Thursday 25th April 2024

The week grows old, but not really quickly enough, but it will soon be the weekend.

There is rumours that the wind might change direction for the weekend and it will feel less cold.

But we shall see.

We woke up to a brighter than expected morning, there is now an avian guard watching over the garden of all corvids (excluding chuffs), herring gills (not all, but at least two), and various tits, thrushes and chaffinches.

And so, to work.

For my second urgent task this week, I have to create a new procedure, so with the barest of guidance, I work though the day and to me, looks OK.

I send it to my boss at the end of the day.

In the garden the first of the Yellow rattle is in flower, so I take two attempts to record the fact.

Not sure what the neighbours think of it all, to be honest.

At the end of the day I send off my work to my boss, and log off, making a coffee to sup while I ponder the day.

I make bangers and mash for dinner, with the first batch to this year's wild garlic sausages. They're mighty fine as always.

And for the evening there is yet more football, Bright v Citeh which should have been a challenge, but Citeh run out 4-0 winners and barely break sweat in doing so.

Wednesday 24th April2024

The weeks and months slip by.

Its nearly the end of April, and there is much I could be doing, instead of work.

But work pays the bills. We probably could stop now, if we wanted, or needed to, but for the time being, we press on.

The wind is still set in the north, taking the edge of the afternoon temperatures and leading to slight frosts at night. On Tuesday night, the full moon hung from a blue-black sky as we went to bed.

I have mastered the art of going back to sleep. I woke at five fifteen when Jools got up, went to the bathroom, then went back to bed for another 45 minutes kip, where I was on holiday in that Blackpool, apparently.

The garden and lawnmeadow is about to explode with colour, but for now it is anticipation.

I have been putting out fat balls on the ground for the blackbirds, but the two neighbourhood Herring Gulls spotted them yesterday, and came to carry one off. There are huge birds, and aggressive. Also large are the occasional Raven we have come in to the garden too now. We just need the reintroduced Chuff to make it and we'll have the full corvid set.

Again, with my knee acting up, its hard to get a shot of the day, no butterflies seen in the garden for two weeks since a fleeting glimpse of a female Orange Tip.

Work was meetings.

And phone calls all along the lines of: "you'll never guess what's gone wrong now?"

And so on.

It is cold and cloudy when I finish work at four, of just gone, so no walking again for me. Instead I listen to a podcast and then prepare dinner of fritters, made this time with honey, sultanas and smoked paprika. Which gave them a kick.

And then onto the Merseyside derby, a match when the red side beat the blue side twice a season. But on this occasion, Liverpool fluff their lines, miss with every shot, and Everton score twice.

Tuesday 23rd April 2024

On the 12th March, we began the update of the house.

Decorating.

Decluttering.

New carpets.

We moved in here in February 2008, and on the day we received the keys, we had a new carpet in the front bedroom, and about 6 years back we updated the bathroom. But apart from that, nothing done inside the house.

And even the front bedroom carpet is now 15 years old, of course, so hardly new.

It is the thought of getting it done that's bad, once the process starts, generally, its fine.

We started with sorting out the books in the back room, then spent a week painting and painting.

Carpet was laid and fitted shelving installed, all during Jools's days off from work and weekends.

Then it was the turn of the side bedroom, for that we got a guy in: Dixon. Or we paid Steffan and Steffan got Dixon to do it.

Painted the room, walls and ceilings. The same colour as the back room with the same carpet too, which was laid two days later.

Then over the weekend, Dixon painted the hallway, and on Tuesday the guys came to lay more carpet, all the same as the previous two rooms.

So, its looking pretty good up there. We'll pause for now and admire our, or Dixon's work.

On the 12th March, we began the update of the house.

Decorating.

Decluttering.

New carpets.

We moved in here in February 2008, and on the day we received the keys, we had a new carpet in the front bedroom, and about 6 years back we updated the bathroom. But apart from that, nothing done inside the house.

And even the front bedroom carpet is now 15 years old, of course, so hardly new.

It is the thought of getting it done that's bad, once the process starts, generally, its fine.

