Tuesday 14th May 2024

Early morning, and time to get dressed, and now I have vacated my bed, it is claimed by Poppy Pops, she observes me making sure I don't get too close.

I had my camera, so took a couple of shots as she stared at me.

Outside it was dull and rainy. The rain had begun before dawn, and would continue into the afternoon, which would mean there would be no walking.

Another reason would be for the day two of the audit, so I would be tied to the dining room table until three in the afternoon, by which time my brain was melting again.

There was little do do one work was done, my head too woolly again to do anything else, so I watch mindless videos on YouTube, of coin collectors and Italian cooks, and so the afternoon wore on.

Dinner was lemon pepper smoked salmon, stir fry and wholewheat noodles.

And wine.

And then to football, Citeh v Spurs, which whiled away the evening even if Citeh dd win, and be one point from another title.

Monday 13th May 2024

Back to work.

And for me, day one of a two day audit, with little or no chance of getting out and about, so limited chances to get shot of the day.

I did begin at eight, allowing me an hour to wake up before the audit began, and then dial in, eyes down and your starter for ten.

Its not easy being audited, I know. But its also not easy being an auditor, and come half three, my brain just froze. I looked at the agenda, the words made little sense. I looked at my notes, eight pages of them and decided that I had done enough.

I sat in the garden for a while, picked some of the few flowered garlic that is invading and taking over the street and village.

I should have done something, but don't.

If there had been a cold beer, I'd have poured one. In the end, there wasn't.

Jools was doing aquafit, so we just had a hot cross bun and brew when she came home, and other upon her return from the pool. By which time I was watching more football on the tellybox, Liverpool at Villa, which ended 3-3.

And it was time for bed.

Where the power lies

In order to get its Rwanda policy through Parliament, the Conservative Government passed legislation disapplying inconvenient parts of domestic and international law so the Supreme Court could not overturn the decision to deport asylum seekers.

So far, so facist.

Very early on in the Brexit process, I learned that if how Brexit would work in Northern Ireland, it would work elsewhere.

There are a number of agreements and treaties in regard to Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the island of Ireland, but for the Government it is the Good Friday Agreement which is the most problematic, and as DAG has pointed out, the piece of domestic or international law that Governs Government policy the most.

The parts disapplying the Human Rights Act and the European Convention of Human Rights were deemed as incompatable with the Good Friday Agreement by a judge in Northern Ireland yesterday. As was widely predicted at the time, and ignored by the then Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, who today railed against the Government for allowing this to happen, odd when it was her responsibility as Home Secretary to ensure it would be compatable with domestic and international law.

Maybe she should complain to herself for doing such a poor job.

MP for Penfold, Mark Francois, also raved in the Commons today and demanded the ECHR be renenegotiated, lest we threaten to withdraw.

Yes, its that old Brexit threat again, which worked like a charm in 2016.

Only it didn't.

I try not to comment too much on Brexit and Government policy, and have stated only will do when sensible policies are proposed, because at the moment, we are at the stage of Caligula making his horse a senator kind of end of days.

There is more, but it comes from the mouth of Grant Shapps, and so cannot be trusted to be the truth. And yesterday, being a Monday, the PM tried a reset of his Government, but nobody really noticed.

Sunday 12th May 2024

For most football fans, the season is over. Last weekend saw the 46th and final round of games, and that should have been that.

Only, there is the play offs for the lucky few.

The top two in the Championship, Leicester and Ipswich, go up straight away, but the next four play each other, or 3rd play 6th and 4th play 5th, home and away, and the two winners then play for the honour of being next season's whipping boys in the Prem.

There is some cash involved, but then there always is.

Which meant that Norwich were playing Leeds. Again. And WBA were playing Southampton. Again. And Norwich were first up, kicking off at midday against Leeds.

So, we would have to be out and back before kick off some I could be home for the 90 minutes of torture.

It was another glorious spring day, no wind, no cloud and lots of warm, may hot sunshine. So we would go to the shade of an ancient beech wood.

We have breakfast and two coffees and are out by half eight, hopefully before most of the cyclists and others.

Not much to tell of our trip to Kingston and then into the woods, just arriving at the crossroads just a group of cyclists moved on, so we could park.

Then over the road and up the path into the wood, up for 5 minutes, before striking out into the wood proper, the green canopy stretching ahead and both sides.

