Tuesday 18th August 2020

It has been 171 days since I left Kent.

Or approx 3.791 hours.

But with rules on meetings loosened enough to allow face to face meetings, I was to head into the world of blades once again.

A three night stay in Southampton, with a day at Fawley and a long day travelling to the Isle of Wight and back on Thursday.

Life at home has settled down with the kittens, but the pooing has git no better, with beds now the target it seems. On Monday my bedding a duvet had ti be cleaned, and again last Tuesday when Jools returned home. We are at a loss. Neither of us have seen such a thing, despite us both always having had cats. We hope they will grow out of it. Quick. Though it is likely to just be Cleo who is the guilty party.

We get up, survey the damage, find the little gifts. Thing is, they're both so cute too.

Jools goes for a walk, I faff around, and am ready fir work, though not many if us are, it seems.

After three hours work, I wrap up, go to pack, and then we have early lunch of pork pie and salad. Odd how being home for si long is now so very normal, and the thought of three days away, so hard.

Anyway.

I load the car: case, work bag and camera bag containing one camera. I kiss Jools and I climb in, set the sat nav fir the centre of Southampton, and I am gone in a cloud if dust.

I take the A/M20 route north, its easy enough. I put the radio on, the air con on, and I cruise at sixty all the way past Maidstone, onto the M26 to the M25 and out of Kent.

Surrey.

Much the same as Kent, but with more cars and stockbrokers.

Dark clouds gather, and there was warning signs if standing water!

Then water, actual water, fell from the sky, and soon each vehicle was making its own little cloud of mist. Speed drops to 50, if that, and it is not pleasant.

I reach the M3 turn, there was blue skies to the south, so I press on in that direction. Traffic thins and the rain stops as I pass Winchester. I din't stop.

On to Southampton, and through the leafy suburbs, down streets that have been reduced to single lanes, to make cycle lanes. It is slow going.

I press on, and the sat nav guides me through the centre, along some side streets, and arrive at the hotel less than three hours after leaving home.

Perfect.

I check in, dump my bags in the room and get the camera out to go for a wander. Southampton has the most complete city walls of any English city, so there should be plenty to snap. And having been here before I knew the direction to head for. I find the first stretch if all, climb the modern steps to the battlements, then over a modern bridge ti the western edge of the old city, which now looks down on a modern shopping centre. As is always the way.

I walk along, before I realise I was nearer the parish church, and just down from there is a very fine pub, serving fine Wadworth ales, which I used to sup when I lived in Wiltshire.

It was open, and only had two other customers, so I had a pint of Swordfish, a rum infused ale, which went diwn very well, so I sent a pint of 6X down to keep it company.

Lovely.

It almost felt normal, drinking in a pub, swapping jokes with the two old soaks and the barmaid.

But two pints in the late afternoon isn't clever, my head was spinning, so I pick up the wall again down the quayside, and follow it back up around the High Street.

I was hot and tired. So, I went back to the room, tried to do some work, but the late afternoon sun turned it into a sauna. I snoozed on the bed, only to be woken up by my glamourous assistant, Terry, who had arrived from North Wales.

We agreed to meet in half an hour and try to find one of the restaurants that one of the soaks had recommended.

We walk past one of the old city gates, now divorced from the walls, through a typical modern shopping street, down a side street and to a small modern restaurant. Not much to look at, and no seating inside, but it was a warm and pleasant evening, so we took a table outside and looked at the menu.

I decide on ant-pasti followed by penne bolognase to follow, we also have garlic bread and fries. Its a large amount if food, which we had little chance of finishing.

But it was all good, we pay and walk back. Doorways of shops are now places for homeless to sleep, now the Government thinks COVID is over, they are back on the streets. Some pitiful, really.

I pass on a nightcap, and go back to the room t relax and try to sleep.

Day done