Saturday 16th November 2024

And the weekend.

Though with less football than usual, or maybe a different kind, with club games being replaced with international, which mostly were available here via YouTube, other tubes available.

But there was some lower league stuff to watch, and I would lose 90 minutes of my life to watch Bristol Rovers v Crawley end in the dullest of 0-0 draws, with very little skill being on show for the cameras.

Before then, of course, was getting up, coffee, shopping, breakfast. And then a trip into Canterbury for a mug.

A mug.

A colleague's daughter dropped her treasured "Keep Calm" mug and asked if we could find a replacement.

Not online with one that would arrive before I left for DK early Monday morning. But I did seem to remember one of the them tourist trap shops opposite Christchurch Gate.

And as we have not been to the city in a while, we go.

Visitor numbers have returned to their pre-COVID numbers, and with Christmas market stalls just about everywhere, it was very crowded indeed.

We parked in a multi-storey so we could get the car washed, walked down to the city centre and found not quite what we wanted, but one in red, that came in a box which should protect it from the worst of baggage handlers.

We should have gone into the Cathedral Precinct, as they had a fair, the first to be held in the close in 200 years, but with the gate back shrouded in scaffolding, we wander off in search of breakfast.

We find it in a traditional greasy spoon, and have the works with toast and tea, all for a tenner each, and great service too.

Back to the car as time was upon the cleaning, and so we found the car all sparkly and clean, so that it would a magnet for incontinent birds all the way back to Dover, by which time it had several splats.

Sigh.

Sean and Ange were coming for dinner, and we were having the two racks of lamb we got last week. I defrosted them, seasoned, and I left them to soak in the seasoning.

Football in the afternoon.

And then cooking, making Moroccan spiced rice, boiled fresh corn and creamed spinach.

They arrived just before six, we share a glass of wine and I finish cooking, dish up and take the plates through.

More wine during and after, to go with the cheeseboard, before they leave at half ten. Jools had cleared up as Sean and I talked, so just had to get up them wooden steps to bed.