One of our favourite places in all of Kent is a wood near to Barham.

A decade ago there were hundreds of Lady and thousands of Twayblades, but mismanagement and invasive growth is slowly killing off the orchids here.

I think we found a mere twenty spikes of Lady, and maybe a couple of hundred Twayblade, and no Fly at all. Ramsons are spreading from the road, and will soon cover the ground be the death knell for the orchids.

The very last orchid I found was this pure white Lady, even the stem and hoods were green, as a pure var. alba should be.

It was 23 degrees by half ten, so we called in at the village shop on the way home for an ice cream.

We sat on a bench and ate the ice creams, by our reckoning, the 4th ice cream of the weekend. Probably too many, but refreshing.

One last call, and that was back to Lydden for a revisit to the Man Orchid colony.

And once parked near two lorries, and clambering over the style, we found where once was barely 50 spikes a decade or so back, number now several thousand, with the colony spreading and spreading.

I took some shots, and happy with that, but also disappointed there had been no butterflies, we went back to the car and home, getting back at half eleven, just time for a brew before kick off.

It was never going to be enjoyable, in truth, and in reality it was a match between two teams who did not want to lose, so one shot on goal, and a dull as ditchwater 0-0 draw, but there is a second leg on Thursday. At Leeds.

Then came the second game, WBA v Saints, and that too ended 0-0, but was a much better game. Arsenal then played Man Utd, and there was a least a goal in this game, as Arse won 1-0.

There was even time for a 4th game, Bayer Leverkusen going 50 matches now unbeaten, winning 5-0 at Bochum.

And that was the weekend. All over once again.

Saturday 11th May 2024

Its the weekend, peeps!

Some woolly heads this morning after staying up until well after eleven, gazing upon the splendour that was the Northern Lights from the cliffs.

Meaning it was half seven before we climbed in the car to go to Tesco to get supplies and life's essentials like raspberry crumble danish and so on.

Back home for a rushed breakfast before dashing back out for some orchiding.

Now the main season us up and running, trips to sites between here and Canterbury are the norm, so not long at all to get there.

Through Barham and down the Elham Valley to Park Gate, and although my fears were that there would be dozens of folks here, there were just two cars, and we easily got a space to park.

Even though the season is so early, some sites suffer apparently from cool breezes and maybe a micro-climate that inhibits growth for maybe a week or two.

Either way, the Monkeys are only just beginning to flower, a long way from being at their peak. I say a long time, maybe a week. There's a friend from the group, Richard, so I wander around with him, finding about six spikes worth snapping.

Soon we go to the second paddock, look up the down for more Monkey, then through into the third where our target changes to Fly.

Downland Fly.

Orchids.

At the far end of the third paddock, I found a few spikes, but all with just a single flower open, again showing how sites close to each other can be at different stages.

Our second and final call was Woolage, where we had failed to find a single orchid two weeks or so back. Richard came along, so we drove in convoy through Barham and Womenswold.

We parked and walked into the wood, and despite half an hour of scouring, again no trace of a single orchid, either Birds Nest or White Helleborine was found.

This is very odd, and suggests a significant event. This is the only reliable site for Birds Nest, so not quite sure what to make of it all.

Richard drove on to Bonsai, and Jools and I went to Jen's as Jools had left her phone there the night before. We found Jen weeding in front of her greenhouse, though over the years the weeds, and mint, just comes back.

So, back home for lunch, and to see the second half of the Old Firm Derby. The second half plays out as we eat fritters, a healthier choice than our usual Saturday meal of pizza.

The football season is now nearing its end, and at three on Saturday, just five Premier League games kicking off, while the rest of the Football League are either in the play-offs or on the beach.

Friday 10th May 2024

Friday.

At last.

And the second day of a four day weekend for most of Europe, which means its going to be quiet at work.

I slept poorly due to my knee, but then slept through the alarm when Jools got up, and only woke when she walked to the car to drive to the sports centre.

I'd better get up.

Better get dressed.

Better make coffee.

Better clean out the kittylitter.

Better take out the bins.

Phew.

And then work?

And then work.

A morning of meetings, but with not enough people attending to form a quorum, which makes them all pretty much pointless.

I press on and the day passes. News did come of three mass corona ejections and the largest sunspot group ever seen, meaning there was a good chance of seeing the northern lights from Kent, and other places in the south of England.

