Congratulations to Lee McQueen, who won this year’s 12 week marathon job interview to become Sir Alan Sugar’s new Apprentice

Oh, and minimus says, ‘Rrrrh’ (Apparently Lee will know what that means)

Now don’t try telling me that I’m the only one this morning here in the UK who is a little bleary-eyed after staying up to watch, not just the final of Sir Alan’s Apprentice, but also the spin-off shows that followed.

- Not the only one who was expecting Claire from Wakefield to move on to a very well deserved win, either, I’m guessing. If anyone displayed all the attributes of a more than able apprentice, Claire did.

Here’s Claire, with the eventual winner, Lee

Three cheers for our lovely Yorkshire lass!!! We thought you were fabulous, Claire.

But. Ladies. What can I say? Having watched Lee McQueen, shall we say, avidly, with my youngest over the past 12 weeks, we didn’t exactly begrudge him the win- In fact, minimus expressed the opinion that Lee would make a very good Mills & Boon cover model should he ever decide to give up the salary and perks of working for Sir Alan Sugar.

I’ll leave you to decide as you ponder Lee’s photo at the top of this Blog over your morning coffee.

And now for some more photos from lovely Ceret, in the far South of France in the region we call Catalan, but which I know some of you in the US recognise as Cataluna…
One of the loveliest and most unspoiled places I have ever visited-

This is the main street, and those ferocious-looking cannonball thingies are to stop vehicles trespassing on the pavements- they’d be mad to, as there are deep gullies to catch the rainwater- as well as the occasional unwary pedestrian, I imagine!

But, isn’t it lovely? The trees were so high, it was impossible to get them in the shot, but they provide a welcome canopy in the height of summer.

The narrow winding side streets reminded me of Venice, as did the pavement cafes in the square-

Next time I’m going to take you to the market…

Hugs around the world,

Susan xx