Thursday 17th March 2011

Before Sunday had dawned, I knew there was something wrong. I woke up in the half-light caused by the streetlights coming through the curtains, my stomach doing back-flips and I had that feeling that I would soon need to make a visit to the facilities.
Ando so by the time the day dawned, I was not well at all. I had not slept in hours and all I really wanted to do was to head home. The plan had been to go along the promenade snapping some fine wrought-iron features, and then visit a village just off the main road on the main road where half my ancestors came from. The weather had other ideas about that too; it was grey, misty and drizzling, and after packing the car and heading along the promenade, the thought of visiting Warninglid, its real name, went out the window, and I made the decision to head back home.

The traffic was so light we were back in Kent by a quarter to nine, and in time to collect the cats before ten. Once loaded in the car the four of them sung to us as we drove along, I am sure they were just letting us know how pleased they were to see us.

Once back home, I went to bed, but the attention of the various cats meant I did not sleep. I did get up for a drink and to look at the shots I had taken, but went back to bed soon after and slept the afternoon away.

Monday morning came, and although the effects had stopped, I had not eaten for 36 hours and so did not feel up to much; I called my boss to inform him I would not be in work that day, and went back to bed where I did doze and was visited by various cats again just to keep me company and to let me know they had forgiven us for the stay in the cattery, I think anyway.

So, Monday night I did cook and ate steak and ale pie, which tasted like ambrosia I have to say, although the beer I had thought was a good idea, wasn’t, and most went down the sink. And then I sat down to watch Norwich on the TV and we battle to get promoted to the Premiership. We played well and scored twice in the last three minutes to win 3-1 and so end the day in 2nd place, with just nine games to go. It is all going to get very nervous from this point on.

And so, on Tuesday, back to work, and the usual stuff going on. Writing procedures, instructions and the such, and it really is not too bad at all. Each night there is Champion’s League football on TV, and so I settle down with a cat to watch the game and listen to the radio at the same time. Multi-tasking!

And the other news this week has been from Japan; earthquake, tsunami and now quadruple nuclear plant meltdowns! If you were to see this in a film you’d think it impossible, but it really happened. Film of the tsunami has emerged, with each shot the power and horror becoming ever more clear. In some places the wave was 10m high, and three story buildings were swamped. The death toll is still unclear, and now, 6 days later, teams are battling to prevent four of the reactors from over-heating and releasing huge amounts of radiation into the atmosphere. I wish it were fiction.