The picture is of  a cannon (inoperative) at the mouth of Hull marina, taking a shot at anything that moves in the Humber. If my camera was a Canon, that would be a neat pun, but it isn’t: it’s a Panasonic. Bit tricky, that. I was down there in the warm sun of Thursday afternoon, having checked over all the portfolios at the Hull Daily Mail which, quite surprisingly, seemed to be OK. I was meeting Sylvia, the internal verifier from Sussex, in the evening,  so I had a bit of time on my hands. Though it was hot in the town, by the river there was a chilly wind, and the water outside the harbour was noticeably choppy. Took a few pictures and walked back through the old town. All this was a part of Hull I had never seen: previously I had been in and out, not deviating. I have to say I was quite impressed. Sylvia’s train from London was cancelled, and the substitute arrived late. We walked back to the hotel and grabbed a meal. I had fish and chips. The chips were all right, but the fish looked as if if had been unwilling to take part.

Had quite a reasonable night: I normally sleep badly in hotels. The breakfast was excellent: continental style, including bread roll, hard-boiled eggs, cheese and cold meat. And other stuff, of course, but that suited me. As we ate it started raining. It had been overcast from the start, in stark contrast to the day before. By the time we left to walk to the office it was tipping it down, and if I were to say we didn’t get pretty wet, I would be lying. Still, no lasting damage. Portfolios checked again by Sylvia, just in time for the arrival of biscuits, followed by the external verifier, Anne Hayes. Happily all was in order, except some details from the original centre (PA Training), which Sylvia will obtain, and details of when I became qualified to assess, which I had forgotten. I emailed the certificates when I got home.

Train journey back was quite pleasant, with the sky gradually getting brighter. Changed at Grantham, where I said goodbye to Sylvia, and had to wait an hour for my connection. Had a sandwich and cup of tea, and the time soon passed. Something amusing happened at Ely. The guy sitting in the seat adjacent to mine, who was of the I’m-going-to-put-my-feet-on-the-opposite-seat-and-I-don’t-care-what-you-say variety, had been sitting with his back to the engine. When the bloke sitting almost opposite him got out, he immediately changed seats. Unfortunately, the train changes direction at Ely, so he was still sitting with his back to the engine. Worse (for him), a couple of people came and occupied the opposite seats, so he couldn’t put his feet up. I know I shouldn’t have felt rather satisfied, but I did. Of course I could be quite wrong: he might like travelling with his back to the engine and changed deliberately. But I don’t think so.

I arrived back to find my wife laid low by tonsillitis. She had seen the nurse, who as usual decided it was a virus and wouldn’t give her antibiotics. So that’s put that off for a few days. Meanwhile she had a bad night, but happily this morning her throat is less sore. I have cancelled the Coomes, who were supposed to be coming tomorrow, and stocked up on supermarket fodder. We were out of practically everything.

Don’t know where she got the throat thing from. We had a barbecue at Ed’s on Tuesday, but no-one there was ill. Then she went to a Nafpht meeting on Wednesday and the UEA on Thursday. The latter is the most probable. Of course we had our hair cut on Wednesday. That’s always risky. Weather is warm again today, but the forecast is not so good: rain in the offing.