under another sun

A bright start, and Lorraine and I boofed downstairs at The Milk House for a decent breakfast and coffee, before we started to pack up. I slipped across the road to a strangely unfriendly village store to buy some toothpaste. We checked out. Luckily Lorraine was on the ball and stopped the place from mistakenly overcharging us. Turns out we yesterday walked only metres past Lake Chad, which is a former millpond renamed Lake Chad in 1908 when the son of the landowner mapped Lake Chad in Africa. On with our drive through lovely Kent countryside towards Ashford. Here we stopped off at a business park not far from Pat and Maureen's house which was composed almost entirely of car dealerships. We went into the Seat one and looked at one or two year old Leons and Atecas, and then off to a Nissan dealership to look at Qashqais. Used car salesmen are up there with Estate agents and lawyers on the weasel front. Then to another lot where we walked about in the cold wind and peered at cars ...

Up fairly late at The Milk House and down to get our full English Breakfast, which was perfectly nice. Then gradually got ourselves ready for a walk in the countryside, donning walking boots and so on. Shortly after we set off it began to rain, and we endured icy winds, sleet and rain and lots and lots of sticky mud. There were two signs about adders too, though I suspected these were motivated by a desire for people to keep orf moi land. We were following a local walk on Lorraine's iPhone, which suddenly shut down. We then followed it on mine, which also shut down just as we became lost after following some directions which had no correlation to the place we were in. Because we knew the direction Sissinghurst lay in, we were able to make our way back anyway, finding a decent path at last. Some lovely countryside, despite the weather. Both of us frozen and wet through, despite our wet tops, by the time we reached The Milk House again. A big shower in the room, so we both crammed ...

Up unexpectedly early as Erin from next door came to feed the cats though we were still at home. Up and packing for a two day mini break in Kent. Weighed myself this morning and am the heaviest I have been in a few years, which is quite depressing, although I did eat all the wrong food in abundance last week. Went to look at cars near Patcham. Stopped off at one dealer that Lorraine had been to before. It emerged that she had been given a test drive there before by Dave Carr, which made me laugh. We saw a Ross Car-ter today. I sat in the three types of car that Lorraine is looking at. Both a bit stressed as it is lots of money even for a second hand car. We are narrowing it down. Then back into our own car and Lorraine drove us to Sissinghurst. A beautiful sunny day, and East Sussex and Kent looking extremely beautiful. It is designated of course an area of outstanding natural beauty. Down treelined lanes and through old and lovely villages. We arrived at Sissinghurst at a pub call...