We started with sorting out the books in the back room, then spent a week painting and painting.

Carpet was laid and fitted shelving installed, all during Jools's days off from work and weekends.

Then it was the turn of the side bedroom, for that we got a guy in: Dixon. Or we paid Steffan and Steffan got Dixon to do it.

Painted the room, walls and ceilings. The same colour as the back room with the same carpet too, which was laid two days later.

Then over the weekend, Dixon painted the hallway, and on Tuesday the guys came to lay more carpet, all the same as the previous two rooms.

So, its looking pretty good up there. We'll pause for now and admire our, or Dixon's work.

Also complete is the crochet blanket Jools has been making since the early autumn. She had hoped to have it done by the time we went to Iceland, but the sheer number of panels meant she over ran.

And then came the decorating and garden, but she finished it last weekend, and now the cats thank her for their new bed.

So, on Tuesday, other than the carpet being laid upstairs, there was work.

Always work.

Jools is back to working every day, so once she has left I set up the office and plan my day.

Despite the team event last week, enthusiasm for the job is hard to come by, maybe I am thinking ahead to my annual assessment on Thursday.

With retirement now 16 months away, things such as assessments seem less and less important, and so I am not stressing about it, just that, as it is everywhere, education is valued by my employer over actual experience.

I make a batch of ragu through the day. Once all the ingredients were in, the pot simmered for five hours. I also made a half batch of baguette rolls, to have with the pasta.

I would have made focaccia, but that is just to darn good and overeating too tempting.

The rolls came out very well, lovely and crispy with good crumb inside.

I heat the ragu back up, cook some pasta and serve with wine. And splendid it was too.

The evening had yet more football: Leicester v Southampton. Top of the table clash, should have been close. But wasn't, ended 5-0 to Leicester.

Monday 22nd April 2024

Monday, and back to work. And after the faff of getting up at half three last Monday, it was quite the luxury to lay in bed until six, or a little past before getting ready for the day ahead.

Jools is back to working five days a week, so she is enthused about that, feeling useful once again, but it means I will have to the house, and cats, to myself all week, every week, again.

While I was away, the wind shifted to the north, and it is from there it still blows, very much taking the warmth out of the spring sunshine and giving us air frosts in the evenings.

So, I need the heating on during the day, and plenty of warming brews too.

Work soon settles back into its usual patterns, with me reaching out to friends and colleagues, catching up on news and indeed, gossip.

I make myself lemon pasta for lunch, and resist the urge to have a glass or red to wash it down with.

My knee suggested an afternoon walk wasn't a good idea, but instead I got the mower out to shorn two areas of the lawnmeadow, areas that I don't seed with wildflowers; the area around the washing line, and where the bird seed falls from the feeders.

It only takes ten minutes, and another ten to collect the clippings. The male and female blackbirds are suggesting I stop there so they can check for works on the newly revealed soil.

In the hedge, a wren sings so sweetly..

Jools is off to aquafit, so just crumpets and brew for dinner, and she is off. I wash and tidy up, have a shower and so am ready for when the Middlesbrough v Leeds game kicks off at eight, with Leeds running out 3-4 winners in a very entertaining game.

Sunday 21st April 2024

There was no avoiding the fact that my knee was bloody painful. And even if the weather wasn't cold and breezy, I could not go out orchiding.

Jools asked what the plan was, and I said best not to do anything.

And with the painter, Dixon, coming round again to finish the hall, I could stay in and Jools could do chores, go swimming or whatever.

So that was agreed.

I laid in bed until ten to eight, meaning over ten hours sleep. I didn't feel like a million dollars, but it was an improvement.

We had breakfast, then Dixon was dropped off, and he got painting. I washed up, and Jools set about demolishing the wooden bookshelf she has used since she moved out of the family home over 30 years ago.

I guess it was hard for her, and we tried to freecycle it, but being veneered chipboard, it wasn't wanted as it would never sell.

We were told.

In fact we thought it solid wood, but as it came apart the chipboard became apparent.

The lawnmeadow is beginning to wake up. The cowslips are beginning to go to seed, but the Bulbous buttercups and dandelions are opening.

