Ashford and the Cruel Sea

Slept much better, the deep tiredness still remains however and simple things feel like a bit of an effort.  

Spoke to Mum however, who was cheerful this morning, and sent me the photo below of herself in the Waggon and 'Orses with a hat on.

I went off at lunchtime to buy fish and chips, which Pat and Maureen tend to have for their Friday lunch. And in the afternoon, as the rain started, Lorraine and I went for a stroll around local streets, popping into a post office and then into a park called The Rec, where Lorraine and her brothers used to play as kids. We went for a long stroll, and into an underpass, with a man sitting silently in it, and then back over a bridge over the railway lines (including for the Eurostar). A lad rapidly tidying away his gear as we approached the stairways on one side, and having crossed, some harmless teenagers on the other smoking weed and drinking what was probably booze out of pop bottles. It felt a bit desolate in the rain.

In the afternoon I settled down to watch the Ealing Studios film The Cruel Sea with Pat and Maureen. Lots of decent chaps up against it. Watching this suddenly reminded me of my biological father's parent's house -- which had a photo of a warship in it. My biological grandfather was, I discovered today, a Lt. Cmdr. in WW2 and commanded two ships which were Royal Navy MS Trawlers -- fishing trawlers converted for war work as they had big decks able to house a gun and were naturally suited to all kinds of weather. I imagine these were mainly used for fisheries protection.  He commanded two of these according to a website I found, HMS Nogi, which was sunk by a German aircraft off Cromer on 23 June 41, and a month later he became commander of HMS Epine for a year. Knowing very little about that family, I found this interesting.

Pat went out this evening to the pub. I didn't go with him, trying to stay germ free so we can zoom over to Greece on Monday. Lorraine, Maureen and I watched Gone Fishing with Mortimer and Whitehouse. Maureen enjoys that lots.

James had Covid this week, but Beth has been lucky. James also broke some ribs on a tough cycling course at the weekend, and so has had a generally unpleasant week.

Below Mum in a hat snapped by a pal in the pub, and a Royal Naval MS trawler (not one of the ones mentioned above) being menaced by a Heinkel He 111.