Wednesday 25th August 2021

Four months (!) to Christmas.

Get the sprouts on.

That, and it was birthday.

56 years before, halfway though TOTP, Mum's favourite TV show, I decided to enter the world, thus meaning Mum missed the show.

And in celebration, I would be conducting the second day of a three day audit, via Teams, in Spain.

Yay, me.

I have an extra half an hour before I have to work, just as well as I slept though the alarm again, and only woke up as Jools came back up for a shower.

She is leaving as I drain my coffee, I go up for a shower so I feel half human for the audit. Just not sure which half is human, or what the other half might be....

The audit starts, so eyes down, and your starter for ten:

It wasn't that bad, but I find some issues, which in resolving show bigger problems.

Sigh.

Its what I get paid for, I guess.

We are done at half two, and with the sun out and the wind having dropped, it looked good enough to go for a walk.

With camera.

I set off, not across the fields, but up the track to Collingwood, and then down the smaller Dip and up to Windy Ridge. I was, of course looking for butterflies, I see a few, but not the QoS I was hoping to find. In fact the number of species was down.

I do get a Specked Wood baskig on a blade of grass, which looked fine, and later on a Hornet Mimic Hoverfly perched on a wire fence and looked stunning in the sunshine.

Not that many new flowers to be seen, other than a huge colony of Tansey I had not seen before, the first I had seen around here outside of our garden, which is over-run with the stuff, but bees love it.

I walk back home, pack up the work computer and ponder the issues I'm going to raise in the audit report.

I make a brew and watch Only Connect, and as there was no dinner to cook, I could chill out and be at the cat's beck and call.

Jools came home, and got changed as we were going out for dinner, to the Old Lantern for a Japanese meal, an even the pub does once a month, with the chef coming down from that London. That had got me a table for four, and to my surprise, considering she came to Japan with us and ate what we did, Jen said she didn't want to come, and nether did JOhn, which wasn't unexpected, we asked our neighbours if they wanted to come, and the said they did.

So, at half six we drove through Martin Mill and up the hill to Martin Village, getting the last parking space at the pub.

We go in and ere shown to a table, Jools and I taking the church style pew, which over three hours proved to be quite uncomfortable.

We have cocktails (min and Bev's booze-free), then we were served up the following over two hours:

Clear soup with grilled sea bass.

Yellow tail capriccio, mixed salad with wasabi dressing.

Beef tataki, dried garlic, spring onion ponzu sauce.

Nigiri: Bluefin tuna, fatty tuna, sea bream, salmon, salmon skin, scallop, snow crab, wagyu, salmon avocado roll.

Japanese dessert with fruit .

Warm saki. (I had just a very small amount).

It was all very good indeed, we talked and laughed with Steve and Bev, of course, and we had a fine old time. I thanked the former sleeping owner of the pub, Andy, who squeezed us in. We shake his hand and say we'll take the chef home with us.

It was half ten, so we drove back through Martin Mill and up the hill over the Deal Road to home.

Phew.

Pooped.