Saturday 3rd October 2026

It's the weekend again, and that means phys and shopping.

Or gathering as we call the weekly foray to Tesco is called.

We were up again before five, as usual. I have just about given up on sleeping to say, six, so anyway. Sort the cats, have coffee.

And be ready to leave at ten to six.

As Jools has hurt her foot, not serious, she bailed on the gym, instead dropping me off so I went to pump lard, and she went gathering.

It was another glorious day in east Kent. The sky reds and pink before sunrise, so much so I snapped the scene from the queue to get into the sports centre.

I do fifty minutes, listening to the second half of the PU from December 1976, and the aftermath of the Pistols' stint with Bill Grundy.

Anyway, where's Bill Grundy now?

Jools was waiting outside, so we could drive home for a well deserved brew and put the shopping away.

I sat on the patio thinking how good it would be to walk down the path along the cliffs to Kingsdown then hunt for Long Tailed Blues.

Instead of wating for eleven when Jools was going to drive into Canterbury to go to see Ray the chiropractor, so I asked her to drop me off at the Dover Patrol ready for my ambitious walk.

The plan was to walk down to Kingsdown, hunt for butterflies, then walk back past the farm to Otty Bottom Road, then home via The Dip and Fleet House.

On top of the 7,000 steps done in the gym already!

I had thought I had been sitting too much this week, so this would fix it.

Or something else.

On the top of the Monument, and all around were dozens of swallows out of hundreds, if not thousands, gathering for the crossing to France and points further south.

Then to the usual spot beside the old Coastguard building to look back along and down the cliffs, before setting off.

I was on the lookout for flowers too, and saw plenty: Knapweed, Toadflax, Field pansy, Harebells, Everlasting pea, Viper's bugloss, Scarlet pimpernel, White deadnettle, Scarlet clover, Common field speedwell, and Dense-flowered Fumitory.

I passed a couple of blokes on the cliff edge, thinking it might have been people we went to India with, Nige, and when I saw his posts on BlueSky later was proved right. But I didn't go over, walking on instead.

Into Kingsdown parish, alnd along the path which now navigates the narrow public land now there have been many cliff falls, onto the Leas, and began the hunt.

I found a faded Wall roosting, but despite spending an hour, all I saw was a single faded male LTB flying away, he did not return.

So I turned for the climb back into St Margaret's, before taking the path beside the parish boundary, up towards Barrow Mount, then turn along the narrow path between the two big fields, the lower one was being ploughed and harrowed, all ready for sowing.

By now I had done close to 15,000 steps, and my legs were complaining, but there was no choice other than to keep on keeping on.

Up the final climb before dropping to Otty Bottom Road, and there I found a section of field set aside, and full of wild flowers, which gladdened my heart.

I turned down Norway Drove to The Dip, only to find the usual smooth chalky slope now covered in grass and native wild flowers, and it seems to be no longer used by the farmer, and has been removed from sat navs after a delivery van got stuck a few years back.

The climb up to Fleet House is not steep nor long, but my legs were shot. I managed it, then leaving me a level walk across the fields to home. As I walked back along the street, I reached 20,000 steps. And my legs hated me.

Once home I had two pints of iced squash, sat with Scully on the patio as I waited for Jools to return. I was OK as long as I didn't need to walk, as my legs stiffened up like two plants of timber.

Once Jools returned we had mini pork pies for lunch, then a couple of hours later before the football marathon, I cooked the pizzas.

League 2 football is not of a high standard, which will be fun to see Citeh be involved with in due course.

Rochdale scrambled a last minute winner against former Premier League club Swindon.

Then came Croatia v England.

Now, I was nervous, but the game played in front of 6,000 children due to crowd trouble last year.

England set off like an express train and were soon 2-0 up, as the aging Croats struggled chasing shadows.

They also apparetnly played without a defence, or they went AWAOL, so England were 4-0 up at half time, and cruising.

England ran in three more to win 7 (seven)- 0 against a team still ranked in the top twenty ranked teams in the world.

Friday 2nd October 2026

Hey, hey it's Friday again.

And for the nth day in a row, I was awake well before five, laying in bed waiting.

For Godot.

An easy morning anyway, as Jools does yoga, and I have to put my trousers on and walk down the stairs without incident.

Which I do.

Coffee is drunk. Bins are put out, and that is it for the important tasks.

The farmer is harrowing the fields, so there are hundreds of gulls on the wing and squawking about it. It is another glorious autumn day at Chez Jelltex, though across France and Europe, its another day when the October temperature records will be broken. Some parts of France it will be 33 degrees.

