Thursday 24th April 2014

Tuesday.

And now the added problem begins of Jools starting work. She has a 12 week contract at a company in Canterbury, and my office here is in Canterbury. As she did not have to start until half nine, I decided to work from home, thinking that the IT problems from last week would be fixed, right? Wrong, nothing worked, well, with the exception of webmail again. And there was me thinking that IT would have fixed it over the four day weekend. Apparently not.

So, I worked as best I could, and all in all was quite productive. I arranged more visits, or at least sent in the applications.

Jools arrived home at about half five in high spirits, being able to do all the tasks her new employer wanted with the minimum of training. And most of the folks she works with are nice enough, and there is a small chapel on the site which interests me no end, I can tell you.

The evening was mainly taken up with watching Chelsea in the Champions league. As Chelsea have reverted to playing anti-football, in that they concede lots of possession and attack on the counter. ITV tried to tell us it was fascinating. In truth it was dull as ditchwater, in tat there is so much as stake and so the game ends in a dull, dull, dull 0-0.

Wednesday.

So, Wednesday, lets see if we can both go into the office. So, at half seven we head off for Ramsgate so Jools can drop me off before heading to the other side of Canterbury. Sadly, the traffic was crazy, at least for a Wednesday morning with most of the children still on holiday. Anyway, the 16 mile trip took 40 minutes giving Jools barely enough time to get to work in time.In fact she was a couple of minutes late, but this is something now we have learned.

I have another triumphant day at work, get lots done and send out a landslide of e mails, I feel in control and in a good mood. And the monkeys were offshore, so the office is as quiet as a morgue, which is just how I like it.

At half three, I set off on the greatest, hardest trip of my life, getting back home on public transport. I mean, how hard can it be?

Leg 1. Walk from the office along the harbourside to the bus stop. Without doubt the best part, as the sun shone down and the yachts and boats bobbed on mirror-like water. I saw a bus waiting, so I hurried on hoping not to have to wait the seven whole minutes for the next one.

Leg 2. I make the bus, pay my one pound ten and take my seat near the back of the bus. And off we go, up and down the narrow streets of Ramsgate, heading to the station.

Leg 3. I arrive at the station, pay nine pounds for a ticket, and look at the board. The 15:23 was reading as not having departed. So, I make my way to platform 2 as the train pulled in. Inside it was a mess as it had not been cleaned, but I took to a seat by the window and settled down, hoping that it would leave soon. Others had been waiting nearly an hour for this, so I was lucky.

It left at four, and trundled its way to Minster and then onto Sandwich, where every schoolchild in kent seemed to be waiting to get on the train. As you can imagine the train filled up with kids, all excited about going home. Most got off at Deal and Walmer, leaving the train fairly quiet as we descended into Dover from the portal of Guston tunnel.

Leg 4. The walk to the Rack of Ale. It was Jools' idea that I should wait in the pub until she arrived to pick me up, and i thought that a fine idea. So, there I was on St George's Day, sitting in the pub whilst the staff dressed as either St George of a serving wench hurried around giving out free food or making sure or glasses never emptied. What better way to spend and hour or so?

I was on my third drink, just a half, when Jools arrived. She joined me with a cider before we headed off back home to the cats. Needless to say there was no exercise done that evening, just me laying on the sofa, snoozing. Which was a fine way to end the day.