The year gets ever older as we edge towards the bright new golden dawn that undoubtedly 2016 will be. Thursday will bring you a bumper review of 2015, and what I thought of it and whether it ranked as one of the best or one of the worst of years. Or maybe it was just both?
Yes, the year creeps towards its end, but we can squeeze more fun stuff out of it can't we? I believe we can.
So, the plan was to go up to that London to look at the festive lights, but with the closure of the line between Dover and Folkestone, this required some alternative travel arrangements. Free parking is available at Folkestone West, which on the face of it seems fair enough, and indeed on the trip up was simple as anything. However, I thought that the change to the high speed line at Ashford might be a little busy, so I suggested staying on the 'classic' line up to London, and as we would be arriving at Victoria, a place we had not visited for a few years, we might like to walk into the West End from there, past Buck House, Trafalgar Square, Leicester Square and all that.
But with the extended travel time, we opted to catch the quarter past twelve train thus arriving in London just after two. Traffic to the port was light, so we arrived at the station with half an hour to spare. A cafe has opened up in the ticket hall since we last used it, so we bought a coffee and a cookie then went onto the platform to wait for the train. We could see it standing at Folkestone Central less than half a mile up the line, but it was still mild, warm enough to be up and about without a coat on to be honest, and up in London it would be even warmer.
We settled down in our seats for the run up to Ashford, where more than 90% of people got off to change to the high speed line. We then trundled up through the Kentish Weald up to Tonbridge and into the south eastern London suburbs before making our way through houses and industrial areas to run into Victoria beside Battersea Power Station, or whatever it will become once its transformation is complete. There are fantastic views across south London looking towards Canary Wharf and The City, with the mostly clear blue sky, it is rather stunning. But then is quickly lost as we snake though more houses or shops.
We pull into Victoria, bathed in golden light from the low sun. I look back at the end of the platform to snap the scen before we walk down towards the concourse where we met most of humaninty who seemed to be looking for a train out of the city. In truth, there were crowds everywhere, and later we would encounter dense crowds in town for the lights, the sales or just to wander around in a zombie like state, updating Facebook on their mobiles. 
We have a pasty before we left, opting to sit in a small square outside the station and eat, on other benches are workers dressed in their reflective clothes, sipping coffee, smoking or just goofing around. All around is wonderful architecture, all with a French-flavour, looking more like Paris than London. Then a hundred yards away all is building sites as yet more modern office blocks are rising from the London clay. Ten minutes away is the back of Buckingham Palace, and it is here we encounter more crowds, crowds that do not let up until we get off the train back in Folkestone. Down past the wall of the Palace's gardens there are groups of tourists, being guided by umbrella wielding folks. We walk past, but then we see the road opening up as we come to the familiar front of the place and the view all tourists want to record.
People are jammed against the railing, snapping a whole load of nothing going on; a couple of guards a hundred yards away standing at attention. We walk across the road to the Vicoria memorial; Victory has her norks out, again. Not sure why Victory is thus depicted, but it is always so. I snap her and other figures before we turn to walk up The Mall. It is lined with grand buildings and memorials, it is also thronged by people of all nations just out enjoying the late afternoon air and sights. Over to the right you can see over the park to Westminster and Horseguards.
Under the portals of Admiralty Arch and into Trafalgar Square. But we don't want to linger here, we make our way past the National Gallery into Leicester Square where a fair had been set up once again. It is a short walk from there to Piccadilly Circus then we were at the start of Regent Street. Now, Regent Street is w wonderful piece of continual architecture, but also home to some of the most famous brands ion the world, all having sales now. So, as you can imagine the crowds here were thick and we soon lost any patience we had as we made our way to Oxford Circus, then turning west as Jools wanted to go into John Lewis for some tag things to help her crochet. I waited outside. 
The sun had set by now and the light began to fade, the festive lights showed up against the darkening blue sky. We walk back to Oxofrd Street and then down Regent Street, at least for one junction. We turn off to find Carnaby Street, as the light there are always special, and are again this year. From there back onto Regent Street for one last shot before walking along to Wardour Street and then into Soho, to find a place to eat. Thing is, no matter what you want to eat, there will be somewhere in London to cater for your taste; we past a quiet looking barbecue place, looks good, so go in and order ribs and a beer. In fact we have ribs, fries, bbq beans, fried okra. And beer. It is wonderful, and very filling. And despite being in town for just a few hours, we had had enough of the crowds, so set about trying to get back to St Pancras.
Down through Chinatown, thronged with people, mostly Chinese tourists, I suppose looking for a taste of home. We find the tube at Trafalgar Square, I have time for just 'one more shot' before we vanish underground for that crowded train north. It is like a sauna down there, and the train crowded, but we find a carriage with space, so we hang on for the 5 stops to Kings Cross. We have 5 minutes to make it to the Southeastern platforms, and climb onto a train for Margate; we will have to change at Ashford. We find two seats together, settle back and the train pulls away, silently.
The guard advises us to travel round to Ramsgate, get a connecting train to Dover, rather than get off at Ashford as there would only be a ten minute saving. We mull it over and decode to get off at Ashford anyway. Once off the train we find we have a 45 minute wait, I notice the vending machine has just one Mars bar in it, nothing else. How soon before we start eating the weakest? An announcement comes out over the tannoy, a bus is now leaving for Folkestone and Dover. We rush down to the stand, and climb on an ancient double decker, we wait 5 more minutes before we rattle off round the ring road to the motorway.Ours is the first stop, we walk to the car and from there is is a trundle along the A20, over the cliffs and down into Dover. It is very quiet, but from the top of Shakespeare, we can see the lights of the French coastline. Along the deserted Townwall Street, past the docks and then up Jubilee Way and so to home. The cats are waiting, demanding to be fed, even though we had left extra food out.
We just have enough time for a coffee and an episode of The Bridge before bedtime. Phew, rock and roll
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