Well- back to normality. it was lovely to see Doug and the dogs (in that order, of course!) Doug had done a brilliant job of looking after Velvet Energy, Equine Fitness all the horses, dogs, Billy and chooks and his own business while I was away, and so far seems to have kept everyone happy. He had even cleaned the house and done the shopping -what a star!

Not much seems to have happened in my absence - the biggest news seems to be Michael Jacksons death and the heat wave, which has now been replaced by rain and more rain.

I really enjoyed my time in India and am very grateful to Doug, Mum and Dad who also looked after the house and animals when Doug went on the Nuffield weekend, for keeping everything going in my absence. My last day was spent in Chennai when I got a chance to see around the National Park in the city. It was too hot to really appreciate it but it was worth going to to see all the different varieties of monkey's, snakes and deer, some of which can only be found in certain parts of India. Once again the ride back to the hotel in the Tuk Tuk was a real white knuckle one with some very near misses and the memory of going around a busy round-a-bout five deep in traffic and having to swerve violently to avoid a cow who was happily sitting in the middle lane chewing her cud. All completely normal in India...........