Tracey and I had an amusing vacation a few months ago. We were invited to two weddings: one in Bramhall (South Manchester, England) on the Saturday, and one in San Carlos (near San Francisco, California) on the Sunday. We managed to make both weddings! After John and Mary's wedding in Bramhall, we drove overnight to Heathrow, got an early morning flight to San Francisco (which arrived at noon), off to the hotel to change and freshen up, and onto Mario and Julie's wedding. We were only 10 minutes late - and that was because the stretch limo failed to turned up on time!

The San Carlos wedding was fun - open-air under the Redwoods, with live 17th century music from the San Francisco Early Music Society. And a great reception, with many old friends, ex-students and acquaintances - and even a few old enemies - to catch up with.

We spent the next day recovering. Then, we did a few touristy things in SF - cable-cars, Fisherman's Wharf, etc. and some very good dinners (more old friends), then flew off to Austin, Texas.

Saturday, which was Tracey's birthday, was particularly good. Mike and Deborah, some folks I met when I was working out there last year, entertained us - we spend the entire day on Lake Travis, just outside Austin.

Some of it was in a boat - here's a picture of me, shortly after my very first successful water-skiing exploit; the rest of the day was in the lake, whose temperature had dropped as low as 83F (known as 'freezing', according to the locals!).

The day got so hot (more than 100F), and Tracey burns so easily, that we spend the afternoon floating in the lake (in upside-down lifejackets) - imagine Tracey and Deborah, clutching paper cups of champagne, floating in the lake, with me paddling back-and-forth topping them up from the bottle. I also persuaded Tracey of the virtues of Strawberry Margaritas - so a successful trip all round.

Of course some of the champagne was drunk on the boat as well.

Finally, another picture of Deborah, modelling a pink, lit-up flamingo!