TEENAGERS

Here are four of my sons, with a few cousins and assorted amigos added to the mix - mostly pre-testosteroned, stoned teens.

Don't you just love 'em? goes the trite and twee refain. Do I hell...! They are making my life one long round of driving, spending, arguing and compromising - and, if no compromise, gargatuan battles.

But, the difference between teasing and bullying is who has the power and who has the confidence? Who has authority and who shows the arrogance? In the teenage kulturkampf, these roles shift and switch without warning, between adults and kids.

This is how they used to look, little darlings, after a few weeks mellowing in the Scillies...

Paddy, Joe and Nicky, bleached and biddable...

Can we do it?

Every year, the same question: can we pack small and travel light? As I type, I can hear the washing machine squealing in terminal pain... Imagine the noise if you rode a truck with no tyres across a tin roof which was covered in rocks. Then double it. Add the occasional crash of raw steel slamming into concrete.

The BOSCH has not got long to live, so we may never get to empty its last wash: less to carry.

I'm not going to go through that other summer torture of trying to remember how to 'mount' the roofbox on the car. Imagine trying to lodge a shape that keeps rearranging itself on the back of a recalcitrant elephant. That would be easier.

We will only have two boys with us because Joe has elected to stay home alone in the first week. Lighter load - perhaps.

I think we can do it and not incur the wrath of the Otter pilot, as we did last year. We must have looked like a family of evacuees with everything piled onto an old pram.

And I'm only writing this tosh because I like the picture I've found...

Bobby Robson

One of sport's great men, one of England's most decent men, has died. Former England football manager, Bobby Robson, was first diagnosed with cancer 18 years ago in 1991, and fought a long, brave battle. He beat bowel cancer in 1992, a malignant melanoma in 1995 and a tumour in his lung and a brain tumour, both in 2006. He left his last job as manager of Newcastle United in 2004 - appropriately, in the shabby world of football, he was sacked.

He was a great fighter and - although I am losing patience with football and its hypocrisies - this man is excluded from criticism.

Robson was a man of amazing spirit, a really tenacious character.

No hyperbole - he was a truly great guy, loved and admired by all who met him, including me.

Porthcressa - looks a bit rough at the moment.

Beaches I have roamed...

Born, bred and buttered in South Devon - by the end of July I'm absolutely gasping for a beach, the big sky, the salt-air and the sea-sounds.

Today is for clearing my desk and getting packed for another foray to the Scillies, starting with the warm embrace of the Mermaid pub in Saint Mary's, always the first stop.

Although, as we have a new berth at Porthcressa, we may try Dibble & Grub's excellent coffee or fruities. Or just flump in the Ocean...

Just the little matter of the long drive via Whimple and the tiny Otter plane from Newquay.