I take some shots.

Jools took the deconstructed wardrobe to the tip, did some shopping, coming back so we could have hot cross buns for lunch along with a huge brew before the afternoon's footy began.

Even by modern standards, there was a lot of football on the tellybox this weekend.

Centrepiece was the second FA Cup semi-final, again ruined by VAR chalking off a fine comeback by Coventry against Man Utd, from 3-0 down to 3-3, and VAR wiping out a lask kick winner for the Sky Blues in extra time as a players big toe was apparently beyond the last defender.

Utd won the shootout, and so I could go and make chorizo hash for dinner.

And without doing much, the weekend had gone.

Saturday 20th April 2024

It am the weekend. And after eight hours sleep, I hope no risk of migraines.

Not much planned for the day, because as usual after a trip away I like my home comforts.

Maybe if there was a rare orchid to see, I might be tempted, but otherwise, not much chance.

We go to Tesco just after seven, and are back out a hundred quid lighter, by eight, and on our way home, as come nine, Dixon is returning to paint our upstairs hallway.

I get a message from friend and author, Jon, to say is coming down with a friend to see the unusual orchid down on the Hoe, so could meet me, at say eleven?

So, that's the rare orchid to tempt me out of the house for.

Dixon arrived just after nine with two tins of paint and a pot of filler. And he gets to work right away, and never asks for anything as in his previous two jobs here. He just gets on with it, sometimes taking a call, but carrying on working just the same.

Jools is busy in the garden again, so stays behind when I go to Samphire, and thanks to conflicting reports, check round the overflow car park first for the unusual orchids.

I see no sign of Jon, so carry on inspecting every spike seen, and as usual find some with different, stronger markings than others. These are snapped.

Off down the path, where I see a guy stopping to check spikes too, I stop again to look at every spike on the way.

In the distance I see two figures, I suspect this is Jon, which is the case, though I am at the site looking for the strange ESO.

Jon arrives, we shake hands then hug, and he asks if I had found the spike?

No, just checking a bit further away.

He laughs and says it is good to know I have walked right past it and not seen it. A short distance away he points, and there as clear as day is the little plant with two of the unusual flowers open, bobbing in the breeze.

It certainly isn't var. flavescens, which translation means yellow coloured, which describes an orchid, or flower, with low pigmentation giving an apparent all-over yellow tint. This has strong coloured lip colourisation along the edge of the li both sides, but no colour or markings in the centre.

I take shots, Jon holds a diffuser for me to shade the plant from the strong sunlight. And then I'm done.

We walk back to the car, say goodbye and I drive back home, going to Capel and doing a 180 returning back to Dover and then to home up Jubilee Way.

Back home Dixon is still working away, so we have lunch of bacon butties and huge brews before I settle down for the football. Which on TV will mean back to back games from 12:20 all the way to half nine, with only the games at three needed to be listened to on the radio.

Norwich really only needed three points to secure the play off spot, indeed after WBA lost to Leicester, a win would take us 5th, but there is little surprise to hear that City only drew 1-1 in a game they under-performed.

Then came the FA Cup semi-final, Citeh v Chelsea, with minted Chelsea due to having wasted the billion quid spent on new players over the last the transfer windows, making the squad and team worse than before. Citeh won 1-0, and afterwards Arsenal won 2-0 away at Wolves

By which time it was time for bed.

Friday 19th April 2024

If I am honest, which I am, I slept poorly Thursday night. Four days without the ice pack meant that my knee was painful.

I woke at two and then three, not able to find a sleeping position that did not hurt.

I did doze, I suppose, but felt shit in the morning. All of this meant that I soon had a migraine building, so after a coffee (probably not a good idea) I went back to lay down, while Jools went to yoga, had breakfast out and then went for a hair cut.

I guess I laid in bed until about half eleven, just before Jools came back. Had a brew, then once she came back we had to go out for a meeting with our pension guy as our retirement gets ever nearer.

Jools drove us to Canterbury, going to long way to the University Campus to avoid city centre traffic.

