Greetings from sunny England

No sorry, cloudy England. No, sorry, sunny again. Cloudy ... sunny ... rainy ... sunny ... whatever.

I'm writing this from Cambridge, as I'm here visiting Doug for the weekend. Those of you who know Doug will be pleased to hear that he knowingly fulfilled all our 'Doug was made for Cambridge' expectations, by meeting me at the bus station dressed in brown pinstripe pants, matching jacket, pink shirt and, despite it being Saturday, a rather spiffy matching retro tie. He said he knew I would be expecting it, but questioning of his friends confirmed my suspicions that it had absolutely nothing to do with me, and it's not at all unusual for him to dress in this manner. One of my favourite Doug quotes for the day - "Our college has what must be the smallest bar in Christendom. Damn it."

In the interests of having a proper Cambridge experience, we went punting down the Cam yesterday. Or at least, Doug did the energetic, roll up your sleeves punting thing, and I did the lounging in the punt eating strawberries thing. A job I took very seriously and performed to the best of my abilities.

Other than that, we spent the afternoon doing the tour of the other colleges, admiring buildings alternatively gracious, imposing, or hideous, and criticising the formal gardens. Naturally with Doug being a member of a college, we were able to traipse through all the colleges without paying. And of course we made a few stops along the way for some fortifying beer.

Off to visit a few more sights today, notably the King's College chapel, and I understand there is a good lunch ahead. Tomorrow it's off to Ireland, where I'm sure pre-wedding chaos will be the order of the day.