Not, as might be supposed, for a well-earned break, but rather for what my wife calls “a service visit”, otherwise known as a fortnight of hard manual labour on the so-called holiday home. Weeding, pruning, cleaning, painting, ant-slaughtering… It’s been all go. Having stressed for weeks about being able to get here, I’m now praying they let us back into England so I can have a rest. I inherited this house five years ago, my parents having bought it 25 years before that. My mum and dad belonged to that generation that was late-20th century enough to own a lot of stuff, yet mid-20th century enough never to throw any of it away.

Source: The Times July 30, 2021 22:52 UTC