Good news, all is going to plan, so we can start making firm travel plans for the latter half of 2025.

On the way back we called in at Samphire Hoe to look for an unusual spike of ESO, I had a grid reference, which I turned into a what3words code, and we set off.

But with storm clouds threatening yet more hail showers, we searched and searched, but found nothing.

So, we made a dash for the car and headed home.

Buttermilk chicken and salad fr dinner, but no quiz as Mark is on his holibobs, so we had a podcast on as we ate.

At least after several sessions with the ice pack and plenty of drugs, my knee did ache less, and I hoped for some sleep that night..

Thursday 18th April 2024

Time to go home.

With appointments on Friday, I was to bail on the team event just after lunch to catch the evening flight.

I wake at six, have a shower and get dressed, then go down to breakfast with Henrik, before going to pack my things.

Breakfast has bacon rolls, made with crispy Danish bacon, which is always cooked to perfection. There is also lashings of strong, black coffee.

I pay the bill and go outside to see Parandaman and Rajesh waiting beside the van, pointing to the frost on the windscreen, the first time they have ever seen such a thing.

Henrik had to scrape his screen with a tool, they told me. I touched the frost and found it already melting, so I said there'd be no need for scraping. I switched on the ignition, and the wipers cleared all frost in three swipes.

They were amazed.

As we drove to the factory, the inside of the screen began to mist up, something else they had never screen. I turned a dial to make the fans of the heating go faster and in a few seconds the screen was clear again.

They were amazed.

We arrived at the dock gates, were allowed in, and so drove to the meeting room, being the first to arrive.

The 19th (Friday) is the 14th anniversary of my joining the company, though it has changed identities twice since then, it is soon to be Henrik's and Rune's 10th anniversary too, so a cake had been supplied to celebrate, and that greeted us when we walked into the classroom.

After lunch, I had to say goodbye to my boss and colleagues, so a final round of handshakes and hugs, and I walked out of the building to the car Instead of setting the sat nav I set up a podcast, thinking I knew my way .

I was pretty sure.

So, out of the port and along to the O3 ring, then north on the E20 and cruising along at 100 to 110 kmh. The sun shone, the birds sang, and along the side of the road, butterbur was just turning to seed.

It took about an hour and 50 minutes to get to Billund, and another ten minutes to walk to the terminal from the drop off point, only to discover the Britsh Airways desk unmanned, and I was told that I could not drop the case off until two hours before departure time.

The first time this rule has been enforced here.

I checked in my case, and then went through the priority gate at security, and up to the lounge where I paid 200DKK for access so I could join the last of the meetings of the workshop, but for the most part heard those in the room playing some kind battleship/twister game.

I had to go to the bathroom, then walk down to immigration, have my passport stamped and then to the gate, all took over half an hour, by which time we could walk to the plane, so no time to rejoin the meeting.

Instead the engines powered up and we were off to the piano keys, but not stopping, instead the engines set to maximum as we roared off down the runway and into the air, soon lost in clouds.

I settled back and snoozed, though did accept a small bottle of wine and some pistachio ice cream, which was all rather pleasant.

The plane dropped from cruising altitude, Essex could be seen through the clouds, or parts of it. Shoeburyness, Southend, Westcliff and along the north bank of the Thames, getting lower minute by minute.

One final swoop over the river and touchdown, but the fact we were 15 minutes early was tempered by the fact we were put on the most remote pan, then had to wait for the steps to be brought, then groundcrew to unload the cabin bags too big to be carried in the cabin and finally the bus to take us to the terminal.

Instead of dropping us near immigration, the bus let us off at gate 7, and for me it was a long hobble trying to stay ahead of a larger jet that had followed us down. I made it, my case was waiting, so a dash to the DLR where I had just missed a train to Stratford, so have seven minutes.

When the next train came, it was rammed, because West Ham were at home, and fans were travelling for the club's old heartland to the new ground in the old Olympic Stadium.

Each station, more drunken singing fans squeezed on, until at each of the three Stratford stations, half of them got off.