Jools back back at half one, so after a brew we get changed and load the car, as we are now entering peak orchid season, though some three weeks early, it was time to return to the downs above Folkestone for the Late Spiders.

With the main season upon us, most sites are within half an hour's drive from home, so its not taking long to get anywhere. And Folkestone being one of the closest.

We park on the lane, go through the gate, walk up the path to the fenced off area, and begin scouring the sword.

The really early spike which used to grow at the front has now gone to orchid heaven, so looking further up and further away means this takes time.

But after 5 minutes, I see two likely spikes, climb over the fence, and being careful where I tread, make my way up the bank, and indeed find two Late Spiders just coming into flower.

One had no sepals, the other green and white striped ones, which was pretty special.

And that was that. Jools had a physio appointment, so we go home, have another brew, so she can attend the appointment at half four. I, meanwhile, check the shots I had taken.

And then time for the quiz, and I nearlyskipped it as I had failed to get a point these last four weeks, but good job I did attend, as I spotted the answer in the cryptic clue, that being the shoreline of the Black Sea, thus an LP by XTC. I beat 5 others to win 10 whole points.

And then quickly go to Jen's, picking JOhn on the way for cards and supper of meat and potato pie with mushy peas.

And wine.

At six the aurora alarm went off, then went off every half hour.

In the meantime, we played cards, which John ended up winning.

On the way home we tried looking north to see if we could see the norther lights, but it didn't seem dark enough. The reality was that the apparently lingering daylight WAS the northern lights.

We got home, and I put the football on with the whole of the second half to go. I checked the aurora scanner and it was crazy, 953 nT. Jools was already ready for bed, but I said we'd better go up the cliffs, as that had good views looking north.

While a French couple sat in their van having supper, we walked onto the grassed area on the cliffs and waited for it to get dark.

By the time it got to quarter past ten, it was clear the light in the sky was the lights. As we watched we could fee form in the colours, faint green shimmering curtains of light.

As others have found, the camera, even the iphone, brought out the colours more than the eye could see.

We stood for an hour watching the lights, not as good as some saw, but we saw them.

Just after midnight, and again at three, the strength of the lights increased further to close to 1400nT, which would have been wonderful to see, but we were tucked up in bed by then.

Thursday 9th May 2024

I have good days and bad days with my knee. But I also know that I need to keep going out to make the joint and ligaments stronger. And then overdoing it will bring pain.

Damned if I do, damned if I don't.

Thursday was a holiday in Denmark and across most of Europe, just not here. So, it would be a quiet day whatever.

To make matters worse, it was a glorious day: no more early morning mist lingering into the afternoon, no straight with the sunshine and warm temperatures.

And I had to work.

I would go out at some point, just a question of when, and it turned out just after lunch when I made myself a half batch of fritters and a pint of squash to sup.

Then on with the walking shoes and out into the sunshine and early afternoon warmth.

Did I say warmth? It was heat.

Hot.

And very little wind, which should bring the butterflies out.

Mostly saw only Holly Blues, but a single Small Tortoiseshell and several Orange Tips were all that was seen.

Across the fields where there were none of the main species I expected to see in flower, though plenty of leaves, then past the ponies, onto Collingwood and down past Fleet House and the hill to the farm.

Confronted by the long climb up the down to Windy Ridge, was at least shaded by the flowering Horse chestnuts down by the farm. But by the time I reached the bench, I was blowing bubbles, and a rest was long overdue.

From the seat you see the sea at the horizon from Ramsgate in the north to Kingsdown, then the other side of Barrow Mount, the sea again looking towards Calais. In the mid and forground was the very edge of England, the ups and downs, valleys and hills of the North Downs.

The joyful song of skylarks filled the air, even if the birds themselves were so high they were lost to sight.

After nearly an hour, I got up and finished the climb, turned down Green Lane, only to find a muddy hole big enough for an African Elephant to wallow in, and stretching from bank to hedgerow.

I tried to get past, but decided I couldn't, so simply turned round and retraced my steps back down the down to the farm, up the slope to Fleet House and finally along Collingwood to home.

nearly 12,000 steps done, and a very sore knee to show for it, but no torn cartilage either.

Once home, another pint of squash rather than a beer, and then to wat for Jools to come back with battered sausage and chips for our supper. All I had to do was make brews.

No football to watch this time, instead to bed at half eight and hopefully a good night's sleep.

