Thursday 30th July

Since today was the first day of a trip, and since i had such an early morning, i used the day to do absolutely nothing, nothing new there i hear you cry. I got back from Lille at around Eight, let the dogs out and had a coffee, took the dogs a walk then settled into a day on the computer. I finished off some left overs for lunch, not as nice as it was when ant made it, then went out to get the post. There was an enormous package containing just one of the book i had ordered online, The Fatal Shore, by Robert Hughes, i had thought i would save these books for the journey across but on seeing it realized it would take at least a week to get through it and it would be far to unyielding for the journey so i started on it. It is a history of transportation and settlement and the effects of the colonization on the indigenous Australians, and so far has been quite interesting, i have learned a fair bit about aboriginal history and culture that i had hither to been ignorant of. I headed over to Jacqui's to check up on the rabbits, they were fine and i gave them a selection of the collection of fruit and veg she had left for them, quite a gourmet selection including endives this time, a favorite round here. I read a little more when i returned home then fell asleep on the sofa, waking up a couple of hours later with a trail of drool dripping off my chin, such a horrible way to wake.

I headed off into the kitchen and started the preparation for dinner, i had defrosted poitrine de porc, or pork chest, or even ribs to bring it down to basics, which i smothered in mango chutney, covered in foil and put in the roasting oven, i par boiled some of our spuds and got them ready to roast. An hour later i headed in to put the spuds in and realized i had put the wrong oven on and the ribs were not even warm, so had to start from scratch, most annoying, so it was well past eight in the evening before i was tucking in, but it was most delicious!!

Another evening in front of the telly, quite a few comedy shows on the BBC, including Mock the Week, which is a bit close to the bone and Stephen Fry on Never Mind the Buzzcocks, which has really gone down hill since Mark Lemar was replaced. Then the concluding episode of Psychoville, which made me wish i had seen the rest of the episodes as it was quite good. Then off to bed for more reading, unfortunately Mr Theroux has been cast aside in favor of Mr Hughes so i will have to finish him off at another time. By the time i was ready to call it a night it was past one in the morning, the book is very absorbing!! Another day done, another day closer to the tenth of august, just a couple more and ant will be home and the vacance will begin.