What a difference a week makes! This time last week I was sat on a hotel balcony with the sun beaming down, watching all the fabulous yachts passing by applying my factor 30.

No, I hadn’t jetted off to some far flung location, I was actually in Devon, my favourite, favourite place to be. I can honestly say I have never seen Devon in the rain, we seem to lead a charmed life every time we visit, it is always, always bathed in sunshine and the atmosphere is one of lazy summer days and relaxation.

I know it must rain sometimes otherwise it wouldn’t be so lush and green but to us it’s another world. For the 1st time this year I could wear sleeveless tops and sandals even the evenings were warm and balmy.

It had pelted down with rain solidly where I live for the whole week before we went and sure enough we came home to torrential rain and howling gales, but for one glorious week all was right with the world. I confess that the Ugg boots and long sleeved vests are already out of the wardrobe and two days this week I have worn a scarf!

I’m just going to face it, summer, for us at least, is well and truly over. Not that we saw much sun in my part of the world but now theres a definite chill in the air and I keep looking at the central heating button. I’m trying to do my bit for the planet but there are times when wearing a poncho in the house becomes inconvenient.

Perhaps I should have bought those socks that I saw on holiday which were beautiful but at £45 a pain I thought they were a little extravagant. I’m not a meanie when it comes to parting with money and maybe I’m behind the times but when did socks warrant a £45 price tag? I did look twice at them and I wasn’t mistaken.

Perhaps they were silk or cashmere or some other wonderful material, but even so. I’m sometimes baffled at how things are priced in the stores these days especially as there was a beautiful blouse with really intricate stitching detail and gorgeous fabric hanging right next to these socks and priced at only £42. The same store had a bikini at £38 and a linen jacket at £52.

I know there must be some perfectly good reason for this apparent madness but I certainly can’t get my head around it. Then again, lots of things seem incongruous to me these days. Take the family staying at the same hotel as we were. They had 5 children, four of them who had really long, hyphenated first names, the little girl was Sophie-Arrabella, you get the picture.

Then all of a sudden for unknown reasons, the baby in the pram was called Ben. That’s it. Three letters Ben. Now there’s nothing wrong with the name Ben, its lovely, but why did the parents go to all that trouble thinking up long and convoluted double names for the 1st four children and then settle on just 3 letters for the last one? None of my business of course, but I just wondered.

I also wondered why the elderly gentleman opposite us wore his trousers four inches too short, exposing his sock tops everyday? Each pair of trousers he wore was like this.-he wasn’t a particularly tall man so there was no difficulty there. Surely he had a Wife, Son Daughter or even just a friend who could point him in the direction of a pair that fitted?

Maybe it was deliberate, but I can’t think why. All this curiosity made me think, I wonder if anyone is looking at me with curiosity, wondering why I dress as I do, wear my hair like this or do things in a certain way. Are we all a mystery to others or is it just me that finds other people fascinating?

I hope it means I am still very much alive and interested in my fellow man-or maybe its just middle aged nosiness!