Wednesday 8th May 2024

For some reason, I'm feeling rather flat at the moment.

I should be pumped up by what happened on Tuesday, but that victory feels hollow.

I don't know, can't explain.

Anyway, Wednesday was supposed to be hot and sunny, but after a dramatic dawn, the sky clouded over and refused to clear until well into the afternoon.

Jools went to work and the cats settled down. And with my two European based colleagues on long trips away, I don't have many folks to speak to, so maybe that's the cause of my malaise.

I had to stay in for the afternoon, as there was a delivery. When we ordered the last lot of wine, Jools thought she had signed up for free delivery for a year, but instead set up a repeat order, and by the time we realised, the box was on its way to Chez Jelltex.

So, I had to stay in to wait for that, and once that was delivered, sat on the patio in the warm sun for an hour to decompress, watching the birds and butterflies

I rustled up something for dinner: chicken Kyiv, Moroccan spiced rice and sweet chilli stir fry.

A lot of flavours.

We had run out of honey, so searching at the back of the larder, I came across a jar of dandelion jelly that smelt like honey, so put that in, and came out as another triumph.

More football in the evening, on the tellybox and on the radio. I sat with Scully on the sofa and the evening slipped by.

Tuesday 7th May 2024

Tuesday. And back to work.

Good news is that it is a four day week this week, five days next week, then two weeks off orchiding. With five days of that in Ireland.

But more of that another time.

I had work, of course. And two, no three meetings, to clear up a misunderstanding. I can't go into details, but the playground game of Chinese whispers might give you an idea.

So, from going from a point where I was considering my position to where all was peas and carrots again, all within an hour, was quite the ride.

Otherwise, the endless sunshine for the week failed to appear here, and was cloudy until well after three, and anyway my knee was complaining loudly, so no walking for me.

Instead I did some chores around the house and prepared dinner of coriander chicken, pan fried asparagus and hassleback potatoes.

To celebrate what I think was a win at work, I got one of the reserve bottles of wine out and supped long and merrily.

The football season has now moved to the play offs outside the Prem, so there was that to entertain me for the evening.

Sinking ship and fleeing rats

In December 2019, Alexander Boris de Piffel Johnson, as PM, won an 80 seat majority in the last general election.

He had several parties, told many lies and was suspended by Parliament, then resigned.

He was replaced by Liz Truss.

Who nearly crashed the economy in under 40 days, and 25 of those the country was in mourning.

Then we got Sunak.

And now Sunak has a majority of just 20.

Lost all bar one of his regional mayors.

Lost 1500 council seats.

And last week has lost an MP who crossed the floor to Labour.

Today, at just before midday, Natalie Elphick, arch Brexiteer, member of the ERG and MP and loon for Dover walked into the chamber and took a seat behind Labour leader Kier Starmer, thus also crossing the floor.

At this rate the Labour Party will be the largest Party and Starmer could call an election.

Meanwhile, the country and economy drifts. Leaderless and without any realistic policies.

Monday 6th May 2024

There is a bit of a running joke in Britain regarding Bank Holidays.

Usually the weather in unseasonably wet, cold and windy.

Even in August.

The worst floods I remember as a kid was on the Late August Bank Holiday in 1976, when Caldecott Road was under several feet of rainwater.

This May Day Monday, started out dry, but would quickly turn wet with thunder mixed in.

There were flood warnings.

There are many traditional bank holiday activities: sitting in a seaside shelter eating fish and chips turning to lard is one, another is going to a garden centre.

After breakfast, we went to Alkham Garden centre to get some stuff for the cleared bed beside the drive.

It started to rain on the way, and once there got heavier.

We bought four plants and made our escape back home.

It wasn't quite ten, and the day was pretty much done.

The afternoon game at Wilton Keynes was called off due to floods, so we read, listened to podcasts until half five, when after eating teacakes and a brew, Jools went swimming, and I watched football.

The late game was Palace v Man Utd, which I had no expectation of, but Palace romped to a 4-0 win, and the pain on the Utd players was v funny.

Sunday 5th May 2024

The middle day of a three day weekend, and with endless clear blue skies and light winds forecasted, there could only be one place to go.

In truth there are endless places to go, but if you want to photograph orchids and butterflies, especially the Duke of Burgundy, then this was a perfect day.

And the mile long walk to the site along the woodland gallop would test my knee good and proper.

