Tuesday 25th January 2022

As I have said many time before, days spent working from home merge into one. Doubly so when the weather is cold and grey, and so I cannot be encouraged to go out for a walk, not even to get to the end of the street.

I tell myself I'll go on Wednesday as its supposed to be brghter.

We shall see.

For Jools, things have quietened down at work now she has Donna, which means not rushing out in the morning an hour before dawn in order to try to catch up. Though I can confirm I did not hear the alarm go off, hear Jools get up, feed the cats, Poppy jump off the bed, Poppy jump back on the bed and go back to sleep on my legs. I wake again with Jools having turned the heating on and going for a shower.

It was six already.

I get up and go down to make coffee, the cats are already making their days beds up and having a wash.

So, time for work. And another day of document reviewing ahead.

I am not really achieving anything, other than confirming how out of control things are. As I get to the end of what I think is the last document there is a reference for another one. Is there no end to this madness, I screamed into the darkness.

I drink coffee, though less now. Just two in the morning before switching to tea. Reduces sugar intake I suppose.

The highlight of the day is the delivery of two ceramic backing trays, as I am to cook cauliflower cheese this week, and our metal pan got ruined in an oven related incident. Don't ask.

That's another excuse not to go out for a walk, waiting in for a delivery.

Next week we're going out to the dining club with Bev and Steve next door, so I go round to confirm their menu choices, and Bev and i chat about music and football. She's the Liverpool fan and so I hear her shout when they score, three seconds ahead of the feed I watch.

Talking of exciting, we had plans for the evening, so I had to have dinner done on time. At one point she called and I checked the traffic radar to guide her via the less jammed way back.

Traffic was dreadful for Jools, it took her until six to get home, by which time I had made the batter for fritters and just about finished cooking.

After eating, Jools got changed and we were out, off to Deal for a gig.

Paul Jones has been a figure on the UK music scene since 1962. He sang with Manfred Mann before going solo and then forming the Blues Band at the end of the 70s. He also hosted a blues show on Radio 2 for decades. He was on tour with the guitarist from the Blue Band, Dave Kelly, for a night of blues and chat about blues.

Dave has a long histroy with the blues, going back to Ken Colyer's Jazz club, where he played. He has also seen most of the blues greats and played with many too.

The Astor is a small theatre, we were in the VIP setas n the balcony, sharing the small table with an older couple, one of whom has a bad BO problem.

So it goes.

The show began at eight, and each song was introduced with stories about the writer or how they came to play it or both. It was all rather lovely, and it struck me this is a last chance to peer back to the birth of what was called beat music, but begat The Beatles and of course, the Rolling Stones. The link with Ken Colyer takes that back to the 1950s and the battle between trad and Dixie jazz, and it was Ken who went to New Orleans, played with the real greats there, and brought back the idea of the breakdown session, that he called "skiffle".

The rest is history and rock and roll.

We left at ten, they'd not quite finished, but Jools was pooped, and we had work in the morning.

We drove home through deserted Deal and Walmer and back to St Maggies, then to bed.