Wednesday 28th April 2016

Monday

Interview day, as I have previously blogged, but also it was back to work day, working from home day, and all things generally returning to normal after three weeks of traveling. Of course, traveling is now generally the norm, and working from home the exception, but hey.

Foolishly, a few weeks back, I promised few weeks back to provide some rather important documents to my boss at the end of this week, so, I had better make good on that promise and get started. I arrange meetings, get templates and begin work, and through the day, inbetween breaks for breakfast, mid-morning coffee, elevenses, lunch, brunch, afternoon tea, high tea I get it done until I have what is an OK first draft. That leaves me with four days to complete the other document.

All through the day I am helped by the cats, who check up whether I will maybe give them an extra meal. Or two.

The afternoon is full of meetings, the final one finishing just before my friend Gary comes round, he is here to snap the scenes behind the video camera. And you can read all about that in the post from yesterday, below. Once they had gone, and I bid them farewell into the taxi, Jools had just returned home all full of questions asking how it all went. I tied to answer, but I suppose my head was a bit scrambled; what better way to help than to feat on leftover pasta salad and aubergine? None whatsoever. I have a bottle of beer from the Farno Brewhouse in Denmark, which I have to say goes down very well indeed.

It comes as no surprise to learn that there was football that evening on the wireless, Tottenham v the Baggies, and all Spurs had to do was win to keep up the pressure on Leicester. And, in the first half it was going wekk, 1-0 up, playing well, hitting the woodwork 3 times. But after the break, they lost their way and conceded midway through the half, and could have lost the game. It ended 1-1, and so leaves Leicester needing just one more win from their last 3 games to claim the title. Incredible stuff.

Tuesday

On Monday I had a problem updating my work laptop, which could only be fixed by going to the nearest offices, in Ramsgate, plugging into the network then updating. The update would take 2 minutes, but in order to be able to do this caused great disruption. Mainly for jools who had to either be taken into work and collected, catch a bus either way, or a combination of both. In the end I said I would take her into work, then in the evening she would catch a bus to Dover and I would pick her up.

Sounds easy, but we had to be up early and out of the house by half six, driving along Townwall Street was fine as there was no ferry in at the time, and the roadworks where the roundabout is being taken away from was no problems either. So it should have all been plain sailing. Or driving. And was until we came to the Roundhill Tunnels, where there had been a major accident and the road was closed, meaning we had to file onto the exit lane, go round the roundabout and get back on the road. This took the best part of 20 minutes, so was running a little behind, but once onto the A20 then on the back road to Hythe it was fine.

Coming back was OK, I picked up my work bag from home and thought a drive through Deal would be OK. And was until I got past Shouldham where I was in a massive line of cars stuck behind a roadsweeping truck, traveling at 5mph. That took another 20 minutes to get past, and by then it was rush hour at Ramsgate where the road divides to go up to Westwood Cross, stuck in more traffic there until I could turn off through the tunnel to the old ferry terminal and the office. Once I got past the roadworks along the seawall where they are laying a new sewer; another 5 minutes lost there.

I forgot how pleasant to commute to Ramsgate could be, through the Kentish countryside, fields alive with colour and the air thick with the smell of wild garlic as I went past Waldershare. What I don't miss is the crazy driving and chaos on the Sandwich bypass. However, I have the radio on, and all is well with the world.

Once into the office, and after the usual pleasantries after meeting friends and colleagues for the first time in many months, I powered up the laptop, changed the password, and was done. But I had other stuff I could do, and with the late arrival meant waiting until I had had a meeting before I could drive back home. This time getting stuck behind a tractor and stretching out the return trip to nearly an hour too.

Back home I have lunch, survey the back garden as the frits are beginning to fade now, but away from the south side look fine still.

Meetings, meetings, meetings. In the afternoon. It clouds over and looks like rain. So much so it does rain. Nearby, Faceache updates tell me its snowing in Dover, which is where it should stay. If you ask me.

I go to pick up Jools at six, then we drive home via the cliffs as the clouds had parted and allowed some late afternoon sunshine, highligting the storm clouds over France, though in drops of sunlight we could see the cliffs clearly.

Chorizo hash with Danish smoked stout to wash it down with, was a fine dinner, as we were both darned hungry. And then there was the small matter of the CL semi final between Citeh and Real; which was a borefest, so much so I went for a shower twenty minutes before half time. I missed nothing as the game ended in a 0-0 draw. Oh well.