Saturday 29th September 2012

Good evening, and welcome to Saturday evening.

In football news, Norwich got spanked this afternoon 2-5 at home by Liverpool who managed to win their first game of the season at our expense. Grump. So, we go into October with no wins and just three points; it clearly is going to be a long, long season, as we have only scored four goals at the same time. I hope I'm wrong, but it hard to see who we can beat.

The week started with rain and wind and really that is how it continued. It did give us the opportunity of getting our chores done; 80 plus bottles of porter bottles finished and now sitting in the dark, gently ageing. Jools did the garden in-between the rain showers.



So, Monday and Tuesday passed quietly with us getting stuff done, listening to the radio and watching the raindrops trickle down the outside of the windows. we hoped that Wednesday would bring better weather for Wednesday, as the biggest event in the village for years was due to take place.

For the last week, various tents and marquees have been put up on a couple of the old wheat fields on Wallets Court Farm in preparation for the 2012 East Kent ploughing match. I had been wanting to see this for a couple of years, and as it was taking place a few hundred yards from our home, and we were off work, there really was no excuses this year.



Wednesday dawned grey by dry, but the days of rain we had made the ground underfoot soft to say the least. At half eight we left the house, walked over the main road and over the fields to the tents and marquees and the gathering of the tractors.

Inside the tented area, various business were offering services for farmers; tractors, harvesters and the suchlike along with food stalls. So, we wandered up and down snapping shots of the shiny machinery before setting off to watch the start of the ploughing.



Turns out once you have seen one furrow ploughed you've pretty much seen them all. We stayed and watched as the farmers cleared all loose vegetation from their area so not to interrupt their plough and ruin their lovely straight furrows; and then it began, up and then down. and back up again. And so on until we got slightly bored and so went of in search of TSP. Thinly sliced pork: bacon!



We found a stall run by the NFU and the provided us with a brew and a bacon butty only to refuse payment and say it was all part of the service. So, nice bacon and brew taken, it was on with the photography.

In truth there was just the horse drawn ploughing to see, and i went to sap the three teams taking part, and see just how dangerous it could be as one team got spooked and dragged the plough, sideways with the driver hanging on all over the field.

I got my shots and as the clouds darkened I made my way home and yet more warm tea and another afternoon watching the rain run down the outside of the windows as the strong wind made the rain fall sideways.

We turned the heating up and put the kettle on.

Wednesday 26th September 2012

Before I talk about our second day at Open House, I think I should tell the tail of how a simple mouse caused a camera lens to be destroyed. The chain of events which lead to the lens being smashed is so bizzare that if you saw it in an episode of Terry and June you would laugh it it being too far fetched.

Or 'shit from China' (far fetched) as my dear Dad would have put it.

So, we arrived home from London at about four, and as you can imagine my only thought after making a cuppa was to look at the shots I had taken that day. So, my camera bag was laying open on the floor with the camera pouch empty. My 400D with the 50mm f1.4 was in the top pouch, which now I can say does not have enough padding. Anyway, where were we?

Oh yes, so we have the scene, camera bag, on the ground, with one camera in top pouch. The catflap goes and Molly lets out her 'I have caught a mouse for your dinner' meow. I get up to see her drop mouse in the camera bag. I pick up the back, but because the light wasn't good, I went into the porch to hunt for the mouse. I put the bag on the ground, but my shadow was getting in the way. I lift the bag up and put it on the small cupboard and hunt for the mouse.

It had scrambled to the other side of the bag; I see it and make a grab. The mouse seems my hand and jumps out of the bag, I go for the mouse and let go of the bag. I catch the mouse in my hand, but the bag, being top heavy, rolls backwards and off the cupboard and falls to the ground.

I picked the bag up and look inside; the filter had shattered and I knew it wasn't looking good for the lens. Being dark I decided to wait for the morning before testing it out. When I did, the autofocus did not work and the manual only works from infinity to about 5m. I will have to send if off to be repaired, as it turns out our insurance only covers 'entertainment' equipment. Who knew?

So, just after 5 months I have, by accident, trash another 50mm lens.

Bugger.

But back to earlier in the day.......

The plan was to head up to London by car, find a place to park and travel the final few miles by public transport. The weather was totally different from the bay before, clouds hung low and were menacing, and the forecast was for heavy rain later in the day.