It would have been an easy trip out, were it not for the cyclists.

That is being over-dramatic, but hundreds of the lycra-clad barrelling down what Tony would call "six-foot sixers" are coming the other way. There was a 50 mile ride round Kent, we saw signs on Bridge, and I wondered where else they would go.

Through Denge Wood was the answer, the opposite direction you'll be wanting to go down. I pulled in to let many go past, but there was just too many to do it for all, in the end both car and cyclists had to be sensible.

The Duke is a rare butterfly, and its emergence attracts the lepidopterists out to chase and photograph them. Meaning the small car park was already overflowing at nine in the morning, but we nabbed the last space, got out camera, knee brace and walking pole, and set off.

I went off at quite a pace, Jools tells me, meaning rather than limping along, I strode out. Maybe this was a desire to get to the site before any more people arrived, I don't know. But I went along at a fair old lick, making it to the reserve, and climbing down the steep, muddy steps.

I see a guy in among the scrub, so go to ask if he'd seen any.

He had, but being his first time he wasn't sure of where else to go. So, I take him to the leck, where the displaying males gather. We find two more, but on the ground. I get a shot or two, but then head off as the reserve is also stunning for Lady Orchids, and has other species too.

There is a circular path to follow, so I go along the top, where in the past Lady Orchids have covered the slopes. Not quite in those numbers now, but a good number, and many already near to be fully open.

At the far end there is another area for Dukes. We are the only ones here, and we quickly see ten, twenty Dukes of the wing, basking or fighting. I get shots of a couple who were in shrub, displaying.

I go round the bottom path, and find Fly, Early Purple, White Helleborine and lots of Greater Butterfly, some out, others close.

Very close.

Back at the end nearest the car park, there is a dozen folks, all looking round, not my scene, so I go back up the steps and meeting back up with Jools we walk back to the car.

On the way, the gallop where open to the sun, was full of butterflies, and I get shots of a female Green veined white, a female Orange Tip, a Peacock and several Brimstones too.

Back at the car, the cyclists had mostly passed, so we made our way back to Petham and then back via Bridge to the A2 and home, stopping of again at Tesco for some supplies, then home for brunch and a brew, before the football filling the afternoon.

The skies cloud over and it gets cool, so sitting inside watching 22 men run around chasing a ball isn't as mad an option as you'd think.

We have carbonara for lunch, with warmed up focaccia and wine, which made us snoozy for the afternoon's footy.

And the games didn't help, at least the first one. As Brighton and Villa played a dull game of who can send each other to sleep. But later, Liverpool ran rings round Spurs to lead 4-0 on the hour, then made changes, got lazy and Spurs pulled two goals back.

By then it was half six, and the day nearly gone.

14 wasted years

For the most of the time I have been writing this blog, the Conservative Party has been Government, either bu coalition or on their own.

They took over two years on from the Global Financial Crisis, and embarked on a decade of austerity, with made the poor poorer and the rich richer.

I have read a report which suggests that austerity, asa concept, is based on a flawed spreadsheet of economic data. Tradition economics has public spending during a recession, so the decision ot cut, cut and cut again went against most economic models.

The country flat-lined.

The economy flat-lined.

And then came Brexit.

And then came COVID.

One a choice by this country, the other a natural, but predictable disaster

. For the most part, taking back control has meant deciding not to take back control, either because it was too difficult, expensive or pointless. And since December 2019, the Conservative Party has been given the greatest gift in UK politics, a thumping majority.

And yet when you look at what they have achieved with that 80 seat majority, it is pretty pathetic.The Parliamentary Party is riven by division, the so-called "six families", each with their own agenda and just enough members to block any legislation they do not like.

And they do not like much.

As duding the Brexit Parliament, its easy for a broad coalition to form stating and voting against what they don't like, but agreeing what is good and they do like, is pretty impossible.

So, this Zombie Government in this Zombie Parliament, lurches on from crisis to crisis, only existing for the persuit of power's sake, and doing nothing with that power other than engage in culture wars. Its now trans men and women who are the new front, as gays and homosexulas were in the 80s with Clause 28. Desperate migrants are to be rounded up and sent to Rwanda or elsewhere, because the Government would rather perform these cruel acts that actually process asylum claims.

Now it is the disabled and those withlong COVID who are to be targeted, as the Government tries to plug the gaps caused by the dramatic fall in those who legally can come here to work, as more draconian conditions are imposed.

