Monday 19th October 2015

Sunday

Dawn broke and light seeped out onto the countryside outside the house, autumn it may be, but there is little golden colour about yet. The day was grey and damp, but with a promise of sunshine later in the day.

Maybe.

I have a coffee and settle down to watch the football, and the day grew brighter outside.

With the weather so grey, at least for now, the plan formed in my head to head into Dover, to have a wander, take some snaps of the demolition, buy some new shoes and boots. Well, a pair of each, really; I am no Imelda Marcos. And then decide on the afternoon.

A grey and gloomy Sunday morning in Dover: maybe Stephen Patrick Morrissey could write a song around that.

But I digress.

I was in town to buy some shoes. We still have some shops in town, and I feel some things cannot be bought online, and shoes is one of them. Even if it does making Mike Ashley even richer, and with yesterday's result on Geordieside, we would't really want to do that.

But it has also been two weeks since I last snapped the demolition, or ongoing demolition, of Burlington House, which is be be pulled down by hand rather than be blown up because of the A20 running next to it.

Since I was last here, The County Hotel has just about gone, and Burlington House is now shrouded in plastic as the real work begins.

The town is quiet, even on Biggin Street, there is just a handful of us about, but Costa is packed with coffee junkies, as is Weatherspoons, packed with those who need beers at ten on a Sunday morning, we all worship in our own ways. I walk round the demolition site, back up to The Castle inn, and then to Castle Street before deciding that I would get the shoes and head home. Which is what I do. A pair of trainers, a pair of walking boots, and no free bag now, of course. So I totter back balancing the boxes on one arm as I carry the camera in the other, back to the car near the promenade and then on to home.

And then comes the decision after looking outside, that's never going to clear up, lets not do the walk in the woods thing. Needless to say in half an hour the clouds part and it is a wonderful and warm afternoon. Anyway, I had said I was going to cook all afternoon, then relax listening to City on the radio. And at least one of them happened.

I roasted some vegetables, then whizzed them up, added to some mince and let the whole lot simmer for an hour. We would warm that up to go with pasta for dinner. I had decided to make spicy pumpkin cake, but after mixing the sugar and butter, cutting open the squash I find it is rotten in the middle and is well stinky. So what to do now? I have a few carrots, and half a swede: so I grate those up, add them to the mix and pop it in the oven. Even bad cake is good, right?

Well, almost anyway, it is good enough, we have a slice with coffee before the football begins.

Oh yes, the bloody football. Six two! 6-2! we lost! Newcastle had six shots on goal, scored with every one, and apparently we defended like blancmanges. How to ruin an afternoon.

I warm up the sauce, cook the pasta so have a fine, tasty meal. And enough sauce to freeze and have again.

But already the weekend was wasting away, but one thing is for sure, I did not need to tape MOTD. Oh no.