So, we drove up the M20, passed under the M25 and then into south London to Woolwich. We parked up at a sports centre, and we walked to the DLR station. A train was due to leave in less than 5 minutes, which meant we should have been in The City by about half eight.

Sadly the whole DLR network was affected by delays thanks to a signalling problems, and the journey took 20 minutes longer than it should have. And those 20 minutes would prove to be vital. We got out at Bank and walked up through Leadenhall again and then we saw the queue.

The queue snaked from the Gherkin, along Leadenhall Road, we walked along it and saw it disappear into a side road and was coming back the other side. We joined the end and waited. What we did not know was the queue in front of us went round a corner, along a street, back again, snaked to the base of the Gherkin again beore heading up the other side of the road.

More people joined behind us, but it was clear this was a huge queue. After about an hour a guy came along to count the number of people, and he estimated that we were five and a half hours from the front. We had seen the queue the other side of the street move maybe 50 metres in an hour.

*Sigh*

We had a choice to make. It wasn't hard. We left the queue and headed to our second building on the list, a church in Aldgate. Once we had worked where Aldgate was we set off and found St Botolphs Without Aldgate soon enough, apssing another, much smaller, queue for a synagogue on the way.

We went in and were met with a warm welcome; I took shots in the main body of the church and from the balcony above.

One down.

We were now hungry as it was about half ten; so it was clearly time for another breakfast. So we found a coffee bar and ordered a hot wrap and a huge coffee, and then we sat down to decide what to do with the rest of the day.

We decided to head to the Apothecaries' Hall in Blackfriars. I looked at the tube map and saw it was a few stops on the Circle Line. We went to Aldgate station, and down onto the platform only to find that there was no Circle or district line servces running.

It was remarked by a guy next to me that they had been spoiled during the Olympics with everything working and no engineering, sorry upgrade, work being carried out.

So, we decided to walk.

Outside it was raining, so I put up the umbrella and we set off in a rough south west direction through the City. I can't remember much about the walk, but we did walk past St Pauls and then along near the river until we came to Blackfriars Station.

And up a side street there was a nondescript doorway with a guy welcoming visitors. Can we come in I ask. Of course.

We went across the courtyard and into the main building and we confronted by a large room, wood panelled with a grand staircase leading upstairs. There were cabinets against most walls, and each was filled with old and ancient bottles of medicine and potions.



Upstairs, was more of the same; but around were many volunteers, who were only too happy to answer any questions we might have. Each window had wonderful stained-glass crests and heraldry. All wonderful stuff for sure.

Back outside and back in a general north-east direction as we had an appointment for a tour at Liverpool Street at two. At St Paul's we call into the Information Centre to get a list of the City churches open and so planned to visit a couple on the way.

On the way to the first one we came across St Mary le Bow, which was open. So we went in.



We were greeted warmly again, and more information thrust into our hands before we had a chance to look round. The church is another post-war-rebuilt Wren designed building, and wonderful. It had a broad arched ceiling, painted blue. It was a delight. As was the crypt, although most of which is now a cafe, part was a small chapel, and simply lit with candles and the walls lined with icons.

Opposite the bank of England we came across another church, St Margaret's, Lothbury, which was open, and so we went inside. It was another wonderful building, which I snapped from all angles whilst dripping rain everywhere.

walking on along Watling Street we came across another plain doorway with another 'Open House' sign. And where are we I ask the guy on the door. The Drapers Hall came the reply. Do you want to come in?

Yes, I think so.

So up a long corridor and up a grand marble staircase, and the choice was one of three doorways; I went in the closest, and wow. A square room lined with tapestries and with a grandly painted ceiling. The second room was more of the same, but at the far end was another doorway. I went through, and walked into a palace.



Or felt like it.

This was the Livery Room, and it is better they describe it:

" The Livery Hall was enlarged to its present size by Herbert Williams in the 1860s. The twenty-eight marble columns provide ideal spaces for the display of the Company’s collection of royal portraits including King William III by Sir Godfrey Kneller, George III by Sir Nathanial Dance and George IV by Sir Thomas Lawrence. Richard Belt’s statue Hypatia and a copy of John Gibson’s The Tinted Venus, both purchased in the 1890s, grace the north end of the room.

In 1901 the Company commissioned Herbert Draper, a neo-classical painter who had recently been awarded a gold medal by the Royal Academy, to create paintings for the Livery Hall ceiling panels. These were produced between 1903 and 1910.

The Company was at first uncertain whether the artist’s choice – scenes from The Tempest and A Midsummer’s Night’s Dream was appropriate but the artist persevered and completed the remaining space with representations of History, Science, Ethics and Literature."

My words will not do it justice; the volunteers called it The Grand Hall as well, and if so, it is well named. I just down and let my eyes travel round the room taking in it's fine details.

Time then to head to Liverpool street to find the Masonic Temple. Sounds simple, but it turned out that not just having your name on the list was enough, finding it was an aptitude test. We walked round the old Great Eastern Hotel, looking for clues whilst the rain poured ever harder.

No clues, no signs. In the end I went into a posh hotel to ask, and turns out it was through the hotel; so we went along a corridor, up two flights of steps, along another corridor and there it was.

Legend has it that the temple was hidden for a century, forgotten behind huge locked wooden doors until Terrance Conran asked what was behind the doors. What it is is a Masonic temple in marble and ebony and is glorious.



There was no tour as such, we took our shots, sat down for a while, then as the rain steamed out of our clothes we headed back out, and once in the rain we decided we had had enough and so headed to Liverpool Street to Stratford on the Central Line, Canning Town on the Jubilee and then onto Woolwich on the DLR, to the car and then onto the wet roads and home.

I tootled along at 50 mph in the heavy rain so we got back home nice and safe. Got back in time for the lens/mouse indecent to happen.....

Tuesday 25th September 2012

The third weekend in September can only mean one thing: well, it probably means many things, but to us it means Open House London and at least one trip up the the Capital, maybe we'll even make both days this year!

And this year we were going to take my Flickr friend, Gary, along as he wanted to see Lloyds and City Hall. He also wanted to see the Gherkin, but could not manage two days up in London.



Anyway, just after 6 we leave, go and pick Gary up and drive down to Priory station, get our 'three for the price of two' tickets and climb aboard the high speed train and wait for the off. Soon we were rattling our way past the harbour and along to Folkestone; once at Ashford we switched to the high speed line and were zipping along in the early morning sunshine up into Essex.



We got off at Stratford, and went to take the DLR to Bank, only to find that services were being disrupted due to signalling problems; we switched to the Central line, but this did mean missing out on snapping the Olympic Park from Pudding Mill Lane.



Once at Bank we headed up onto the streets and walked to Leadenhall Market to take some shots, only to be captured by the smell of bacon frying. So, we got a table and ordered bacon butties and a brew, and sat out in the cool morning air taking in the scene.



We walked round to Lloyds, getting there at about eight thirty; the queue was already a couple of hundred strong, so whilst Jools and Gary went to snap the Gherkin. Lloyds was due to open at ten, but they threw the doors open at about twenty to and so we were among the first to get in. We joined the throng under the Lutine Bell and most seemed happy enough to snap away.



Not being Lloyds virgins, we knew there were lifts to take us to the top of the building, and so we made our way through the underwriter's desks to the lobby. "Can we go up" I asked. Of course.



We had the lift to ourselves and got shots as we zipped up to the top floor. Once we got out, we were greeted by each and every one of the volunteers and handed lots of leaflets. We got our shots, and made our way to the balcony, which we had to ourselves. Even though I have already snapped the scene, I did them all again, as the view into the atrium is one of the most iconic sights of Open House.



Once back down at the ground floor, we bought a coffee and waited for Gary to catch up, and then head back outside to head over to Southwark to visit City Hall.

Clearly, on a weekend where tens of thousands of extra visitors would be heading into London to snap the lovely buildings, Transport for London (TFL) thought it might be more enjoyable if most of the tube lines were closed for 'upgrade' work. Apparently the term 'engineering' is so last century, that a committee has spent the last 12 years coming up with a new phrase which can be used. Clearly, upgrade is tech speak for lets close it for a laugh, and let the plebs bloody walk.



So, after waiting at bank for a Circle Line train that was only going to arrive sometime early on Monday morning, we decided to walk to Monument instead and then walk across a bridge to the other side of the river. Yes, folks, a bridge; walking on water is not just last century, its last millennium. and not just any bridge; Tower Bridge; yes, a bridge with towers and a bascule or two.





Thankfully, the queues at City Hall could be counted on the fingers of hands measure in the fingers of one's hand. And once through the x-ray machine, lie detector, ant-gravity machine, foetal frightening device we were allowed to look at the large scale aerial photograph of London which is in the basement and used to distract angry London voters when they arrive with pitchforks looking for Boris.

And up in another elevator, not the same one as at Lloyds, but similar in that it also had a floor, we headed to the top and then outside to look at the view of London, although this time we did not see wilderbeast sweeping across Richmond Park whilst being chased by lions on 4x4s.

We snapped the scene, the river, the bridge, the Tower of London and the City Skyline before heading back inside and snapping the curly, swirling staircase, and then walking down it to the ground. These architects think of everything.

Of course this is now the third year in a row we have been to City Hall, but who cares when you can get shots like these:



And these: (pictures to be uploaded later)





We walked back along the river to London Bridge; a bridge and its in London, who'd have thought it? And over it back into the City and along the bank of the river to Customs House. A house in which HM Revenue and Customs used to collect tax on good brought into the city when London was a port. Hence the name, Custom House.

We toured the various rooms and were handed leaflets all very informative on why tax should be paid. I collect a few extra copies so I could mail them to some Conservative Party donors. And Mit Romney.

By now it was getting towards mid-afternoon and nearly nap time; so we caught a cab back to St Pancras, and a few minutes later were heading through the tunnels under East London, over the south Essex marshes and into Kent and home.



We were pooped, but I did have 730 shots with which to play with whilst I listened to the radio the rest of the afternoon.

Saturday 22nd September 2012

And so the big news yesterday was that Apple brought out a new phone; but this one had the number 5 in its' name, not the number four. People queued for days to be the first to own this piece of technological fluff.

I say fluff, because in the end it is a phone that can surf the net, has apps and the such. How much of a radical departure can it be? Oh yes, the number 5. So, whilst fanboys wet themselves and spend £575 for no good reason, my phone contract peters out and I will soon become less connected.



I have had a mobile phone since 1999, and have thought how wonderful they are; but this past 18 months I have used mine mainly to surf the web whilst sitting on the sofa watching football.

My friend had a Nokia Communicator a decade ago that does most of what the iphone 5 can do; it was a brick; ok, a brick and a half, but it was wonderful; a full QWERTY keyboard, saved pictures, I think it surfed the net.

So, anyway. Elsewhere, people in the middle and far east killed themselves over an American made film that mocked Islam. Like that is going to make anyone think twice before making something even more offensive about the great prophet? And yet for over a year, President Bashar al-Assad of Syria has been murdering men, women and children; all Muslims, and there is not one protest. Make a video and the world burns.

Go figure.

We went out for a meal to celebrate our anniversary on Wednesday; a quick trip down into the bay for dinner at The Coastguard. As we had fish and chips for dinner on Tuesday, and so we chose something different; steak for Jools and burger for me. The burger was a disappointment, but the beer, cheeseboard and fine malt was good enough.

Worked dragged as we crept towards the weekend and another week off; I even filled in my expenses and finished a draft of yet another procedure; this one on how to fill in a form. The world may yet not recover.

So, it is the weekend, and tales of our trip to London where the roads are paved with gold and the cats sings bawdy showtunes.

Wednesday 19th September 2012

Good afternoon or good evening depending on where and when in the world you are when you read this. I should say good morning too, then.....

Hmmmm, if writing a blog is tricky, imagine who difficult it would be if we time travelled! I think Douglas Adams had something to say about the grammar of time travel.

"One of the major problems encountered in time travel is not that of accidentally becoming your own father or mother. ...

The major problem is quite simply one of grammar, and the main work to consult in this matter is Dr Dan Streetmentioner's Time Traveller's Handbook of 1001 Tense Formations. It will tell you for instance how to describe something that was about to happen to you in the past before you avoided it by time-jumping forward two days in order to avoid it. The event will be described differently according to whether you are talking about it from the standpoint of your own natural time, from a time in the further future, or a time in the further past and is further complicated by the possibility of conducting conversations whilst you are actually travelling from one time to another with the intention of becoming your own father or mother.

Most readers get as far as the Future Semi-Conditionally Modified Subinverted Plagal Past Subjunctive Intentional before giving up: and in fact in later editions of the book all the pages beyond this point have been left blank to save on printing costs. The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy skips lightly over this tangle of academic abstraction, pausing only to note that the term "Future Perfect" has been abandoned since it was discovered not to be."

Or as Kryten would say:

"Actually sir, we don't ever have existed here anymore, but this is hardly the time to be conjugating temporal verbs in the past impossible never tense!"

But, I digress. As I usually do, of course. Today is a day of anniversaries; two in fact. On this day four years ago I married Jools. My third time. Third and final I stress. Not because i have anything against wedding cake, but I have found the person I want to spend the rest of my life with; and in fact she has already lasted longer than the two previous Mrs Hs; so either I'm mellowing or I have actually got it right this time.

If you want to read all about that time, go and read my entries for September 2008, which details the build up to the big day, the wedding and then the honeymoon afterwards.

Yes, I am happy; and for the past 17 years it is how I have lived my life; leaving the first mad Mrs H and ending up starting the divorce. Funnily enough, just as i left facebook she joined, and there was a picture of her with her two teenage sons, scowling; yes, that's how I remember her. I left and stayed left from her because I suddenly became so much happier. Yes, happy, smiling me.

And then there was the second mad Mr H: now, it's wrong to speak ill of the dead, so I'll just say I was happy for a while, and then wasn't; and it was only going to end one way; with me walking out the door.

And I am here because I'm happy, which is a very good reason indeed. Even happier I don't have to work offshore now and I'm back home each night and not having to deal with Malfoolish or any of the other maladjusted folks who choose to spend their life working away from home for months at a time.



The other anniversary today is it is two years since the kittens came rolling and tumbling into our lives and hearts. We have seen them grow into very fine, loving cats, and despite the occasional spat between them and Molly, it has worked out pretty well.



This week we are back at work, and we were both greeted with full inboxes on Monday morning, and are working hell-for-leather all week as we have another week off next week. Today, I have been building a teamsite on the company intranet, and I managed to format all the hyperlinks the same. So, not all going well, but it makes a change from writing procedures.

The good news is that my long run of battling germs might be being won, as this latest batch does not seem quite so bad. And I got back on the cross-trainer today for the first time in several weeks.

This week I had the results of my blood test, and everything is fine apart from cholesterol which was a little high. And apart from the pills I was given, exercise helps, apparently.

Tonight, we are going out for dinner to celebrate our anniversary, but more about that night time.

Sunday 16th September 2012

Good afternoon. And welcome to Sunday afternoon. We're just back from the old folks where Jools' Dad smoked and told takes of Dover past, and we listened. Let it not be said we know our roles and play them well. I did notice this afternoon that Nan's room has a sea view. I say sea views as it she lives beside the harbour. I think the bit of sea she can see between the pitched roofs of the houses opposite may be off Ramsgate, and she may be now at least twelve inches too short at the age of 98 to see the sea for herself, and there is also good chance, as she didn't have her hearing aids again, she didn't understand what I said anyway.



It has now been three and a half weeks, August 22nd to be precise, since I was germ free. I have no idea what I have, but every four or five days I get sneezy, then congested. I hates it as I can't sleep,and it looks like I have yet another bout about to begin.

There is always whisky.....

Friday afternoon we headed to Ashford to go to the cinema to see the new version of Dredd. On the way we set out to find the ruined church of St Mary at Little Chart, but despite finding the village and looking everywhere, we found the new church, but not the old one.



The film was fine, but despite going at the cheap time, along with the 3D glasses it cost us £19.40 for just the two of us. It really is not a cheap thing to do any more, and that was without buying any snacks, despite the popcorn smelling so delicious.

Yesterday was another glorious autumnal day, and we headed out to take yet more pictures of Kentish churches, this time not quite so far away, but armed with a large scale map, we proceeded to visit the cross-shapes in an area.

I guess we did about three in the end, but it was pleasant enough, and all were open, which is always good.



First of all we headed to The Leas in Folkestone,the reason was to photograph a topiary crown. Yes, you read that correct. As it turned out, we were too late and it has been taken away, but it was wonderful wandering along the broad grassy expanse of the Leas up to the once luxurious hotels right at the southern end.

And after taking my shots we head back to the car and out of Folkestone and into the countryside. We had consulted maps and asked friends, and found that the ruined church, despite being the parish church for Little Chart, it isn't in or near the village.

We found the church with no trouble, and had the site to ourselves. The church was severely damaged at the end of WW2 when a doodlebug landed short of London; thankfully no people were injured but the church was damaged beyond repair. Now, nature is taking it back, with ivy half covering what is left of the tower.



We consulted the map, and headed back towards the motorway, but Jools had noticed a cross near the hamlet of Charing Heath and so it was there we went to first. Along narrow lanes and through wonderful villages, we ended up at Holy Trinity, almost passed it as it sat beside the road behind a hedge with no signs.

The church is a simple Victorian building, but with a wonderful wooden pitched roof which gives it an air of grandeur. A mother and her daughter were inside discussing arrangements for the daughter's wedding in a couple of weeks time, but they made us welcome and made sure they did not disturb us. I got my shots from all angles, including up a flight of rickety stairs to the small balcony; the things I do for photography!



Back in the car and along more country lanes to Harrietsham. it is a fine stone church, very large for a small village it serves, and it was a hive of activity as the churchwardens and volunteers prepared for the annual village fete that afternoon.



As always, we were made very welcome, with the churchwarden and church historian on hand to answer any questions and to point out details of interest. As they were clearly very busy, we left after getting my shots, and we headed back south, this time back to Little Chart, as during our church hunt the day before showed us how picturesque the village was.



We walked up the main street, taking shots of the really nice places; thatched cottages and clapboard houses; then into the local pub for a pint and maybe a bite for lunch. They didn't seem to be very ready for customers, asjust the one ale was one; just Doombar which isn't my favourite pint. So, we drank up and headed out.



A friend's picture on flickr had alerted me to a very picturesque church on the edge of the Romney Marsh, so we crossed Kent by narrow lanes and byways through wonderful, if oddly named, villages and hamlets.



We arrived at Bilsington, and found the spot where the church should be, but could only see a sign. The church was behind a farm. So, we parked up and walked along the lane inbetween two high hedges, and in due course we could see gravestones.



The church sits on the edge of a hill, overlooking the marsh with it stretching away into the haze. The church is surrounded by farmlands, sheep, and it is a wonderfully remote location. The single bell isn't in the tower, but sits in a frame underneath a small pitched roof. The door was open and so we went inside.



The church, or parts of it date to the 13th century, and the mid-point of the naive, the two halves of the church are on slightly different axis. all in all it was a wonderful church, and a real hidden gem. I only discovered that the church we wanted to visit in fact was a couple of fields away; so we will have to go back.

Anyway, with that it was time to head back; I put on the radio to listen to Norwich play west Ham. They fought out a dour 0-0 draw, and so City remain win-less this season. And we have all the 'big' clubs yet to play. Still, it's still early days.

Friday 14th September 2012

It isn't the worse thing that could happen during a week off work, but getting flu and losing two days getting out and about time due to the congestion one day and the subsequent loss of sleep the next day. Coupled with that, I was eaten alive whilst hunting for dragonflies on the Isle of Sheppy on Monday. My arms were so itch Monday night I was awake at three in the morning scratching away on my arms.

Grrrrr.



Anyway, back to before the flue and the bites. Monday was a glorious early autumn day, with blue skies, unbroken sunshine and only a breath of wind. We headed off in the car after breakfast. Up the A2 and then over the bridge onto Sheppy. Across the island and then down Ferry Road and into another world.



Sheppy is made of what was three islands, although now the water between them is land, it is still possible to see where Harty used to rise above the Thames. We headed over the marshes, on the recently repaired road and want to park outside Harty Church, only to find a sewer being dug along with a new parking bay. So, we parked on the side of the road alongside the nearby farm and walked back past the church and along the farm track down to where we hoped the dragonflies should be.



As it turned out, there were dragonflies and butterflies everywhere, even up near the church. So, we made our way slowly down past the fields of maize, snapping at the dragonflies everytime we spotted one.

Once down near the saltmarsh, there were even more dragonflies, the Migrant Hawkers hanging from the trees like some bizzare fruit. I snapped them all, or tried to, and then down on the ground were many butterflies; Commas, Red Admirals and Large Whites. I tried to snap them all to. Whilst all the snapping, I failed to notice the insects which were feasting on my bare arms. The itching would only start in a few hours by then it would be too late other than to take drugs and scratch.



We headed back to the car, and then back along to the main road. We stopped off in Eastchurch, as jools had spotted a church. Well, there would be, wouldn't there? Anyway, it was open and I took more shots. There was a fine window to Charles Rolls, he of Rolls Royce fame, who was killed in an early air accident in 1910 nearby.



We headed back onto the mainland, and then along to Wingham, where we stopped off at a greasy spoon for bacon butties and a brew before heading to Preston for some shopping. And then back home.

And that is pretty much it for this week, the rest of the time we were either doing chores or I was sick with flu or very, very sleepy due to lack of sleep.

Oh well.