Saturday 19th June 2010

Day 9 of the World Cup, I think. It's hard to tell, so many games with so few goals, and every game sounding the same with a background hum of droning from the plastic horns, which, we are told, as so much a part of South African culture, no can can think of banning them, even though it drowns out the crowds, the ref's whistle. Oh well, we listen with the sound turned down for the most part.
And then there is the endless re-hashing of the previous day's news by Radio 5 in the morning. I have begun to turn it off now, makes me wonder if anything else in the world is happening, just 32 teams of men taking turns in kicking a bag of wind around.



Maybe this jaded thought comes from the fact England are rubbish, really rubbish and doing quite a good impression of Norwich under Bryan Hamilton; don't ask about that. Last night they played the might of Algeria, who have not scored for 6 games, losing each one, and for 90 minutes, nothing much happened. At all. For 23 millionaires who have known each other since they were teens, they did a good impression of having not met each other before.
But, other things have happened; work. Rain. work. sleep.



The job is still ongoing, even though I swing between good and bad days, one step forward two steps back. But the week has passed, the afternoons fly as we have the 48 inch monitor on with the football. Some work does get done, and we leave at five to get home to watch more football.



Today we went up to Thanet to see an air show, or to see the Red Arrows. we drove off at ten, took our time, wandered around Broadstairs some, had breakfast, got wet in a downpour, dried off, got wet again. and then set off for the north coast just around North Foreland point. we walked past the grand houses, the lighthouse, and then the bloody Red Arrows began their display 15 minutes early. we saw some of it through the trees as we made our way to Kingsgate Bay, another 15 minutes and we would have made it.
As they neared the end of their display, the storm clouds rolled in, and we ran for shelter in the nearby pub.



Once the rain cleared, we went for a walk down on the beach under the shelter of the chalk cliffs. I walked through a natural arch in the cliffs, taking pictures all the time. Somewhere new so close to us, there must be hundreds of other places to visit.

Tomorrow, we're off to deepest Wiltshire, so a long day with many miles of driving; see you next week.