I walked to the International station and found I had just over 15 minutes before the Dover train arrived, so I called Jools, arranged for her to be at Priory when I got there at quarter past eight.

The train was busy, but not full. I found a place for my case and a seat, so I could relax and check on how West Ham were doing on my journey down to the coast.

We arrived at Dover, I had to climb the stairs from platform 2 to the exit, Jools was waiting outside, she had a bag of KFC freshly collected from the old Market Square, so she took us home.

We tucked into the bag, both of us suddenly shattered with our weeks. The good news is that Jools is back full time on Monday, with orders higher than before Christmas.

I listen to West Ham and Liverpool lose, so go to bed near to eleven. Pooped.

Wednesday 17th April 2024

Wednesday.

Road trip.

Road and ferry trip, really.

Denmark is made up of Jutland and a lot of islands. Big islands, small islands, tiny islands. Linked by bridges and ferries.

To go from Jutland to Copenhagen you either go on the highway, via the Great Belt Bridge, or you go south, via smaller roads and the ferry linking Langeland and Tars.

As Odense, where we were staying, was an hours drive from Langeland, we would go by ferry. And we were going as there is a factory that manufactures turbine blades on the island the other end of the ferry.

Each time we were to meet to drive somewhere, it was always best to plan departure some 15 earlier than your actual desired time, as herding the team was like herding cats.

Wheels was to be at half seven, we told them, and as planned wheels turned at quarter to, giving us just over an hour to drove to the ferry port, across countryside and picturesque brick-built villages and towns spread over several smaller and smaller islands until we reached the ferry port.

You by a ticket from a vending machine, and wait for the ferry to arrive, its supposed to leave on the hour, but timings had slipped. We could see it approaching, but we had time to wander round the port.

I last used the ferry in the depths of winter, with wind and rain lashing down, most unpleasant for a walk.

Back into the car to drive onto the ferry, then climb the three flights of stairs to the lounges and café. Our boss bought us coffee, and we sat staring out of the window as the ferry glided out of the dock.

Forty five minutes later we arrived the other side, and a mere ten minutes later saw us arrive at the fishing port and shipbuilding town of Nakskov. They now make turbine blades.

We drove to the factory, set among the wasteland that used to be filled with dockyards and entered.

We had meetings, lunch and a tour, then walked back out at quarter to three to get to the car to drive to Tars to catch the ferry at half three.

While we waited, a VW camper van with four young ladies from Berlin had a picnic and some optimistic sunbathing, but also offered to take shots of our group.

This time I treated myself to an ice cream as the ferry pulled out of the dock, and outside the breeze had dropped to levels that meant the inland sea was dead calm giving perfect reflections.

And hour later we got off the ferry, and forty five minutes later we were in the centre of Odense where I had booked us into an Indian restaurant for dinner. With five vegetarians, picking the right place to eat was tricky, doubly so when Tripadvisor said that the best restaurant for vegetarians in the city was Flammen: a BBQ restaurant that has a salad bar, but one heck of a lot of grilled meat.

And being an Indian place, the guys should find something they liked.

But first we had an hour to kill. So they went off in one direction, me in another to find somewhere to sit because of my knee, but in my stumblings I found the medieval heart of the city, with a timber framed inn, and other buildings round a courtyard, while across the new tram tracks was Hans Christian Andersen's House, now with a snazzy new photogenic visitor centre.

Also new was the tram line which now cuts through the city and takes passengers and patients to the snazzy new hospital.

I took lots of shots, and then found a bench to sit and call Jools.

Then to walk to the restaurant, to find that it was owned and run by a guy from Pakistan, and who prided himself in authentic food, which it was. I had warned them that our party of nine included six Indians, so all was good.

They did a "pick n mix" menu, where instead of full portions, you had quarters, but could choose three, five or seven dishes, and mix them on your plate as you ate, giving each mouthful a different taste combination.

It was a great meal, but come nine they closed and firmly asked us to pay and leave, which we did.

I drove us back through the darkened city centre back out to Munkebo and the hotel.

Time to watch the second half of the Citeh v Real game, though I was too wacked to watch extra time with the scores level at 3-3.