Last day of the summer holidays

It is a warm, bright Sunday afternoon, but no one in my household is out enjoying it. Today is the last day of summer holidays. Tomorrow Christopher has a French exam, the written section at 7.30 am, the oral section in the afternoon. Then the same with Spanish the next day. He has to pass both of these exams to be able to continue with his class at school, otherwise he has to repeat a year. We are all a bit edgy, to say the least. I must say, however, that Christopher does an excellent job cleaning up the kitchen when he has a lot of studying to do.
Patrick has retreated into a dark corner to mourn the imminent loss of his freedom, which he has thoroughly enjoyed this summer, spending most of it permanently rooted to his chair in front of the computer.
On Tuesday I am going to Berlin for a conference, where I have been invited to take part in a special workshop before the conference starts. I am a bit nervous about how much I can actually contribute to this workshop, but I think I need to stop reading in preparation for it now and hope that I have read/listened to enough background information already.
I started working at least a little as soon as I had glasses that didn't make me dizzy. I am hoping that I will get my new computer glasses tomorrow, so I can work more efficiently without getting a stiff neck from looking at the screen through the lower section of my bifocals.
Even though I spent most of the summer in my hammock on the balcony listening to audio recordings of lectures and discussion on the laptop, somehow it doesn't feel as though this summer has really been very restful or relaxing. Maybe it has something to do with not getting paid for lying in a hammock on the balcony. Or maybe it is just these exams looming, not knowing what to expect.

In any case, the summer is over now. Tomorrow it is back to the alarm clock at 6.00 am every morning. We will just have to see what the new school year brings.