Wednesday 2nd October 2024

And for Wednesday, I was home alone for 36 hours, as Jools was going to Heathrow straight from work so to be in place to pick up Jen upon her return from Australia.

Meaning it was just me and the cats.

So, we have 15 minutes in the morning before she leaves at half six, the cats were fed and gone to sleep, so there was just me and work and the cats.

That being said, I have a new enthusiasm for work, and so start to knuckle down and get things back under control.

And book travel for two weeks for a work trip to Ireland, where I have four days in the Emerald Isle, visiting various sites and staying in hotels in the middle of nowhere each night.

A month later I am off back to France for work too, so some travel and chances to meet old colleagues and friends.

The day progresses very quickly as work gets done, documents reviewed and so on, so that come three I am happy to play hooky and go train chasing.

News reached me that Britannia was going round Kent, and ideally I would like to have gone to Minster, but in the end I just went down the hill to Martin Mill, where there were two other snappers.

Thankfully, it was a bright evening, the tour was half an hour late leaving Canterbury, so would not reach us until five, but we had the app telling us of her progress.

By the time she reached Deal, we could hear the locomotive working, pistons pushing out steam to propel the train forward.

Louder and louder she sounded, the noise echoing round the buildings surrounding the station, and still no sign.

A too on the whilst told us she was approaching the crossing at Cold Blow Lane, and would be with us within two minutes.

And still louder she got, until I saw smoke above the trees where the line curved to the left, and she roared into view.

For a change I was at the far end of the platform, so had the whole length of the platforms to get shots as the climbed Guston Bank.

The loco filled the viewfinder, and I stopped taking shots, instead waved to the freman who was leaning out, and was rewarded by two toots on the whistle.

And she was gone, into the misty gloaming of an early autumnal evening, up Guston Bank to the tunnel, her hard working pistons now fading too.

I walked back along the platform, taking the subway back to the other side of the line, then to the car and drive back up the hill to home.

Dinner was defrosted ragu with added guanciale which I also liberated from the fridge.

A bottle of XV washed it down well, and helped the evening slip by. By then the cats had been fed and entertained, and they seemed happy enough. Except Mulder who was looking for Jools.

I listened to Villa v Bayern on the radio as the bottle was emptied, with Villa scoring in the last minute to win.