Fog (part 2)

Following on from yesterday’s post, I’m now back home in Glorious Devon for a few days off. After my post yesterday, the fog slowly lifted until by 1400 you could see across the river (about 600m). We had a ship which had had to wait from the early morning due to the fog and it was arriving at Gravesend at 1430, for me to put into Tilbury Lock.

Well the tugs said they would work so I got them made fast as I went out in the pilot boat. By the time I had got to the wheelhouse the visibility had dropped again and I could only just see the foremast (100m away). We approached the lock and made out the entrance through the gloom and as we inched in the visibility improved. Phew!

The rest of the shift was fairly uneventful, three more ships in reasonable conditions and then it was time to brave the drive home. I set off at 0430, the M25 and M3 were quiet with a little mist, but after I joined the A303 it got a bit worse.

I got home for 0930, so all in all a good journey and had a snooze before lunch. I woke to the smell of Chocolate Cake! If you’re reading this Amy, hide the screen from Harry NOW.

Amy and Harry are coming down next month and for Harry’s Birthday Yvonne had started a Chocolate Beetroot Cake, to be frozen, then assembled and decorated later. We’ll have to get some Clotted Cream to top it off, he said hopefully.

Toad in the hole for our supper tonight, I managed to get the Pork and Marmite sausages from Totnes, and made a batter from 4oz flour, 10oz milk, 1 egg, a pinch of salt and a teaspoon of mustard. The sausages were browned for 20 minutes at 200 degrees, then I added the batter for a further 30. I fried 2 onions, added beef stock and some balsamic vinegar to make gravy, thickening with cornflour.

I think I’ve been using my camera incorrectly, and then complaining about the results. Instead of getting close and using the Macro feature, I’m trying the zoom instead with anti-shake. The results look better to me. Except the last one, although I was in a rush to eat it!

I’ve started a batch of sourdough, 125g starter, 63g flour and 63g water mixed. I’ll leave it overnight then double it twice tomorrow until I have 100g of ferment. I can then bake two loaves and some rolls on Friday.

We decided to eat early as our Dog Tizer is unwell and is off to the vets. He’s had an upset tummy (diplomatic version) for a couple of weeks. It’s cleared up twice but then recurred after a few days, so I thought that he’d better see the vet. Of course the only appointment is at 1700. Anyway I had my breakfast on the M25 at 0500 so I was hungry. Tizer is 9 now and is Epileptic, I just hope he’s not in any pain, I wish I had taken him earlier but as a Labrador he’s always eating anything he can find and usually fasting for a day resets his system. He’s been fine in himself, running around and wagging just like usual. And he enjoyed his swim on Saturday.

Just back from the vets, he thinks the dog has a worse than usual case of dia*****oa and has given anti-biotics and other things to sort him out. That’s a big relief because I feared the worst.