Half a lifetime ago...

... ‘as Ernie approaches two-and-a-half he has developed a passion for buses, for the colour red, and for jigsaw puzzles. Imagine his reaction last week when he received an Amazon delivery of a Big Red Bus Puzzle. The first time we completed it together. Afterwards he pushed me aside (‘just leave it’) and spent a few minutes sitting quietly, studying all the characters aboard bus #44. 

Then he tore it up, jumbled up the pieces, and asked: ‘where JD? Where JD and Bethany’? I understood the questions but not his reason for asking. It took me a few attempts. He needed a recognisable piece to start solving. There was one that stood out because it has a picture of a character that looks (a little) like uncle JD. And the character in the piece next to him? Wife Bethany, of course.

No cheesy metaphors
Before you roll your eyes—‘another one of Pablo’s cheesy metaphors!’—I’m not going there. I actually just wanted to highlight how beautiful this summer has been. Bethany and JD tying the knot. Ernie building buses. Azim and Natalie finding love (with new partners, not with each other!) and committing to it for a life-time. Meeting newborn Godson Jakob, the personification of cool. Spending a few days on the road with Dean and Juan on the Baptism Tour, a small cycling odyssey that took us through Kent, France, Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany and Alsace. 

And spending a few days chilling in Tuscany with Cesco, Azim, and Ashik (there in spirit after the Belgian authorities denied him a visa). Almost seventeen years after meeting eachother opening a bank account during the first week of uni, each with our own respective families!

Punching bag
Round 4, fight 3, God knows how many punches. 

The last few have been more difficult than usual ... In an unexpected way. On the whole, I feel great. I have to put it in cycling terms' ...

I'll stop there and spare you the surfeit of bike platitudes. I wrote these words almost two years ago—the Baptism Tour arrived in France a day before Jakob’s christening and two days before the World Cup Final. Brain-wise it proved a difficult, uncertain summer. All the same, we found ways to have a blast. 

This summer has had many parallels. A couple of babies are on their way; but I’ll let the prospective parents share their news. As lockdown restrictions ease we have some adventures planned (Côte d’Azur and Cozumel! Colombia and Cornwall?). My ‘Ferrari’—as Ingrid sardonically calls my bicycle—rolls on. Ernie remains an avid fan of jigsaw puzzles and graduates (from nursery) in two weeks. 

One small twist, though: the tumour shrunk again.​

Happy summer, see you for the next scan in early 2021.