Jools would laso finish early, just so she could bring the car back for me so I didn't have to hire one or go by train. I would have gone by train, but there were rail replacement buses running from Norwich on Sunday, adding an hour to the journey, so I was happy enough driving.
Work is going reasonably well, as we come to the end of one phase of the project, and begin the next, this will mean I travel much more, going to factories on the Isle of Wight and in Denmark. Between now and April, there could be 15 trips. Think of the air miles.
This is going to mean some very short weekends before Christmas, so there will be long fallow periods on the blog, but then brief periods of plenty.
I have lunch at eleven, so at twelve I can shut everything down, pack my case, check the cameras and then wait until Jools came back. And as I needed to get to the other side of the tunnel as soon as possible, which means she arrived back, we swapped news as I loaded the car then kiss her goodbye and I am off.
If it were summer I might have planned a few stops on the way, but with darkness now soon after four, I wanted to get as many miles as I could before it got too dark. Even with autotolls, the Dartford tunnels were fammed, or the M25 on its approach was, we queued to get off the A2, inched our way to where the road began to drop into the tunnel, and then it was free flowing.
Into Essex, past Shenfield, to the start of the M11, then north through Harlow and past Stansted and into deepest Essex. Traffic was pretty heavy, but flowed well, so that I was ahead planned. In fact it was a very pleasant drive, Radcliffe and Maconie on the radio, glorious golden colours of the leaves still on the trees and the shadows always lengthening.
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And relax.
I check in, but find that the people who run it are leaving in the new year, meaning this cheap home from home will be taken over by others. Oh well, at least I got to say goodbye to them, as they are more like friends now, and wish them well for the future.
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I had passed several pubs on the way, all with lots of room and quite homely, but the Fat Cat was rammed, as benefitting what has been voted, twice, as the best CAMRA pub in England. I go in and get a seat at the bar, make my first choice of the night, and begin to sup, listening to snatches of conversation and some general people watching.
I have a second, then have a third to keep the first two company. Dawid arrived with his 6 year old son. Since we last met he has got married, had a child and now divorcing, as is the modern way. And over the course of an hour told me how Brexit is affecting him, his son now not being able to get a passport as the Home Office don't think him British enough.
I say sorry even though it wasn't my fault.
He drops me off in the centre of the city so I could take some more shots before walking back towards Riverside so I could get dinner. I go on Frankie and Benny's, I know its a chain, but all I wanted was a burger, which is what I order, and is OK.
From there it is a short walk through the station, up the slope to Lower Clarence Road and back to the hotel.
15500 steps done, mostly since five in the afternoon; not bad.
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