After Dropping Diana Off At Work,

I played with a few photographs, 

without much success, except this one from Beachy Head that we visited in 2020, which I quite liked,

after which it was time for my evening meal, first a read and a milk, no sherry this evening as I will be driving to the club and afterwards picking up Diana, 

'Cheers!', as I tucked into a delicious gammon ham soup that Diana had made for me, next time for the meeting of the Beckenham Photographic Society, tonight I put 2 entries into the monochrome, or black & white as I call it competition, 

every member of the club is allowed to submit 2 photographs, I choose 'The Shadow', from our trip to Edinburgh in March of 2018,

and 'High Rise Living', taken in Hong Kong when we were there in October 2015, the competition will be judged next week, once entered it was time for the guest speaker, James Burns, his talk this evening was titled London from the Rooftops, he has so many unique photographs as he can access places where most of us are not allowed, when seen from above so many familiar streets are unrecognisable, many times using long lenses, 500mm+ photographs of the moon as a backdrop behind some of London's famous buildings make it appear much larger than in real life, giving the photographs a stunning look, very entertaining indeed, after which off to pick up Diana from work, arriving home a Endeavour had just started, so a spiced rum it was as we settled down to watch that, after which we were off to bed.

I Had A Busy Day,

after dropping off Diana at 04.45AM, 

I spent the morning catching up on the previous 2 day's posts, then off to pick up Diana from work, but on the way stopping off at the doctors surgery, I had some samples to drop off for my bi-annual cancer tests, then off to pick up Diana and then to Kai's home, yes she was home after a four and a half month stay in Thailand, the girls were so pleased to see each other, and soon planning shopping and eating days out in London, the only slight problem the battery in Kai's car had died, it was terminal as a recovery crew found out later in the afternoon, so last night before the local car battery garage closed Kai was out to pick up a new battery, for us after our evening meal I was out, 

the Bricklayers Arms in Beckenham, I knew where it was, for many years it was Richards, 'Office' during working hours, I had many 'working' meetings there, the Nature Group of the Beckenham Photographic Society meet there for the bi-monthly meetings, we are meeting next week on Tuesday, the girls at the pub mentioned at our last meeting we could put up a poster if we wanted to, so I did!

I took 2 posters along with me, 

both slightly different, I only used my own photographs, well copyright and all that, 

and here is one of them, next to Spiderman above the tables we met at last time, if you are free next Tuesday please pop in and have a look, and if you have some prints or images on a memory stick bring them along, arriving home we decided on a couple of Poirot's, yes we have seen them before, but we still have to wait until at least half way through each one to remember who 'did it' we rounded off the evening with a Endeavour before we were both off to bed.

First Thing,

we were out as it was Diana's day off, 

we ended up here, no not at the cement works!

we were in Whitstable, the works a part of the harbour complex, I was soon snapping away, 

the fleet in, 

the converted net houses now used for processing the catch, 

like these bags of live whelks, 

looking back to where we had been walking, 

we decided to walk to the pub on the beach, 

and there it is in the distance, 

the Old Neptune, 

looking back to where we had walked from,

Diana had a play with the new camera, 

although I did have to brighten this one up as I was in complete shadow,

a selfie on Diana's telephone,

drink finished so over the hightide defences, 

and into the old town,

many of the buildings made of wood, 

we found our place for lunch, Diana walking towards The Duke of Cumberland, 

a flavoured soda for Diana, a red wine for myself, 

'Cheers!',

and from Diana, who went with the seafood spaghetti, shell-on tiger prawns, mussels & clams, garlic, shallots, tomato & white wine ragu, for myself, well we were at the seaside, fish & chips of course!

'Cheers!', with a rum coffee, 

a latté for Diana, the meal came to £80.00, we made our way back to the station and soon arrived in Beckenham, where as it was Monday we watched a Outback Opal Hunters, before a Midsomer Murder and a Endeavour before we were off to bed.

Although It Was Sunday,

Diana had to go into a 1 hour staff meeting,

late in the afternoon, so first we were out, for our Sunday lunch, it seemed unfair for Diana to have to prepare and cook our lunch,

so a walk into town it was, past the green,

and the church, 

at the side of it a magnolia, starting to bloom,

another few days and it will look glorious,

and here we are, at Papilio, a pose from Diana,

 well I just had too! 

inside it was all rather nice, 

we had booked a table, 

which was just as well, later the restaurant soon filled up,

we had eaten here before, many years ago, evidently it has changed hands/name a few times since then, 

a cocktail for Diana, 

the usual bottle of red for myself,

a winning combination!

for our starters we went with the Sunday lunch menu, soup of the day was offered as well, so Diana went with that, 

smoked salmon for myself,

'Cheers!',

on to our main courses, 

chicken for Diana,

with lashings of gravy, 

pork belly for myself, 

our desserts, for Diana honeycomb cheesecake, with seasonal berry compote,

for myself a mango sorbet, 

a final 'Cheers!', of the meal,

outside a quick pose from Diana, 

and one more from me, the bill came to £114.00,

walking back home we noticed these rather dainty flowers in the graveyard, 

looking closly, 

they looked like dwarf pansies, 

a few late snowdrops, 

and daffodils, 

these looked like they were bluebells,

but they were not, nice though,

in the raised planters by the bus stop, the cyclamen had died down, 

and hyacinths had taken their place, and it has to be said filled the air with their aroma, 

at the entrance to the park, 

the side garden of Foxgrove Lodge putting on a good show, shortly after we returned home Diana was off for her meeting, I watched a few documentaries, in the evening Diana returned home so feet up for our Sunday evening films, firstly, 

 Moby Dick it was! the 1956 version, which we both enjoyed, I have to admit I went to the cinema in the 1950's with dad to watch it, at the time the special effects were just so real, I actually thought that the film was real! but as it happens part of the film were actually based on a real ship that I had featured on our blog before, the Essex, that sailed out of Nantucket, Massachusetts in 1819 where the story Moby Dick is based, indeed the ship was rammed by a whale - twice, the Essex sunk, the survivors tell a story of hardship, death, murder and cannibalism, we followed that with,

 A Civil Action, although we had seen it before it was still worth watching again, if for no other reason it is based on a true story, but also it is well done and thought out, Jan Schlichtmann, a tenacious lawyer, is addressed by a group of families that believe a local company has contaminated their water supply, Schlichtmann and his firm bankrupt themselves trying to prove the case, then for us off to bed.