We all take odd things on holiday. I recall in my schooldays before airline security was a thing, my school friends and I put a house brick into a fellow schoolboys luggage when he was due to fly to join his parents on their airforce base in Cyprus. We were at a boarding school that had a clientele of boys whose parents were in the forces, mainly the RAF.

So when we started school again we all wondered if he’d taken the brick to Cyprus and indeed he had.

I’m not really that keen on practical jokes, many played on me that I did not like too much, most are cruel, but this was mild enough to be acceptable, and he found it amusing himself. His mum asked him why he’d brought a brick, and he claimed it was a “school project”. He did not bring it back.

So here I am now in Derbyshire, and before we left we thought, what to do about the lettuce plants. We brought them with us. They are doing very well, the sun up here suits them. No doubt they will travel back with us. Food miles may be but they are still growing. Some people take their dogs on holiday, we take out lettuce.

Salad days?