Wednesday 23rd July 2025

Summer, it seems, has left the building.

Long gone is the balmy, hot sunny days of last week, and instead a cool wind and clouds, sometimes with rain, sometime heavy.

It will do the garden tres bon, however.

Days are settling down now, with Jools getting up at six to feed the cats, and me sometime between half an hour and an hour later.

Then comes coffee.

Breakfast.

And another brew.

And the question of what to do with the day.

Well, I had a dentist appointment just before eleven, so we load the car with hedge clippings, so we can go to the tip afterwards, and Jools drives us into town, dropping me off outside the surgery.

Holiday traffic is building day by day, and now that all schools are off for summer, the great getaway gets going in earnest.

I have no work to be done, just a clean to be booked.

Jools collects me and we go up Crabble Hill, past our old flat, up Whitfield Hill and into the council tip. Three bags of clippings and half the lilac bush tipped away.

Finally, to Tesco for the only shop of the week, hunting and gathering the usual stuff, enough to see us beyond the weekend.

Tesco now doubles as a creche and old people's day centre, meaning the people=phobic get round and out as soon as possible, and are soon on the road back to Chez Jelltex, where we have rolls for lunch, huge brews, all in time for the start of the day's Le Tour coverage.

Mountains.

Scully and I sit on the sofa as ran hammers down outside, and I enjoy the hyper-fit whizzing up mountains past huge cheering crowds.

Time during the ad breaks to chop and boil the potatoes for hash, so that once the race is done I can get busy in the kitchen.

The potatoes crispier than ever, and smoked chipotle flakes added to the onions and sweet peppers.

Fabulous.

Before the football, we nip to Walmer to the offy to pick up some Belgian beers, spending fifty quid, then bac home, put the bottles away and sit down for Germany v Spain in the other semi.

A close game, won in the last ten minutes by a shot from an acute angle by Spain.

So its England v Spain in the final.

I finished the bottle of Red Spot during the game, toasting my friend Tony on the other side of the world.

Thank you, my friend.