A sunny Sunday in the country

Unless you've experienced a filthy English winter, you might yet believe it was possible to have a soft spot for the weather gods.

I have - and I don't.

But this weekend the sun FINALLY took up the baton for the new season. Wanting to make the most of it, we drove 45 minutes to the charming, semi-rural village of Brent Knoll, home of a former colleague. Lunch was at a 250 year old pub where we sat in t-shirts and sunglasses, giddy with vitamin D.

Fortunately our hosts Cat and George know the owners, so they wangled the keys to the pub's old skool skittles alley. Let's just say skittles is going straight into my 'sports I'll never excel at' file - but we had lots and lots of laughs. And the Animator won!

Today we truly maxed out our fun points.