This morning JW and his girlfriend Maite set off at 06.30 for Grenoble. Lindsay ferried them to Victoria where they were catching a bus to Stansted for a Ryanair flight. So we shall be all alone in the house until December when first Olivia and then maurice arrive from New Zealand. Yesterday I had a final two games of ping-pong with JW, see below, and there are two other bouts to record, all three 1-1, making the total 132-123.

In the evening we had dinner with Jeremy and Jay, and enjoyed meeting Philip Darwin (seated), great-grandson of Charles.