We were given a "midweek roast" by the butcher months back for supplying them with Ramsons, so it was about time I used it, and as we had veg left over from Sunday, and gravy, during the day I mixed the batter for Yorkshire puddings, peeled and sliced the spuds for roasts.

I read through the morning and afternoon, the book about Churchcrawling, though its more a history of English churches in general, and includes some I have visited, including a few in Kent.

After boiling and draining, the potatoes are put into roast at three, basting every half hour or so with duck fat.

Meat in at four, then the Yorkshires, so all done with the vegetables at ten past five. Pink fizz is poured, and we sit down to a fine meal, the potatoes were extra crispy and golden, and the puddings light like Nun's farts.

I tried to watch the Northern Ireland game in the evening. The were leading Ukraine 2-0 at half time, but bed called.

So I went up. Good night sweetheart.

Thursday 1st October 2026

Thursday again.

And October. So Autumn. Again.

And up now well before the larks to sort the cats out and have coffee before going to the gym.

Once again my brain and body had me awake before five, so I get up ten minutes early, so am ahead of the curve so to be out by ten to six.

The rain from Wednesday had cleared, and it looked like it was going to be a fine day, once dawn arrived that is.

We do our fifty minutes, and although there is a temptation for breakfast, we go home to have either fruit of muesli and a fresh brew.

IN order to save more cash over Christmas, I go to Preston to buy one of the currently very cheap turkey crown joints for twenty five quid, thus saving something like seventy five in December.

Our freezer is full, so after driving back on the Sandwich and Eastry bypasses, I turn into Whitfield to drop it off at Jen's, and to see how she is.

I stay half an hour, but pass on a brew, then am back home for half eleven and thoughts turn to lunch, which was a Sussex pasty each liberated from the butcher. And so much better than Ginsters too.

The afternoon was spent sitting in the garden, reading and bird watching, as ell as moving the large storage box thus giving us double the space again on the top patio.

After dinner, and the evening round of sorting the cats out, there was football on the tellybox: Wales v Norway . Wales went on to stage a 2-1 win after falling a goal behind early on.

A very watchable game.

Wednesday 30th September 2026

Ten years ago to the day we received fibre-optic broadband, increasing our download speed from 0.5MB/sec to 38.5, two people came with a cherry picker to install a box on the pole and another on our house ready for the switch to "unlimited" broadband.

As the guy went up in the bucket, Poppy, having been woken by him drilling in the wall of the house, supervised from the middle of the living room.

All went well, other than BT had not connected the box on the pole, so the signal couldn't be tested, though a work order was raised to fix that before 9th October when its all due to go live.

Before then there was, well, not much.

Up at half five, drinking coffee and waiting for dawn to break. It's still dark until just before six, then sunrise at seven, if its not cloudy, so we need to have lights on first thing.

Jools went to her class at half seven, leaving me and the cats to the house.

There are podcasts, stuff on YouTube to entertain me, breakfast to eat, tea to drink. And in that way the morning slips by.

How I ever squeezed work in to my packed days is a mystery.

Jools gets pasties for lunch, bought on her way home from a new knitting group she has joined, also calling in for some sour cream due to the spicy chilli I made the other day, just in case it needed cooling down.

Rain fell for most of the day, on and off, getting more persistent as the day grew old, turning late afternoon into night just after five.

The cats complained, but accepted dinner.

We had the chilli, not as hot as expected, but the new coffee nitro stout I opened to go with it was perfect.

No football for the evening, so we went to bed at eight, and asleep soon after.

Tuesday 29th September 2026

Tuesday again.

And once again my brain and body had me awake before the alarm, this day some two and a half hours before.

So I lay in the dark and waited. And waited.

Up at ten to five, get dressed, put the kettle on and sort the cats out, so that Jools could get up and take her time.

Coffee made, drunk slowly, so that by ten to six, I was ahead of schedule, a lazy drive to the sports centre, where it was crazy busy, but again most folks going to the pool or an exercise class.

I went up and did forty minutes, I could have done fifty, but my legs just stopped going round.

Back home it was warm enough to sit out on the patio, and drink the tea that Jools had made before he left for her classes.

Its all go.

There was a second cake to bake, but first feed the first one with Masala wine, then wrap it up and place in a tin to mature for three months.

And the second was mixed, again with fruit left to soak in more Madeira, though for only 24 hours this time.

Once in the oven, the bright start outside gave way to mist and then fog. The mournful lowing of the foghorn echoing around the countryside as we're just a couple of miles from the port.

Too cold to site outside, so Scully and I take to the sofa, and she lays against my arm to keep warm and falls asleep.

