Thursday 6th November 2025

It is Thursday, and that means up before the larks and getting to the gym before seven.

And as the hob was fixed, meaning I had my first early morning coffee for two and a half weeks.

Sweet indeed.

Then off to Whitfield and the sports centre.

I parked up in the half pre-dawn light, swiped in, and went upstairs only to find all the lights in the gym off, and I was the only person there.

All the machines were working, but before I got down to some phys, I thought I had better check that it was OK to do so.

All areas upstairs are closed and locked I was told. You can't get in the gym.

I did.

What?

I swiped and the door unlocked.

Bugger.

Apparently, the lights had tripped, and now there is nothing so simple as a light switch, the whole system had to be reset by the site electrician, or something.

So no phys.

Back home then by half seven, surprising Jools.

So we had breakfast, before she went out to take an old couple along the road to Maidstone hospital to the oncology department.

I was left to mind the house and cats while Craig got on with the work in the kitchen.

It is possible it might be done by Friday night, but Saturday lunchtime is more likely.

So he got going with what he does, and I sat outside reading the Map Men book on the patio, as it was so warm.

I even went for a walk at eleven.

Along the street, up Station Road to Nelson Park, then along before cutting back along Collingwood.

I was looking for plants in flower, but stunned to find a Winter heliotrope in flower in the raised bed at the end of Collingwood. This is six weeks earlier than usual.

The importance of this is that heliotrope is really the first flowering plant of the new year, even if its the old year, and a sign that Spring is not far away, even if we've not yet entered winter.

If that makes sense.

I do 4,000 steps by the time I get home, then sit more outside, waiting for Jools to return so we could have lunch.

She got home at twenty to two, and had been gifted a tin of Celebrations chocolates, so instead of something sensible, we had four or five of the bite-sized chocolates each instead.

I put the badge on my beret, walking around with it on for a couple of hours to get used to it again. It had been twenty years since I last wore one.

And my trousers and shirt arrived for Sunday, so I won't look like "two penn'orth of rough stuff tied up ugly".

Ahem.

Craig was done by half three, so I could begin to prepare our first meal in the new kitchen: chorizo hash.

Potatoes cut into cubes and left to soak for half an hour before the starch was drained out of the water, then set to boil on the new hob.

Meanwhile, onions, peppers and chorizo cut and so prepared for cooking.

It all came together, even if the potatoes were a little too crunch, or in my Dad's words: "when they're brown, they're done, and when they're black they're buggered".

I opened a can of barely wine to go with it, and very fine it was too.

Cheers.

There was football in the evening, but minor European games, so I went to bed at half eight, as we were due up at five the next morning.