My few days away were good fun although it was nice to come home again.

I was looking forward to the luxury of a room all to myself.

Hotels are soulless places and I missed him indoors snoring, the dog sneaking in to jump up on the end of the bed and daughter's demands for help with homework.

They all survived without me, of course, although their nutritional intake was about as healthy as I had expected it to be.

While I was away, him indoors managed to overdose the dog on the antibiotic tablets it had been prescribed for an ear infection. The animal received twice the number of tablets he should have done.

Luckily, the double dose the dog had been accidentally receiving appeared to have done no harm and the ear infection was definitely on the mend.

Him indoors said sorry to the dog for almost poisoning it and retreated back to his shed.

Since the shed has been constructed, I have noticed he is spending increasingly more time in it.

He is supposed to be making new fishing nets in there but I have noticed there is now the old music centre - for the playing of ancient LPs - and other home comforts in it.

There isn't a kettle up there yet but I am sure it won't be long before there is.

If he has his shed then I have the spare room/office as my territory.

I see it as my personal space, with my computer and my desk and I get very territorial if I think anyone's muscling in.

In the interests of personal space and development, I have also taken up t'ai chi this week.

This takes place at the local community centre and I went with my mother-in-law.

The instructor told us most Chinese people don't take it up until their 50s so we felt reassured.

It was all good fun though and we intend to return next week.

We saw there is a dog-training class held in the hall underneath the one we had been in, which is held at the same time each week.

We decided it would be good for daughter and Sam to go and we signed them up for a new course which starts in a couple of weeks.

So it looks as if everyone's personal growth and development has been sorted.

I will let you know how we go on.