Tuesday 31st August 2021

Back to work.

Again.

There's always work.

And Jools is also back after four day weekend, and we still say there's not enough hours in the weekend, three or four day weekend, so we had better try to work out how to retire.

Once Jools had left for the office, and yet another heavy shower drenched the garden and topped the butts up, I logged on to work to find that two long term colleagues had resigned on Monday. The experience drain is really something else. One, Sara, is n our department, and feels she has given the new company a go, and has decided to try something new. She called me up to tell me in person, even though it was by Teams, rather than hear second hand.

So it goes, so it goes.

THere is stuff to prepare, as I have audits to do in the near future. I put on some music and try not to be too distracted.

There is also no bread in the house. So I make bread. Mix the dough then put it in a warm oven to rise for 90 minutes, then cook for half an hour. I have to explain to Kit, an Indian colleague, tht I do the cooking in our house, the implicationthat I wasn't sure if that is a normal thing there. I had to break off when the timer went telling me to take the loaf out of the tin and put it back to crisp the bottom for five minutes, as you can't beat a crisp bottom.

Apparently.

The day drags, not even nice or sunny enough for a walk. In fact the early autumn coninues, but I was set that I wasn't going to put the heating on. SO I have a shower when I got too cold and put some thick socks on.

I struggle on. I mean there were soldiers at the Siege of Stalingrad warmer than I was.

Maybe.

The sun des come out, and I venture out with the camera to see what I coudl snap.

A nursery web spider, waiting her its next meal.

And a freshly emerged Small Tortoiseshell butterfly resting on one of the brick surrounds between the meadow and flower beds.

And the real highlight of the day was the delivery of the new work phone. Its only a few months since my last phone arrived, butthe new company has a new supplier and I need to change to access the new company's systems.

Next would come the process of transferring data and apps from one to the other.

But Jools played with the new phone when she came home and found a lot could be done via bluetooth, although after setting it up the old access code wasn't considered good enough and had to think of a new, six digit one, I mean, how do you think such memorable ones can be thought up? And the phone gave me just 59 minutes to complete the task.

And that is pretty much the day done.

Darkness comes ever earlier, and tomorrow sees a new month, one with an "R" in it, so that could mean snow or something.

It is also transfer deadline day too, with clubs that were claiming to be broke a few months ago, spending tens of millions on players who probably won't improve their squads.

I give up at nine, to complete reading the book on music, the final chapter about Amy Winehouse, and it is heartbreaking.