Saturday 27th July 2019

Pay Day

Pay Rise.

Weekend.

Triple whammy.

Yay.

And after a week when temperature records have been smashed all over the UK and Europe, then the weekend arrives to overcast and wet weather.

Bugger.

Not much point in going out orchiding without the sun, and anyway, it being the first weekend of the school holidays, the roads to and from the port were jammed.

Jammed.

By nine the Duke of York's roundabout was blocked, and this continued through the day. We were, literally, going nowhere.

So, I rake have the lawn/meadow that I cut the previous week, gather up the dried grass and plants, then scarify what is left, getting abother bag of dried dead stuff to collect.

This is all necessary to ensure that the seeds present last week are separated from the dried plants and can fall to the ground and make contact with the soil to have the best possible start for next year's display.

Looking wild takes a lot of managing.

Perennial wild flowers require no re-seedings year on year, just ensuring that what is produced each year and mostly be saved for the next.

So it goes, so it goes.

At eleven, we made plans to go to Whitstable to visit friends. Getting there was going to be difficult, mind.

Google live traffic suggested that the jams had clear: it lied, the Deal road was stationary when we went past the Swingate. So, I do a quick three point turn on a blind bed: eek! and we go down through Guston, Pineham and onto the Sandwich road the other side of Whitfield. Of course, half the town had the same idea, and the lanes were busy, but we made it, and soon were cruising to Sandwich before going to Preston to call on the butchers for some nice pork pies.

All sold out.

So, made do with sausage rolls, before driving across the marshes at Stourmouth before driving towards London on Thanet Way.

Job done.

We call in at Tesco at Whitstable for more nibbles, then onto Wayne and Tracie's where were present ourselves.

Tracie has had an operation on her feet, to straighten out her toes, so now has what looks like mechano sticking out the end of her toes.

Eek!

But she is getting better. And I had taken Wayne some stupid strength Belgian beer to help him on his way in installing a new kitchen.

Turns out 8% La Chouffe isn't much help, especially when it comes in litre and a half bottles. We share that and the second of the smoked beers I bought, and we make a slight dent in the mountain of food we brought.

They also have a new kitten: Harry, a Bengal and Abyssinian cross, which makes for a handsome and clever kitty cat.

We all doted after him until our constant playing wore the more mite out and he went to sleep under the sofa, out of our way.

At four, we made our excuses and left, following our footsteps back to Thanet then down to Sandwich and home. By which time the jams had not cleared. Jools, driving because of the beer I had drink, had to do a U turn on the A2 and go through the town, then past the castle and along the cliffs to home.

Made it.

It was just possible to stay away watching Gardner's World, but at eight, I decided to go go to bed to read, with Scully joining me sitting between my legs, as dusk fell, and I learned again about the Skunk Works at Lockheed Martin. The reason for this was, having read it before, how in develpoing the X planes and the SR-71, most of what technology was used, was tried and tested.

A lesson to be learned by all of us who work in engineering.