At lunchtime, the sun breaks through, so I grab a few shots in the garden, but the fog returns. Until just after four the skies turned blue, the fog melted away, and it was warm again.

So it goes.

And then the statement from the PL on Citeh, and so all ears to the radio t listen for hot takes, before the England game kicked off at quarter to eight.

A dull, dull game, and one England struggled to break down the Czechs, though helped when one of their players was sent off.

Two second half goals didn't hide how poor England were in breaking down defensive teams, no matter how many players tey have to the pitch.

Monday 28th September 2026

The year is getting on, and thoughts turn to Christmas.

Or at least Christmas cake.

Christmas cakes.

Or, specifically, Dundee cakes.

As we don't like marzipan or icing.

We like cake.

But before that, there is the morning to deal with, with the usual chores.

We had an appointment in Canterbury at half eleven, which gave us little time to do other stuff, so Jools did beading, and I did whatever it is I do to fritter away the time.

We left at half ten, or a bit after, for the fifteen mile drive along the A2 to the city.

Rain had been forecast for most of the day, but by eleven, it hadn't arrived.

We went round the inner ring road, then up the hill to the university to meet with our financial advisor, with whom we had a few things to sort out and to clarify.

We talked for nearly and hour. Signed some papers, and were off back down the hill into the city, stopping off at Whitfriars so Jools could return some clothing to M&S. As it was just down the stairs, I waited in the car. Doomscrolling.

That done, we drove back out the city and home towards Dover, only just escaping an accident as a driver lurched to turn right at the Whitfield roundabout from the left hand lane. Without indicating.

So it goes.

Back home for lunch, then to the mixer for some cake action.

Mix butter and sugar for 15 minutes, add four eggs. Add flour, then fold in dried fruit (soaked in Madeira for three days), Morello cherries and dried peel. Oh, and mix spices.

Tip into a triple lined tine, cook for four hours on low.

Let cool.

And for a second trick, I rustle up a huge pan of chilli, made with lamb mince instead of beef, and you know, its really good.

Rain came late in the afternoon, and pretty much continued all night. Not enough, but a start.

We have supper, but with no football on all the channels I subscribe to, I listen to another discussion about Citeh before heading to bed at nine.

The entire house smells of cake.

Sunday 27th September 2026

Just over a week ago, a couple decided to set fire to the Hotel Grand Burstin in Folkestone.

A lot of the lower levels were badly damaged, and smoke and scorch marks could be seen outside.

Though we had not been. And enough time had passed, we thought, so that we were not vultures or something, so we could go to funky Folkestone, have a walk and take some pictures.

Being a Sunday, we could lay in the six, then once up, feed the cats, have coffee before leaving for the gym.

Where we both do 50 minutes, but whether it was cooler or we are a little fitter, not so humid, so not so sweaty.

I listened to the 606 podcast, broadcast on Friday, where most Citeh fans are in denial, but fans of other clubs are in a quiet rage.

Back out to the car, and away. Driving along the Alkham Valley, and into Folkestone down the old A20, then down Tram Road to the car park near the harbour.

I ambles over the crossing, then up the steps onto the old Harbour Branch, this was pretty much the only way as the road past the hotel is still closed, and has security restricting access.

From the old railway line, there was little obvious damage, until you looked closely at the entrance, where to the left of it, the damage is most severe.

Then around on the east side, fire had licked up the sides of the building, and smoke filled the stairway, the glass now black.

It is unclear how serious, if any, the damage is. Some people living nearby still can't return to their homes.

We walk on through the old station and beyond onto the harbour arm, but all eateries were still closed, opening at ten it seemed, still over an hour away.

So we turned round and walked back over to the harbour, back to the old level crossing, then back up the line to the steps, before returning to the car.

Back home then, through Capel and onto the A20 into Dover.

Traffic was light, so we cruised along Townwall Street, then up Jubilee Way to home.

But not before stopping at Westcliffe to look for more sloes. We got about another pound, some might have even been bullaces as they were so large.

We got back at half nine, time to have a brew and breakfast, before I got down to the serious business of preparing Sunday dinner.

Sunday dinner is roast beef, roast potatoes, Yorkshire puddings, steamed vegetables and lashings of gravy.

It requires planning, a timeline to keep to, so that I would dish up at half two, once Jen had arrived, and we could eat well.

Better than well.

And I cracked open the last bottle of red wine from our trip to France, a magnum of Bordeaux 2019, not a grand vin, but good enough.

None of us could finish our dinners, and after a long pause, Jools and Jen washed up, while I rested.

It was a total triumph.

We didn't eat again that day, and went to bed at eight, still full.