O nce again I spent the Fourth of July in the US with Jilly and after a stressful week it was nice to put that behind us with some genuine fireworks. We headed over to her brother's place where Jilly blew up sparklers, rockets and cars (so, no change there) and I took a lot of photos, some of which came out rather well.

Friday and Saturday were overcast and cooler, but the rain held off enough for the most part - though that meant more bug-bites - and for Sunday, my last full day in Iowa (well, at least for a few weeks) it was back up to the late 80s and gloriously sunny. I've left a drawer full of t-shirts etc for next time (so no overtly-heavy luggage to haul back). Yes, I'm going to miss waking up with a cat sat on my head or biting my toes, but I'll survive.

The flights home on Monday/Tuesday all went well and much easier than the outward trip. There was a dash across the airport at Minneapolis, but made it just in time and was allocated a bulkhead seat near the main exit, so managed to get sat down and eventually disembark very easily. Ha dplanned to watch some stuff on my laptop, but ended up watching Duplicity and then grabbing a little shut-eye.

I should also confess to a bit of two-timing on the side. Yes, I'm sorry, but having read all of  Michael Connelly's novels, I had to cast my net further afield and been seen out with some Harlan Coben novels. Pretty good stuff with some genuine plot surprises in each of his books. Finished 'No Second Chance' as I headed in to land to Leeds Bradford Airport and will look for some more in the near future...



Right now I've grabbed a little more shut-eye and should be okay for a decent night's sleep tonight and then back into things at Impact tomorrow morning before we head to print on Friday. Okay - back to the routine for a while. Given this trip cut a bit into savings, I will be ebaying some more bits and pieces to finance the next one. But first some zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzs