Tuesday 25th October 2022

First up I need to tell you something of our travel plans for next year: over the weekend we booked up a week's orchid and butterfly tour in northern Spain. We will share a room, and during the day I will do the tour and photography, and Jools will wander round the three towns we will be staying at, and generally relaxing.

Then in June, we are going to Svalbard for a week's photograhy of polar bears and other Arctic life.

So, much to look forward to.

And after today, I am off to Norwich for three days, meeting friends and visiting the beer festival.

Its all go.

And on Tuesday, the main thing to do is to witness and photograph the partial solar eclipse. That was due to begin just after ten, and peak at just after 11, I had all the gear needed to get shots without blinding myself, just required gaps in the cloud.

This is the last week before the clocks go back, and it really feels autumnal, even if its still not that cold, or even chilly, but nights are now longer than days, and we lay in beyond when the alarm goes off as its still dark.

When I log into work, I find that all my travel expenses have been accepted, and there were no urgent pending stuff I needed to deal with, so it was a day of mostly keeping an eye on the mailbox and fielding questions via Teams. I think in Denmark, it's "potato week", when in the past children would take a week's holiday from school to help in the fields with the harvest. There are machines that do that now, of course, but the tradition of school holidays that week continues, meaning things are nearly as quiet as in July.

All this means that come ten, I am able to spend an hour ataring at the sky, watching clouds roll in and snapping the sun in any gaps in the clouds. Of which, thankfully, there are plenty.

And my friend Gary came round to have a chat, drink tea and snap the sun, using the nD filter I have.

So, all good.

It was cloudy, it even rained at one point, but by half ten, skies were mostly clear, and we got shots as the moon ate up part of the sun's disc, and at one minute past eleven, it reached maximum, and we got shots, then Gary had to head home and I had to check in on work.

Excitement over.

I had lunch, listened to music, and generally frittered the time away. As I had taken an hour off for the eclipse, I worked to four, though nothing much happened, so I set my out of office message, and that was that.

Dinner was to be toad in the hole, as we had some spare sausage meat and cauliflower to use up, so I made the crispy roast potatoes again, and topped it off with the last of the fresh corn.

It was a winner!

A friend once said of these blogs that there is always a disappointing football match. And so to Norwich who were playing away at Burnley. I know the results hadn't been going their way, but they can't be playing as bad as some reports suggest? I would find out as it was on the tellybox.

And City were every bit as bad as reported. They spent 97 minutes pretty much chasing shadows, forwards feeding off scraps, and lost thanks to a penalty. So, 1-0 defeat, but the manner of the defeat suggests some serious thinking about what happens next. I have long supported Dean Smith, the manager, but this looks like something he has caused, so might not be able to fix.

But I am now off for the rest of week.

Monday 24th October 2022

Back to work.

I have no boss. As such.

He is now splitting his time between his new job and his old job. God news, for me, is that he isn't our boss until Thursday and Friday, and I'll be on my holibobs again by then.

So I am my own boss.

And as tempting as itmight have been to tell myself what a good job I had been doing and that I deserve the day off, I don't.

I do have a pile of travel expenses to do.

Which is nice.

But experience tells me that I now know what I have to do, and it holds no fear for me now.

Jen was heading to Austalia, and needed to be at the airport by half five, so Mike took her and Jools went along for the ride. This meant Jools getting up at quarter to three, and being out of the house by ten past. I worried so much she'd oversleep I had been awake for at least an hour berore, and went back to bed once she left.

But it took some time to drop back off.

I woke back up at Jools was reversing the car back down the drive at half six, meaning I had half an hour before starting work.

Eeeek.

Jools comes in, makes a coffee for me, so I am ready to go on time.

Phew.

Jools is shattered but refuses to go back to bed for a snooze, so she falls asleep on the sofa instead whilst reading. Several times.

I do my travel expenses, I have receipts for every bill. I photograph them, and attach to the report, so by the end of the day, all had been accepted.

Yay.

Apart from that, there is mails to reply and training to arrange.

And that was that.

Our sloth had not been helped by the fact I made bacon rolls for breakfast, two of. Each. They laid heavy and made our eyelids dop.

I did go outside, I should have gone for a walk, but for reasons (couldn't be arsed) I didn't. Jools did drive to Samphire Hoe and walked for a hour round the sea wall and back.

Work eneded at three, I made dinner. Leftover beef, Yorkshire puddings along with reheated gravy and fresh steamed veg and roast potatoes.

We ate at four, more than enough so we did not have to eat again.

It is now dark by six, so no time for walking, jsut a coffee and a chocolate or two before listening to the radio.

I was going to watch the West Ham v Bornmuff game, and indeed I watched the first half, my my eyes were itichy and bloodshot, so went to bed at half time.

Jools had gone to bed an hour before.

Travels in my head: Rhode Island

The Ocean State.

I have been to Rhode Island. Once. It was shut.

No, it wasn't.

But it was cold.

It was during that week I spent on Cape Cod, and for something to do on Saturday, I drove down the coast to Rhode Island.

I remember little about my time there, except I ended up doing a tour of one of the grand house on the beachfront, The Breakers.

I was the only European on the tour, the rest being Americans, and they ohhhed and ahhed as the tour went from room to room and we saw items very nearly 100 years old.

I truth, it could have been any one of hundreds of minor stately homes back in the UK, the design and fixtures and fittings were pretty much the same.

The other thing I did was visit the coast, where waves broke against the rocky shore, but imagine my amazement to see people surfing. It being December and bloody cold, and waves were breaking on rocks. Not sharp ones, but still rocks.

I took some pictures.

I must have gone somewhere for lunch and/or a coffee before driving back to Hyannisport before dark.

Would I go back? In summer, yes. And maybe go to the biggest city, Providence.

And I'd make sure I had a bigger coat, gloves and a warm hat.

Rishi on top

This afternoon, Penny Mordaunt pulled out of the race to become leader of the Conservative Party, meaning there was no other challenger to Sunak.

Sunak won, despite not making a speech either in public, to the party of Tory MPs, made just one social media post and that was it.

Had there have been a vote, then it would have been digital, and done to anyone, no matter where they lived, could vote. No questions asks. And then at the same time, the same party insists that Trade Unions do things by post, more than 50% have to vote in favour.

One rule for them and one for the rest of us.

And remember Johnson nor Truss published the report on Russian interfearance in our elections and the Brexit referendum.

The enhanced policing bill continues to go through Parliament.

So far, nothing really has changed.

Sunak did make a speech after his election was confirmed. And his public speaking is barely btter than Truss's Once upon a time you had to be a good communicator to be elected a party leader.

How can he lead if he can't explain why he, worth nearly £1billion is entitled to tell the poorest why they have to pay more taxes, have less services. All this comeing from someone who possibly avoided paying quite a lot of tax.

Not a good look.

We might have a calm week or four, but once winter bites and people run out of money for food and energy, what then?

We shall see.

This is a slight improvement on Truss, but not much.

Sunday 23rd Sunday 2022

Second day of the lazy weeknd.

And on Sunday the rain would fall, and thunder and lightning would be all about.

But not until later.

We woke up at half seven, and already rain was falling, hard enough not to want to go for a walk.

Through the day, bands of thicker cloud would sweep in from the west, turning what counted as daylight into something much gloomier.

So we have coffee, first breakfast, econd breakfast and then another coffee. So we were fed and watered.

Outside rain stopped, so Jools went to do some gardening, and I started preparing Sunday lunch.

Weigh meat, then calculate cooking time. Season it and put flour on the fat to make it crispy.

Peel, slice then boil the potatoes, until there were almost falling apart, then drain and set to one side.

Mix the Yorkshire pudding batter, then set aside.

Prepare the rest of the vegetables, so that come eleven, I could start cooking the beef.

