Espresso-based beverages

I started easing myself back into working mode today with a 6 hour training day. I got a lift down with Christine as I still can't drive. But all seems to be hopeful for a return to work date of just after Easter.

Christine is just as hopeless a caffeine addict as I, so making good time on the way down we stopped for a Costa. Cappucino for her and flat white for me. To go. The caffeine jolt was just enough to get me through the day. Am I gonna need an espresso-based beverage every day when I get back to work? It's possible.

The most fun all day was the wager on whether we'd make it back over the Tyne by 16:45. At stake the complimentary free coffee card I "earned" in Starbucks last week when my coffee order was momentarily delayed. Christine hoped the cop-car mimicking properties of the pale mondeo with roof rails would be enough to give her a clear run, but I was suspicious that the Peppa Pig window shades would give her away as a civilian.

It looked like being a close run thing but stationary traffic past Chester-le-Street meant I was soon certain I would be keeping the free coffee voucher, but increasingly less confident that Jeff would "hang on" for his first day home alone in a while.

I don't know how I ever doubted him: these days he's such a good big-boy. He held on even whilst bouncing around the kitchen with excitement at my return, before bounding outside and happily emptying both barrels onto Claire's attempts to rehabilate the lawn.