Wednesday 13th January 2021

Hello.

And welcome to Wednesday, the best day between Tuesday and Thursday we have.

Use it well, and enjoy.

The day began with exitement.

First of all, let me say due to a bad shoulder/arm, I am sleeping in the spare bed, as I struggle to get a comfortable position, I get the spare bed and Jools get the big one and most of the cats.

Oh well.

I mention this, as I woke up Wednesday morning, having felt I had had enough sleep, but being January, it was still dark it could be anywhere from midnight to after seven in the morning. At times like this, I lay in bed and listen, usually I can hear Jools in the kitchen even with the door closed, or a cat eating on the stairs, sharp teeth crunching on kitty kibbles or water running as Jools washes up.

Or something.

Or, he soft breathing from the other bedroom.

Some noise.

But there was none.

I lay there, dozing, listening to the rain being thrown at the side of the house. I felt it time to get up.

So I do. I check the time, by flicking the bedside lamp on and off. I had to do it three times to be sure, thus ruining my night vision. It was five past six. I walked to the top of the stairs, and could not hear any noise from the kitchen. Instead I heard Jools breathing deeply in the other bedroom, still fast asleep. She should leave home at twenty past, or does most days.

So I have to wake her up.

The alarm didn't go off, I stated the bleedin obvious.

I turned it off yesterday so not to wake you up she said.

So, I go downstairs to feed the cats, make tea/coffee, and get stuff ready so Jools could go for a shower, get dressed and be off as soon as possible.

The cats are not sure of me feeding them in the mornings, but are too hungry to car, with even Cleo jumping up on the worktop to hurry me along.

The kettle boils as Jools showers upstairs. And soon enough she is dressed too, and sitting drinking her tea as the clock ticked towards seven.

And she was gone.

Leaving me and the cats who now they had eaten, we upstairs in their various liairs, snoozing already. Mulder is on the footstool the other end of the living/dining room, and is soon gently snoring. Nothing better than a snoring kitty cat.

I get out the work computer and fire it up, hoping there would be some news.

Of course, the was none.

So to work, and preparations for the customer audit on Thursday, for which I should have been in Hartlepool all week for. But am not, thanks to COVID.

So here we are, exchanging e mails and heated phone calls on Skype.

By the end of the day, we were aligned and ready.

Meanwhile, outside the rain fell, not that hard, but enough to suggest a walk round the block, or further would be a silly thing. So I look out of the window as the bords still feeding in the garden.

I make bread for lunch, with a mixture of white and brown bread flour, add seeds, and let it proove in the oven on the lowest setting with the door open. Tow hours later it had overflowerd the edges of the tin, so I start to cook it.

Mmmmm, fresh bread.

Once cooked and cooled after another meeting at which there was no news, I cut the crust and two slices. For the crust I butter and then smother in apricot jam, and the other I make cheap rubens, with salt beef, sliced pickle and the last of the Dijon mustard.

Yummy.

Man, I know how to cook and bake these days, it was wonderful, and almost tempted to have another slice with jam. But I don't.

Back to work.

And through the afternoon I make carrot and potato soup, an adapted recipe by me. With added beef stock, and curry spices to give it a kick.

I whizz up the broth at four, and warm through at just gone five, butter some bread, and all is ready for when Jools comes back home.

Mighty tasty.

We eat all the soup and half the bread.

Lovely.

And somehow it was evening again. I mean, what shall we do?

Listen to the radio, follow football on the BBC website, drink coffee and have the rest of the chocolate bar.

And that was that.

Oh, and watching a video of the highest railway in the world, climbing from the Peruvian cost to the top of the Andes in about three hours, though shorter on video. Two photographers sat on the buffers all the way up, snapping away. I am jealous, precious.

And also following the impeachment process in Twitter.

Quite a night.

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