Sunday 3rd March 2013

It is Sunday morning, and I am sitting alone in the living room as Jools has gone off the help a work colleague move house. Her soon-to-be-ex partner is being an arse and is now denying her the key to get her stuff out of their shared house. I guess these small vignettes are all part of the fabric of modern life. So, I am taking the opportuntiy to relax and eventually pack for my trip to Denmark tomorrow.

So, this week, or the end of it, has seen a return to what counts as normal round here. I had to work from home on Thursday as the finishing touch to the bathroom had to be done, and then the troublesome heating system had to be investigated. Good news and bad news, in that the bathroom really is complete, but it seems we need a new heating cylinder as we ran out of hot water last night.

Sigh.

And on Friday, I actually went into the office in Ramsgate to work. This was the first time in two weeks i had visited and good to see I still had a desk, but someone had been working at it, pushed my files out of the way, adjusted my seat to all the wrong settings. It took me several hours to get right. So passed the day.

That night I drove to Whitstable for a party. Not really a party, but a meal as one of the Ramsgate people was retiring and another was jumping ship to Scottish Power. The meal was at JoJo's in Tankerton, and I guess its a 45 minute drive there. As seems to be the modern way, they restaurant gave us a selection of starters and main courses instead of us actually being able to order food we might actually want. So, we had to wait as each platter was passed round and so we mostly got the dregs that had been left.

Also being a driver meant i had the one glass of wine and then had to switch to orange juice. And seeing others get steadily drunk is never entertaining, so after what counted as the main course I made my excuses and left for the drive home.

At first I not notice anything wrong when I got back home. Due to the fact Scully was sitting in the middle of the drive as I tried to reverse the car down, so I left the car at the top. I locked the car and went to the door, let myself in and reached for the light switch. Nothing happened. Not matter how many times I flicked the switch nothing happened. Through the glass panel in the inner door, I saw Jools coming down the stairs with a candle.

Yes, we had an proper 1970s style power cut. Looking out of the front window I could see the whole street in darkness, but out the back I could see the main part of the village blazing with electricity.

Bastards.

so, there was nothing we could do, other than to sit in the darkness. Oh, pour a double measure and sip whisky by the flickering light of the single candle. That drunk, I made my way upstairs and onto bed.

Dawn brought daylight and the return of electricity, so the useless lumps of dead technology from the night before now were of some use again. Sadly, as we had no power last night, we could not set an alarm, and it turned out I had to pick up a friend at Dover station at half seven and it was now just before seven. So, time for a coffee before setting off for more photography related malarkey.

Will had come down once again from Reading, and wanted more interesting stuff to snap in East Kent. What better thing to begin with than to head to Folkestone to Castle Hill to overlook the Channel Tunnel and snap the trains coming and going?



No better thing, obviously.

So, we drove up the A20 then up Creet Road, parked up, and then set off along the edge of the iron age fort to get to the viewing point. And there it was, all spread out below us was the terminal and as we watched a Eurostar roared out of the tunnel heading north to London. We did not have time to get our cameras out to snap that one, but a few minutes later the approaching lights signalled the imminent arrival of one heading south.



So, we got our shots then went back to pick up Jools before heading to Ashford and onto Tutt Hill for some lineside photography of HS1. We had half an hour, and as we walked to the bridge a southbound Eurostar roared by, I did not have my camera out and missed another one.

But, we got some great shots of another northbound Eurostar and a southbound Javelin before it was time to head up to collect Jools and then decide what to do the rest of the day.



In the end we decided to head to Wye to try to find a tea shop to have elevenses or maybe an early lunch.

As we drove into the village we saw Morris Dancers, lots of people milling around; so we found a place to park and went to investigate. Turned out it was the grand opening of the Kings Head pub, and it looked inviting enough, so we went in and much to my surprise the first drinks were free.

FREE!

So, two coffees and a pint of Shepherd Neame, for zero pence went down very well. Plates of hot sausages were brought round to try, then some gingery garlic prawns on bread too. We decided to stay and ordered a cheese ploughman's each and another round of drinks, which we were happy enough to pay this time.

Time then to drop Jools back home and Will and I headed to deal for a wander round, but the wind had settled in the north-east and it was mighty cold, so after 45 minutes we headed back home for a warming coffee and then Will had to get to the station to catch his train back to Herne Bay. Driving along into Dover I listened to the radio as Man Utd scored three goals in the last 10 minutes to give the score against City an unfair look. A game we never expected to win, it is next week's game against Southampton which will go a long way to deicide which division we will be playing in next season.