Finally, after months of planning, travelling, excitement and adventures the trip is finally over. The cheering crowds waving their gaily coloured banners and thronging the crash barriers at Heathrow were kept at bay long enough for us to slip back into the country and tackle the mountain of exciting Readers Digest offers awaiting us. It appears we have just missed out on the deadline for winning a complete set of illustrated books on the bird life of western Scotland, which has rather taken the shine of our world trip, but I'm heartened to discover that we still have time to enter the Littlewoods draw for a vast sum of money, so life isn't too bad after all.

We're excited to be home but it's tempered by the knowledge that within a few short days it will no doubt seem like we've never been away. On the plus side, we've arrived home to warm(ish) weather; not quite 'phew, what a scorcher' but being England there was plenty of evidence of people airing their shorts for the first time this year accessorised by rippling undulations of pimply white skin. One of our first delights was going to Sainsburys to stock up on normal food like baked beans and cheddar cheese and marvel at the quantity and variety of fruit and vegetables - one of the drawbacks of being in Argentina for the last 3 months was the limited choice of fresh produce, they tend to only sell food that is in season, which seemed to be mostly cabbage, kale or chard, which all seem to be variations on chewy green leafy vegetables witha slightly bitter taste.

Our house has been inhabited by my brother for the past 7 months, at the beginning of which he was keen to assure me that, unlike his earlier pampered years when he was waited on hand and foot by our doting mother, not only was he now thoroughly house-trained but that he would be performing Alan Titchmarsh-like wonders in the back garden. Unfortunately neither of these statements proved to be entirely accurate. He still remains an apparent stranger to the common duster and appears unaware that the hoover, despite making the appropriate sounding noises, does not appear to have actually picked up a speck of dust since we left due to some malfunction with it's fanbelt type apparatus, the details of which are far too complicated for you to understand and therefore I won't bore you with them here. After a couple of hours of intense excavation I found our kitchen, concealed under a thick layer of grease, old chinese takeaway containers and empty cans of baked beans. His laughable attempt at cleaning the oven seemed to involve the spraying of copious amounts of Mr Muscle and then settling back with a large beer and a playstation game, before a final half-hearted wipe around the oven interior with an old cloth. The situation probably wouldn't have been so bad if he had not been involved in some serious courting over the last few months which has apparently taken precedence over any form of housekeeping. Time when he could have been polishing up my skirting boards and trimming the laurel has instead been spent cuddling up on the sofa and haring around the M25 with bunches of flowers and a big grin on his face. Apparently her garden is looking very nice though, so that's one consolation.

We had a squirrel infestation in the roof before we left. They had entered through a hole in the roof which Brian manfully plugged up with a piece of old foam rubber. Apart from looking rather unattractive I also gently voiced my concerns that it would not provide a useful long-term squirrel deterrent, a fact Bri pooh-poohed whilst assuring me that whilst his handiwork might look like the work of a determined bodger, it was indeed guaranteed squirrel-proof. A day after arriving home the pitter-patter of tiny feet over our heads and the sounds of gnawing and scratching were hard to ignore, so I went out to check on his marvellous repairs. Not only is there a large hole in the foam rubber, one of the cheeky little vermin actually poked his head out as I stood there and had a glance around, probably trying to work out where to build his patio.

I'm sort of sad to be writing the final blog but thanks to all of you who wrote, put messages on our board (even the rude ones) and sent chocolate. I'm looking forward to catching up with everyone, hearing all the latest gossip, finding walls to hang the souvenirs on and spending lots of time with all the nieces and even the lone nephew/chief pageboy. The slide-show is now available for bookings and although already heavily subscribed I do still have a couple of free dates for those who contact me quickly enough.