Mind you, cutting short a holiday which essentially went through May to June to July to August was not that much of a sacrifice!

Picking up the car and driving from Paris to the Eurotunnel was fine but reaching Calais I asked for the first train and the French lady said - "no hope until 5am"!

There had been an electrical breakdown in the tunnel; a train was stranded for 4 hours and backups were stretching for ages.

She recommended I catch the ferry instead. Cursing, I did but actually it went like a dream and although the ferry was 90 minutes as opposed to 20, I quite enjoyed the break, cappuccinos and reading papers.

On getting to Dover and driving back to London at 1am, I was horrified by the backup of traffic, both holidaying tourists off to the Continent (the first Friday night/Saturday morning in August) and the trucks and lorries that couldn't get on the train through the tunnel. The queue stretched at least ten miles out of Dover, back to near Folkstone. Thank God I was going the other way!

And this was at 1am in the morning!

Arrived home exhausted but happy and brown and slept like a log in my own bed at 3am!

Holidays are wonderful but there's nothing better than getting home.