Sunday 9th March 2014

Friday.

It was really odd to wake up knowing that Jools no longer has a job. She was to go into work to get some paperwork and see what would be said. Initially we said that she would leave at lunchtime, and I would come and pick her up. I did not want to go into the office, but as my computer was still messed up, I really had to.

I dropped Jools off at the factory and headed up to Whitfield then out on the Sandwich road. It was a fine morning, the sky was clear and the sun was already abroad. There wasn't even any breeze, so I hoped the monkeys would be at work offshore. However, when I arrived I found that they had a day onshore, and some were trying to install Windows 8, and complaining loudly about every step.

I switched on my computer to find that Outlook worked perfectly, and so my trip into the office was wasted. Or I could have worked from home after all.

At nine I called Jools; she was in tears, not because she was sad, but because everyone who came to see her burst into tears, so she did too. She had the paperwork and so she could leave whenever she wanted. I checked to see if I had anything urgent, set up an out of mail message and headed back to Dover.

I pull up at the gate as she leaves the building. She is to go back next week for debriefing, but beyond next Friday she will be paid until the end of the month but not required to work, so not having to see her notice out. We have plenty to talk about so drive off chatting. Oddly, we are both hungry, so we head to Deal for 2nd breakfast at the pier.

I order a medium breakfast, Jools a small. And we sit there looking at back along the pier to the town stretched along the beach. We seem strangely cal to be honest. But these are early days, and despite the setback, we are full of hope for the future.

We head back home to talk about what we are to do. The day passes.

I cook pasta for dinner, and then at seven it is time to head out, or at least wait for my friend Peter to collect me to take us to Folkestone for the gig. Yes, a gig: The Stranglers at the Leas Cliff Hall. I last saw Themeninblack some 33 years ago, when they walked off stage as a result of an argument between Hugh and JJ. Now that Hugh has left, let us hope that the gig will last longer than the 20 minutes it did that night at the UEA.

Peter has an Audi TT, and we zoom off at what feels like mach 1, and don't slow down! It is fun, but expensive to run I imagine. We find a place to park near the venue, and then find a bar in which to have a pre-gig drink.

Or two.

As nine o'clcok neared, Pete said that the support, 9 Below Zero should have finished. I have always wanted to see them, and now it was too late. Indeed as we walked in the roadies were clearing their equipment away from the stage.

At 9, The Stranglers take the stage and tear the place up. It is their 40th anniversary tour, which means tracks from all periods of their career. We get No More Heroes, Nice N Sleazy, Duchess, and many other wonderful songs. They play for an hour and a half, and come back to play two encores. They finish with an almighty version of Tank. And then it was over. Just under two hours, and my ears are ringing.

Highlight was hearing duchess live for the first time. A wonderful song, and great to hear the crowd sing along. Oh yes, the crowd: mostly men and women of a certain age, soft around the middle, and many without much hair. And like Pete, once had been spotty herberts pogoing at the front of the crowd at the Hammersmith Odeon, now driving high end cars paid for by good jobs, but still loving the music of their youth.

Keeping their youth alive? Perhaps, but good music never dies. We drive back, with Pete putting the Audi through its paces as it heads up the old main road to Capel. Out POlo struggles to get up to 30, the Audi was doing near to 70 as we went round the tight bend at the top.

And that was it, an altogether odd Friday all round. And the start of a new era.