For the first in a very long time, we went away on holiday with the intention of spending more than an afternoon with rolled jeans on the beach. I actually swam in the sea too!
The weather wasn't great, but at least we spent several days on the beach this time. DanDan had a whale of a time playing and making friends. Ethne seemed happy, but I think she would rather have been on the mat with us, so she could kick about more. We stayed in Bournemouth, but took a couple of trips out around The New Forest, including Beaulieu and Alice In Wonderland. If you have kids I heartily recommend both. Bournemouth itself has plenty to keep you busy if you don't feel like being on the beach all day.
The funniest moment had to be DanDan racing off to tell a lifeguard I was in trouble. I'd told him if the water went above his knees he should move closer to the beach. As I walked out to have a swim, it went past my waist. He thought I needed help :)
There were two surprising things though. The first was that even though Bournemouth is supposed to be a seaside town, it doesn't really have any seaside shops, arcades and attractions that I've associated with places like Weymouth and Tenby. The second was the high number of people from abroad who have settled here to work. Only two people from Britain worked in the hotel and many of the service staff in restaurants and shops were from other countries. Some may have been students studying here, but I can think of plenty more interesting places to head to than Bournemouth.
The most frustrating thing of last week was not having an internet connection. I couldn't check my mail or anything. In some ways this was good, as it meant I couldn't check company mail either :)
On checking my personal mail when I got home, it was a nice surprise to have several mails from various people concerning various modules I have on CPAN. Some have found curious bugs, some just had questions and one was a thank you. I hope to have some time before YAPC::Europe to tackle all the bugs and a few wishlist items too.
