Must come to an end... tomorrow, at 9:15 the taxi will come and take me to Langen am Arlberg railway station, and at 6:30pm I will arrive in Paris. Although, truly, one of the best things about living in Europe is being able to go on holiday on a train, no horrible airports, no horrible planes. At least on a train you can sit there and look at the scenery, embroider, whatever. And you can take whatever you like with you, within reason. No beastly check-in etc, except for Eurostar. Just buy ticket, get on and go. Every now and then someone wheels a cart along and you buy a coffee or whatever. On German and Swiss trains, it comes in a real mug as well, French ones it is unfortunately in a plastic thing.

So what did I do this week....

- went to the village twice
- went on two long walks
- went swimming five times
- facial, pedicure, three massages, lavender body wrap, edelweiss body wrap, youth bath in oil
- six four course dinners (small courses!)
- six healthy breakfasts
- some stitching (Sampler Lady is coming along nicely)
- read "Abundance" by Sena Jeter Naslund, about Marie Antoinette, I recommend this highly.

Not bad for just a week away from home... my skin is so soft, especially after the edelweiss wrap this afternoon, and I feel quite relaxed, to tackle all that I have to do next week. I am embarking on one of those wardrobe exercises where you look at everything you haven't worn for a year. I just haven't the space for it all. And I am going to keep on walking and keep on having wraps etc.

On the more boring side of things I have to have a mammographie as well, you get one free when you turn fifty here, and I have had the papers for ages and not been able to do it, because I have been away so much. Now I will do it and get them off my back (I get reminder letters all the time).

And I have to go and pay my last instalment of taxes for 2006, it's over 4000 euros this time. At least we know that comes around every February, May and September, three times a year as regular as clockwork! I had to disillusion poor Derek, my Australian colleague about taxes earlier in the year, he said, this is great, they only take about 1000 euros a month for tax! So I had to break the news to him that this was only social tax that was deducted from our pay, we get a bill three times a year for income tax, and it is at least the same as the social tax, maybe a bit more. Poor Derek, I don't think he has bought his boat yet!

I heard from David, he is in Poland on a new project, it all happened rather suddenly, and I'm not sure he is very pleased. Not only does he not speak Polish, but in fact it is where his ancestors came from, and of course they had to flee for fairly obvious reasons.... not Nazis, but long before that.