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Everyone is back ... some with suntans! And life gets back no normal.
There are of course all the holiday tales ... the "did you see the eclipse?" or "what eclipse?"
Perhaps the best yarn come from the "worker" whose job took him to the sunny beaches of south west France to watch rugby! (A job?)
He swear blind he will never again moan about the rail system in Britain, having experienced the French rail system.
It appears that he took the midnight sleaper cho-cho from Paris to Bordeaux. And he gets is a carriage that is marked "Bordeaux"! Mistake. He should have got in the one marked "Biarritz" as the "Bordeaux" carriages go via the "scenic" route and take and extra three hours.
Adding a little spice to the story, the train transporting our intrepid committee person was motionless at a station in the wilds of France for some three hours when it should have been thundering through night en route to the sun.
The result was that in stead of arriving in Bordeaux at 6.08 in the morning (or even at the scheduled time of 8.58 for the scenic route train, he arrived at 11.45.
His connection from Bordeaux to Biscarrosse had long gone. And he arrived in bucket and spade land around 10 hours late.
Of course, the French Railways officials at Bordeaux did not want to understand our committee-person's French, let alone English. And, no, there was no one at Bordeaux station who was remotely interested in helping a passenger who was on a train that had been seriously delayed!
And on the return trip, the French Railways bus - the only one of the day - failed to turn up at Biscarrosse in time to make the connection in the next town with the train to Bordeaux.
So the next time that a train operated by that nice Mr. Branson ... or the equally nice Mr. Souter ... is half an hour late in Gloucester, we will not be complaining!
Oh yes, before we get back to estate matters, we were told that the super trains that are officially called "Eurostar" leave Paris and by the outskirts are up to a speed of around 200 mph. They slow down to a mere 75 mph for the 20 minute journey through the tunnel and when emerging on British soil they slow down even more for the journey into London on Railtrack's track.
As feared, we came back to a succession of horror stories, some of which are almost unbelievable. It is hard to know just were to begin, but here goes.
Last Monday, I was reported that there was trouble again with the big "Eurobin" dustbin that served the block 19-34 Union Street.
On investigation, it was found that the "Eurobin" had not been returned to its "locker". This meant that when anyone put rubbish down the waste chute, it would not fall into the bin, but onto the floor of the locker.
Judging by the amount of rubbish on the floor, it had been like that for some two weeks or more!
At 12.30 on Monday, the matter was reported to the contracts officer at the City Council who said that she would get onto the refuse contractor (Gloucester City Service - who else!) and tell them to put the matter right that day.
On Tuesday morning, nothing had happened. It appears that the instruction from the "client" fell on deaf ears at Gloucester City Services.
So, another telephone call to the contracts officer at the Council ... and to the "boss" of the contracts department. Both expressed horror and dismay that the instruction the previous day had not been carried out.
Someone must have "kicked butt" at Gloucester City Services because by 11.30 on Tuesday morning the area had been cleaned up.