Sunday 21st June 2026

Our room at the UJC faced east, so when the sun rose on the summer solstice, it shone into our room.

Maybe not so hot at first, but we woke at just before six after less than six hour's sleep, the view out of the window was sensational.

We have a shower and get dressed, thinking that breakfast was at half six, but being a weekend was an hour later. We sat in the lobby for half an hour until the restaurant was open.

Long gone are the days when you could stay here for less than sixty quid, and have breakfast the next morning for well under a tenner. Breakfast now costs £14.00, but there is lots of it, and unlimited.

We have fruit and yogurt before having a little of the bad fried stuff, and a couple of cups of tea.

We go back up to the room, to discover it now as hot as the surface of the sun, and unbearable.

We pack our few things and leave, deciding a bench on a shady platform would be cool.

Cool is a relative term, of course. We cross the road, go up into the station, then up again so to access Waterloo East.

We had half an hour, but truth is, it was darned hot on the platform too, so much so even the waiting room was hot.

This is London in summer, and the worse thing is that it is going to top forty degrees by Wednesday, and humid with it, so dangerous too.

I was glad to get on the train when it arrived, and found plenty of seats from which to choose.

At London Bridge, half of London got on, getting out of the city for the coast. The train was full, and people standing as well.

As the high speed line was closed, a few "classic" services were "fast", or in NSE terms, semi-fast, only stopping at Tonbridge on our way to Ashford.

Few people got off until we reached Folkestone, then families wit push chairs and bags of stuff for their kids got off.

And more joined us in getting of at Dover, including the German/Japanese couple on our table, who were going to the castle for the afternoon.

How much time is needed to explore the castle, they ased when we said we lived in the town?

At least a day I said

They were young and would nip round double quick I'm sure.

Jen came to collect us from the station as she had an errand to run, so took us back to Whitfield to collect the car. And after some brief chit chat we left in our car for the final leg home, getting inside at just gone eleven.

Obviously the cats claimed not to have been fed, so we gave them some morsels, unpacked and poured an ice cold drink.

Home.

A deep sigh of relief.

Too hot for a brew, so pints of cold juice were poured and enjoyed sitting in the shade of the living room.

It was too hot to cook, so lunch was more cheese and crackers and a beer. Perfect.

The entertainment in the five o'clock kick off was Belgium v Iran, which ended 0-0 and drives another nail through the heart of another golden generation.

Generations should only be called golden if they win something. As with England too.

There was an hour between games, time to partake in #WildflowerHour. post shots and make a few comments before it was kick off in the Spain v Saudi game, with Spain 3-0 up before the first half drinks break, should have gone to bed then, instead I sit up and see just one more Spanish goal.