Friday 29th December 2017

Friday was the day of the camera delivery. I checked my e mails first thing and the tracking said it would be delivered between 9 and 5, but on busy days later than that.

Which meant that I would be stuck inside until the parcel was delivered, so Jools would be the one to go shopping. As she had some cash left on a Sainsbury's card, she went to Deal at eight to get some essentials, and wine. And I cleared up in the house.

And the compact camera had recovered now it was dry, and worked as it should! phew. No more using it in the rain, then.

The delivery van pulled up at nine on the dot, and I was presented with a huge box; seems that I had missed the bit where it came with a bundle of extras. But despite waiting for 6 months for this moment, I wait longer to open the box. Jools comes home with the shopping, we put that away, have breakfast, wash up and put the stuff away.

And then I start to open the box. I did nearly cut a finger off with the knife, but then life is meant to be exciting. First thing I find in the box if a new camera bag; one of the items in the free bundle. I like this bag a lot, and comes with a waterproof compact camera bag, and one for a DSLR which folds into a small pack. That will come in handy out in the orchid fields of Kent. Also there is a high capacity battery and a ultra high speed memory card. And then there is the camera.

First thing to do is to charge both batteries, as the camera also came with a battery, and then wait.

Outside the rain was hammering down again, and would continue until the afternoon, but after lunch there should be a clearing of the sky, and there might be some light in which to do a small wee test of the new camera.

After lunch the clouds do clear, but there seems to be more rain clouds building, so we jump in the car and go down to the Bay to take a few shots.

And as lunch would have it, it was low tide, meaning lots of tones and colours on the chalk shelf stretching into the sea, all out of water. The northern end of the bay was bathed in warm sunshine, but the cliff nearest was in deep shadow.

I walk onto the beach to get a shot with no people of the cliff, then go to look at the seaweed on the chalk shelf, before walking up the beach into the sunshine.

Any thoughts of trying out the Coastguard, some two years after it had been taken over by SN was shelved as I could see the car park full and people sitting outside drinking as the bars were full. I like a beer, but not enough to sit outside drinking, not when I could have a beer at home.

So we return home, have a brew and a mince pie and listen to the radio some more, settling back in the familiar pattern of the last few days.

After dinner we watch Black Mirror, or an episode of it. Jools has paid for a Netflix subscription, so we were able to sit back and enjoy some good scifi.

And that is it really, two days of the year left, Mulder still bouncing about, and all seems better in our world.