Helen and the girlfriends went for their usual morning run and seemed to cope better this morning as it was not as hot as previous days. The rest of the morning was just spent packing and doing some last-minute sun tanning (in the case of Helen who now looks Portuguese after a week in the sun). Lunch was made up of eating all the leftovers and then after lunch we hit the road back up to...

Today was our last full day in Vilamoura. Lara & Oli went for a run this morning and Helen chose to remain in bed (for the first time since we got here). It was again a little cooler this morning but by mid-morning it was mid twenties and by the end of the day it was just touching 30. Michael and I had another round of golf this time at Oceanico Pinhal. It was the first...

Helen went for her early morning run as usual (10kms) at some early time in the morning. It was partly cloudy the whole day and a lot cooler today as well (got up to 26 degrees only). It kept looking like it was going to rain but it never did (and doesn't look like it will now) - though the sunset is quite beautiful with the reflection off the clouds (that is the view from our...

Normally Stephen would sleep to around midday while on holiday but the value of having a girlfriend on holiday with him drove him to get up early and join the ladies on their morning run. They went to Quarteiria this morning for a run along the promenade and Stephen joined them on his skateboard. It was overcast this morning and much cooler but quite humid. In fact the whole day was much cooler and didn't get...

Helen managed to persuade the two girlfriends to go running with her at 7:30am this morning. They ran to the beach and back and looked a little worse for the wear when they got back. It was pretty warm already by the time they got back and so they all went straight into the pool from the run. Michael and I had a golf round booked today. We played the course that we both played quite...

It was a relatively leisurely day today and our first full day in Vilamoura. Helen woke up first and decided a run down to the beach and back was in order. What she seemed to forget was that even at 7:30am it was already 26-27 degrees and that it is about 9.5kms there and back. She did make it back though before anyone else (except me) had woken up. It was cooler today - only getting...

Despite going to bed at 1am, I was awake at 6:30am this morning. I can't really complain about the hotel as it was quite nice and they upgraded us to the premium floor so we could all have rooms together. At about 8:15am Michael knocked on the door looking for something and that woke Helen up otherwise she may still have been sleeping (she was sleeping that soundly). We had to fetch the 2 cars (we...

Today was my last day at work for 2 weeks. I had to be in the office by 8am though for a telephone call with my SA office. I was on the tube earlier than usual which meant there were actually seats available. What does amaze (and annoy me) is that people play their music so loud that I can hear it even though they are using headphones. They must be seriously hearing impaired. This morning...

Yes you guessed it - work for me and holiday for Stephen and Lara.  Another lovely day in London today. It must have been around 25 degrees and was sunshine the whole day. Stephen, Lara and Jason went off to visit some markets today. They walked along the Thames and visited Borough Market and then Camden Market. It seems they had a good day but not a lot of details from the 3 of them so...

I was up at 6:30am this morning and surprised to find the bathroom occupied. My nephew (no Daniel not my favourite one) was already up. He is also staying in London with us at present and he had come in from San Francisco on Sunday and still seems to be jet-lagged. I didn't see anyone else up by the time I headed for work. I believe that Lara and Jason (my nephew) went for a run...