And defeats at the ballot box gets worse and worse, but the lesson the Conservatives is choising to learn is that they're not right wing enough. Not sure we want to find out what's right wing of the current administration, but we do know that there will be an election by the end of January 2025 no matter what.

In the meatime, the country drifts, leaderless, engaging in culture wars against some poor minority or another, as tiny minded as you'd expect.

Saturday 4th May 2024

Star Wars Day (Tatooine).

A day filled with highlights. Or a morning filled with them.

First we drove to Marden Meadow to gaze and enjoy over 10,000 Green wing orchids in a water meadow, then to Stockbury to visit the reserve for their bluebell display and Lady Orchids.

Sadly, the bluebells were past their best, but worth seeing in the dappled sunshine. And the Lady Orchids a few days from their prime, were wonderful.

Leaving home at quarter to eight, gave us time to get to the reserve by nine, and with the Bank Holiday weekend underway, traffic was light, maybe that was due to the early morning mist holding off the sunshine. I don't know.

Each time we go to Marden, the sat nav takes us a different was, this time it was up through Leeds then along the main road through Sutton Valence, another picturesque village perched on the edge of the downs, with views looking onto the flat land to the west.

I have visited her twice in the past, both times for the church, locked once but then open. The village boasts two fine looking pubs, The Kings Head and the Queens Head, so you can choose where your allegiances lies.

Down onto the flat farmland, turning west to Staplehurst, and two miles beyond the village is the reserve.

Marden Meadows is a group of three meadows, all with population of Green Wing Orchids, but the centre one is the original, and boasts maybe ten thousand spikes, so many that the grass turns purple at the peak of the season.

I had arranged a meet up, but no one came, so after arriving at quarter to nine, we load up with cameras, and set off along the edge of the new meadow, through the five bar gate into the main meadow.

And it is peak season, so many orchids, that in places the ground is purple from the dense population of orchids. There is a path round the edge of the reserve, so I go round, nipping a step or two from the path for an unusual spike either in shape or colour.

Just one pure white spike, but it stood out so clear.

After an hour, our feet were soaked, so we walked back to the car.

No group members had came along.

No worries.

My plan had been to double back through Staplehurst to Leeds, stop off to snap the church. Do I need to program the sat nav, asked Jools.

No, I know they way, says I.

Only I turned east too soon, and we did not come to Leeds after all. Jools programmed the sat nav and we found our way back to the motorway and then up the down to Stockbury.

We only came to Stockbury once last year due to the roadworks at the nearby junction with the M2. This year that's still not finished, and the damage down to tens of metres of orchid-rich verge on both sides is considerable.

We turn off, park at the entrance to the blocked off lane, then walk along the road, to avoid the steep, muddy path that I nearly slipped down last year.

Stockbury is a fine bluebell wood, has early Early Purples as well as early-flowering Lady Orchids too, but best of all, a small colony of Lesser Butterflies, that I knew were close to flowering.

We scramble up the back, and along the path. Dozens of Lady nearing their peak, and as the path turned up the down, two spikes of LBO, neither of which were flowering, but as close to it as you can get. We probably won't return this season, despite what Jools says, I'm not as obsessed as in previous years.

We climb up the wooded down, and find the bluebells going over, but there was a hint of blue among the spikes going to seed. I took some snaps with the mobile, and that was that.

A quick walk back to the car, down to the A249 and back onto the motorway, coastbound.

We cruise back home, mixing in with the traffic for Margate and that heading for the port. I take it easy, getting us back home for half eleven, an hour before kick off, and plenty of time to cook bacon for brunch.

Norwich were on the Tellybox, one of three of the final rounds of games, as our opponents, Birmingham, were fighting relegation. For Norwich, a place in the play offs was almost confirmed, we would have to have lost. Which we did. And both Hull and WBA needed to win, and an 8 goal advantage to use be wiped out.

City played poorly, and deserved to lose. Brum won, but their requirements to stay up was more than just winning, they had to rely on Blackburn losing at Champions, Leicester.

Blackburn won 2-0, so Birmingham went down despite the win.

So far, so meh.

And then the Premier League games on the radio, while I tried to stay awake. And then came Citeh v Wolves. Wolves played OK, but Citeh were ruthless, the Boy Haarland scored 4 in a 5-1 romp.