Saturday 18th October 2025

After not getting on my favourite machines in the gym on Friday, I was taking no chances on Saturday: setting the alarm for six and being out of the house by five past seven.

Jools was going to walk to the cliffs, and I was to pick her up when i was done in the gym.

As expected, the gym was quiet, and both machines were empty, so I climbed on one and biked round Hong Kong for nearly an hour.

Like most of the videos, it is concentrated down by the waterside, along wide paths doubling as sea defences. It looked hot, and here I was in air conditioned luxury, listening to my favourite music.

All done by eight, so I walk down and out to the car, put the radio on and set course for the White Cliffs, to take something new for the day, a view overlooking the Eastern Docks and ferries loading/unloading.

Then along Reach Road, with views over to France on my right, back to the village and then along to near the monument.

I get a call from Jools: she can see me, but no clear way to get there!

But then does, so she climbs in and we go home for a brew and breakfast.

We pass two twitchers out looking for a rare finch or something. Small and brown, I guess.

We then set about boiling the jelly and adding the sugar.

It took nearly an hour to bring the eight kilos of mixture to the boil, then it rose so much we could hardly keep it from overflowing like fruit-flavoured magma.

We decanted the hot jelly and waited for the jars to cool and set.

I cooked a large pan of butternut squash soup, as I try to empty the fridge of the last of its delights before work begins on Monday on the new kitchen.

We'll have a fridge and freezer, but nowhere to cook at least until Thursday, I guess.

At one, I retire to the desk to watch football: QPR v Millwall, and the visitors won 2-1, and deserved to win.

After that, on the sofa to listen to radio 5 and watch the videoprinter on Final Score, as the main batch of games kicked off.

Norwich lost their sixth home game in a row, and are now just one place above the relegation zone.

Sigh.

And then there was Arsenal at Fulham, which flattered to deceive, and Arse scored the only goal to win.

That was too much football, so I went to bed to read a bit, as the clouds never cleared, so there was no chance of seeing either comets.

Tuesday, perhaps.