the few people that I know who still live in the city came into the centre to meet me for drinks, meals and a good old session of catching up.

After three nights though I was more than ready to leave and I headed out on almost the first train on the the Tuesday after the bank holiday to Wales and my family. My parents and my aunt are living happily it seems just outside Aberystwyth and my sister and her four children were visiting too so I got to surprise my sister who wasn't expecting me at all. I adore this part of Wales and as I'm sure I've said before the place resonates with memories of Desmond and all the trips we took into the Mid Wales region over the years. I thought about him a lot and even sat in the beer garden at "our" bench once more to take in the view which is unchanged from our time there and that is a comfort. 

The two nights went all too quickly and I was soon on the train heading back to Birmingham and the airport to fly home to Belfast. I was happy to be going home to Patrick and Fintan but sorta wishing I was going home to scoop them up and carry them back with me to a beautiful valley near the Dovey estuary.

Latest news: Last weekend I signed up to do an Open University Masters of Arts Degree in Education (Applied Linguistics) it's a three year course so I have plenty of time to tear my hair out and ask myself why I was so stupid as to do this!