Saturday 21st December 2019

Not the shortest day of the year! Shock news.

Indeed it is not the shortest day, though I did not find out until later on in the day. Light returns at 04:20 on the 22nd, so although it means there is less than eight hours of light, from then on, each day will bring more.

Saturday dawned late, as did i, lazing in me pit like a sluggabed until nearly half seven. I must have needed it.

Outside, the rain hammered down like there was a flood coming or something. And we had agreed to go out early for some more hunting and gathering.

As with all the other traditional food eaten at this time of year that we have already partaken in, there is also cheese. And being cheese snobs, the only place to buy cheese is NO Name Shop in Deal, as they get the finest unpasteurised French cheeses in. And there is no cheese like it.

Seeing as we don't like people/crowds, the plan was to be at the shop when it opened at half eight, meaning for me, a coffee, get dressed and be ready to go out, out into the downpour.

It had been raining for hours, and the roads to Deal were like rivers, especially Station Road, where the water ran further down across the Deal Road down towards Martin.

We park on the seafront, just a short walk down Oak Street across Middle Street to the shop. We sat watching the clock countdown towards half eight, rain ran like a shower down the windscreen.

We scramble out, and pausing just so I could take a photo, we turn down Oak Street towards the High Street and the shop. Only to find it closed still. But opening soon.

Rain fell heavier, so we took shelter in the foyer of the town hall opposite. Cars pass by, their headlights illuminating the rain drops in their beams, twinkling like glitter caught in mid-air.

The door opened and we dash across.

Can we help you?

We would like a fine collection of stinky cheese for Crimbo!

And how much would you like to spend?

Thirty quid.

We point at random cheeses, and are all good we were told. We have six cheeses, they are weighed, and with the crusty bread we will smother with said cheese, it came to £29.92.

Perfect.

We pay and leave, walk back to the car. Final task of the day is to drive to Dover to visit the pet shop for some bird seed.

I say "some" bird seed, we buy sacks of peanuts and sunflower hearts, so we can have a garden full of chirping happy birds.

The store has ASDA one side and Morrisons on the other, but the car park is not yet full, so we can dash into the shop, grab the seeds and nuts, pay and we can leave. That's it for the day.

So we travel home back up Connaught Hill, past the castle and then to the Deal Road. Back home for ten, just in time for the Huey show on the wireless.

I now have most of the family photos, just in bags and boxes scattered around. The task is to sort through them, and the best of them be put into albums, the rest back in boxes and bags and stored until the house is cleared when we move or are no more.

So, I sit on the floor in the living room, with bags of photos, going through them one by one, sorting them into piles.

The morning turns into afternoon, Huey's show ends and Liz Kershaw statrts. I carry on sorting.

Come three when the football starts, I start putting the pile of photos of me in some kind of order, then taking shots out of one of the albums, and replacing them with sorted shots.

Mine done, I go on to sort out shots of Dad and his parents, and finally shots of Mum, from when she was a baby to when she met Dad.

The football had ended, and was just about to watch the evening game when I finished Mum's shots. Three partially filled albums, and just shots of Granddad's and Nana's family and childhood to put in. Nana's family, the Meades, were great photographers, well, snappers of themselves anyway. That will not be a small task, but the important ones are done.

Norwich lost 2-1 at home to Wolves, despite dominating most of the game again, caught by two sucker punches; one from a looping cross, as against Sheffield. A bad result, even if the way they played they deserved much more. Had we taken half the chances we created, we would have been hme and dry at half time, as it is, 6 points adrift from safety at nearly the midway point. Looking grim.

We have cheese and crusty bread for supper, I wash my down with a selection of strong ales, which indeed went down very well.

We watch another episode of His Dark Materials, which is coming along quite nicely indeed.