Last day of work, well, until after the weekend of course. As I am to meet a friend in the afternoon, I have the car, so I have to take Jools to work. Should be simple, but all it takes is a road to be closed, the dumb driver (me) to think he knows a short cut, and like all good hobbits know, shot cuts makes for long delays.
Very true in this case, as I stumble into the house at half eight, switch on the computer only to find it will not work. I switch it off and back on again. Still does not work. So, just like in Right Said Fred, I have a cup of tea. Some toast. Try again. Still does not work. This is now getting serious, as my mobile will not now sync to my mailbox either, so I cannot get any mails either. Anything could be happening!
I boot it in safe mode, then try again, and it works. It is quarter to ten.
I do the stuff I have to, try to update that I only have read writes on our shared drive. It is a problem we all have. Apparently. So no work can be done there. At eleven I have a meeting, and within ten imutes the server which carries the sound crashes. I can hear nothing, no matter how many times I try to join the meeting.
I tie up some loose ends, but there really is little I can do. In Denmark, people are logging off for the weekend. I keep my laptop on as I have lunch of boiled eggs and another cuppa. At two I leave home to go to meet a contact from Flickr who has driven all the way from Gloucestershire to see the white Lady Orchid I snapped last week. He was coming no matter what, no matter that the Gods had decided to throw everything at Kent that day. As I drove towards Folkestone I could see the storm clouds gathering. I went to Wye to have a look for the Late Spider Orchids: At first all I found was a pike of cages and no orchids, I began to worry that maybe they had been stolen or eaten by sheep. But I was early, but not too early as it happened, as I spotted the first of the spikes, and one flower just opening.
Got that one.
And quickly to PGD to snap the Monkey: the weather was holding: just. So I rushed to the second paddock, snapped a few as the first rain drops began to fall. I went as quickly as I could back to the car, and arrived as the rain began to lash down.
Of course, it was at this moment Simon arrived: he was determined to snap a Monkey or two, so donned a sou'wester and oilskins, or the modern version, and ventured out onto the down. He returned some ten minutes later, soaked.
We drove in convoy to Barham, I got an umbrella out, as it was raining so hard. We walked up to see the Lesser Butterflies: one had a flower or two out, but I was not getting my camera out in monsoon conditions. Simon did though. We then slithered our way back down to look in the other site for the white Lady.
Thankfully I had found it when I met Jim a couple of days earlier, so it was a quick matter of entering the wood, finding the path, and there it was.
We were by now, soaked. We tried to find some Fly, and I found a nice triple, but it was a lost cause to be honest. He wanted to head back via the Chilterns, where the weather promised to be better, and I had to go to pick up Jools in Hythe. So it was a quick run down the Elham Valley, and i was there with ten minutes to spare: but the rain still was tipling down. Jeez.
Jools comes out and we have to go via many back roads to get to the other side of the town so to dodge the traffic, as we head up the down towards the motorway, the clouds part, mocking the orchid hunters with the stunning light now available. We drive home, and as we climb away from the docks at Dover, the cliffs of France are as clear as anything, they look only a handful of miles away.
For dinner we have more dirty food: kofte kebabs and fried potatoes. It was lovely needless to say.
Somehow, it was half seven in the evening, and time was slipping through our hands already. But it was weekend. Time enough for a date with the Don and Nigel in the garden.
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