What a difference a day makes, as they say. Instead of rushing around frantically, packing and getting all the last minute details in place for my trip to Malaysia, I spent this morning lounging in bed. Finally stumbled out of bed around 11am to discover a warm, sunny day outside.

My biggest task today is the laundry. If I can manage that, I’ll have accomplished my goals. My secondary task is to find a parking spot for my car. My apartment came with one reserved spot — which is a problem when you’ve got two cars. Canterbury is a pedestrianized town, so parking is pretty hard to come by. I’ve got a lead on one spot — outdoor, but secure — but I’m really trying to track down a garage.

Aude told me that there’s a wine festival on in Calais — basically, they mark down all of the bin-ends at this time of year to make way for the new wines. Unfortunately, she didn’t mention this festival until this morning, by which time it was already too late to book. You know what they say about the road to hell?

So it looks like we’ll have a quiet day here instead. A few new shops have opened up here in Canterbury, all of which are calling Aude’s name, so we’ll go and have a look at what they have to offer. Canterbury isn’t a terribly exciting place, so we celebrate our little victories.

Now that I’m not flying to Malaysia (not this week, anyhow), I’m left with the rather daunting task of trying to arrange a birthday party for next weekend. I was sort of hoping that if I ignored it long enough, it would go away.