and not in the cool, George Clinton Parliament Funkadelic way, though I wish that were the case because that would be awesome.  Imagine if every day was like this.  There’d be no war, no misery and everyone would be mellow and achieve World peace and hug each other all the time.  I like them apples.

I’ve got the funk

No, I’m in the other, mind-numbing, ‘meh’ kind of funk.  Like the worst fog over Shanghai way.

Not good, not bad, just ‘meh’.  What I want to do during times like this is hibernate like the John Lewis bear in my cave until the sun is shining again, the weather is warm and the fog has cleared.  And my cute hare friend has come to get me.

The thing is when you live away from home, you often don’t have your family to hand, unless you moved en masse, like for example, if you are on the run or in a witness protection programme, which is most definitely not my case.  Honest Guv.

So failing the fog clearing, the option to hide in your cave for four months nibbling on berries and seeds, the sun coming out, the temperature rising ten degrees and shipping your entire family to where you live, it’s really important to surround yourself with good friends, who become your ‘surrogate’ family.  These people give you the anchor you need, so you don’t ever feel adrift in a sea of Rioja and chorizo.  Not the absolute worst sea to be adrift on, but you get me.  Right?  If you were in that kind of sea at the very least you would be drunk and full of sausage.  Err-hem.

My Barcelona family is small but perfectly formed and coming to town on Saturday for some Annie P loving…… Hall-e-bl**dy-lujah!!!  Praise be to me.

My military precision PANK plan for last weekend went awry due to illness and so I didn’t get to see my nieces as planned, and although I was nervous for my inaugural solo PANK flight, I was really looking forward to spoiling them rotten for the afternoon.

So, this week on Saturday I get the whole package, not just the gorgeous girls, but the gorgeous mum and dad too!!  Even though we’re only half an hour away, it’s not so easy to find the time to all get together, so when we do, it’s precious time to catch up get your fix to see you through to the next time.  And boy do I need my ‘L’bonne and the L’bonn-ettes’ fix to lift me out of this funk.

Roll on the weekend.