Saturday 22nd March 2014

The end of the week kinda blurs into one day. What with the amount of work coming in, and the need to get all organised. Our customer threw us several curve balls, including one for yours truly, which took up most of my time on Friday to sort out, then sit back to wait for a reply.

Friday, I worked from home as Jools needed the car as she headed to the factory for the very last time, but this time for some job retraining.It was organised by the local job centre, and featured one-to-one chats and information about Linkedin, CVs and the suchlike.



And so the afternoon rolled round, Jools came home and I waited for an e mail that might never come. at three I turn off the computer, and we pull on our walking boots and gird our loins for another long walk. You see I have 'liked' a couple of our local pubs on Facebook, and both now update me on a daily basis what beers they are putting on. Yesterday morning I was informed that they had a porter from the Fat Cat Brewery on. Now, the Fat Cat is a pub in Norwich, which has won the CAMRA pub of the year title twice. That's the national title. And now they brew beer too. I guessed it would be good. The picture looked good.



So, we should walk to Deal again, like we did last week. and end up at The Berry for a little bit of beer tasting. Good idea.

So we set off into bright sunshine, and a stiff southerly breeze. But that would be fine as we would have that at our backs all the way to the pub. We walked along to the pig's wood, down the dip and up the other side. My back was complaining, but I think that was due to me sitting down for most of the week. I decided to walk through the pain and hope it got better.



It did and once we were on the tarmac of the cycle path, all was fine and we were walking in bright sunshine all the way down into Kingsdown. We stopped at the beach for a sit down, on the benches that used to be on the promenade, but now is home to most of the shingle beach that the storms had moved. We walked on past the drinkers sitting outside The Zeltand Arms and on along the coastal path. We could see Walmer Castle getting nearer, then the houses of Walmer itself began. And all at once we were in deal, crossing the coast road, heading down Canada Road and into the warmth of the pub.



We were greeted like the regulars we're becoming, and I order half a Thundering Molly for Jools and a pint of the Fat Cat porter for myself. The porter was as good as it looked, but i sent a second down the hatch just to make sure. Jools even had a second half, so by the time we called for a taxi to take us home, we were just fine.

At home I venture into the kitchen to cook sausages and saute potatoes, which comes out very well. And so we take to the sofa for our weekly dose of The Don.

One last thing to regale you with: In the past 20 years, all sorts of bands and acts have reformed to do gigs and grand tours. Bands from the Sex Pistols to the Stone roses to The Eagles and Led Zeppelin have done gigs and shows in recent years. One act I would never thought to return to playing live would be 'The Blessed Kate.' I first got wind of something when a contact tweeted #KateBushinternetmeltdown. I thought nothing of it, really. But his next tweet was a link to the Kate bush website on which she announced 15 gigs in London for September.

Her first shows in 35 years since her ONLY tour ended in 1979. I could imagine men of a certain age in tears around the country as the news sunk in. The scramble for tickets begins next Friday, and needless to say, I will be in the hunt. Especially as i will be on holiday anyway.



NB: tomorrow will see the publication of my 900th blog. Which is an incredible thing, especially when you see how most of my friends gave up after a few posts.