90 minutes later, that was cooked, and perfect, set the veg to cook, warm the fryer and oiled bun tins for the Yorkshires, then using the beef juices and stock I made a week back, I make gravy.

It all comes together in a blur at just after one, Jen and John had arrived, so they pour wine, I carve and dish up.

As usual, I made too much, but that means there's enough for Jools and I on Monday when we can have a midweek roast. Even if it's not actual midweek.

We eat well, drink two bottles of wine, and are all stuffed.

It seems odd to think that by Tuesday morning, Jen will be on the other side of the world, about to enjoy spring and summer.

It was warm enough here to sit in the garden and chat, but by half three, the sun had moved round to the west and it was getting cool. Jen had to pack, so she nad John leave, and for Jools and I there was coffee and Lindt truffle or two.

And that was it.

The weekend over, Jen on the way to Australia in 12 hours.

You couldn't make it up

The thick of it!

At five past nine last night, Boris Johnson pulled out (for the first time in his life) of the race to reclaim leadership of the Conservative Party.

This was either down to the fact he didn't really have 102 MPs who would back him, or there wasn't enough other MPs who would serve in a Cabint lead by Johnson. That would be the dictionary definition of not having the confidence of The House.

So, those 49 who did back him now have been let down, again. I mean, how many times can this happen before they learn.

He has distracted the media, and this blog, when we could and should have been asking more questions of Rishi and Penny. The former has not made a speech in the Commons or anything on social meadi in the nearly 50 days since he lost to Truss, but did post yesterday afternoon he was, of course, running again.

So, Johnson further split the Tory Party, piled on more embarassment for the country, only to back out.

I am still laughing like a drain.

Saturday 22nd October 2022

I suppose for most of the spring and summer I am somewhat (!) preoccupied with orchids, wild flowers and butterflies, sometimes with dragonflies thrown in, and then in September there's Heritage Weekend, Open House in London, and on top of that, gigs, shows. So it seemed we were always going to do something every weekend, or both days each weekend.

I had it in mind to go to Grove Ferry on Saturday to look for Bearded Reedlings, as I have never seen them before. It's only ten minutes beyond Preston and the butchers, but it seemed a way to go, and there was nothing else we needed to go out for, so in the end we decided to do nothing.

I should have gone for a walk, perhaps, and in hindsight a Long Tailed Blue was found at Brockhill Farm, but I only found out in the evening, and today was much too windy and stormy to try.

So, apart from shopping we did very little.

Tesco is pretty well stocked, but with odd exceptions. As expected, fresh fruit is thin on the ground, as is washing up liquid still, but we got what we needed, some beer and cider, veg for roast on Sunday and rolls for lunches. And a bag of groceries for the food bank, because we know we're lucky.

Back home to unpack, have breakfast. I prepare fruit and yougurt, as usual, and being a Sunday we have bacon butties afterwards too. But that would be it, as we were off out in the evening.

So we listen to the radio, me listening to Talk Shite as they had the Forest v Liverpool game, and it was almost worth hearing the ads for bookmakers as Forest ran out 1-0 winners.

And then came the main batch of games, and what would have been a top of the table clash two weeks back as Norwich headed to Sheffied United. City took an early 2-0 lead, but after half time the pressure told and Utd drew level, 2-2. And then City got a last minute penalty. Pukki stepped up to complete his hat trick. And it was saved.

Sigh.

I watch the first half of the Chelsea v Man Utd game, but at quarter past six we meet Bev and Steve (our neighbours) out front of the house to drive into Deal for dinner.

We had time to nip into the Just Reproach for a swifter, before walking dwon Middle Street to the club.

We had twice fried chicken wings followed by seafood chowder. Main course was chcken breast and roast vegetables, with chilli cherry cheesecake to finish. Steve and I shared two bottles of wine, but that was just enough, not like last time when that followed two pints at the pub. Not making that mistake again.

Jools drove is home, getting back at half ten, some 90 minutes past our bed time.