Year: 2026

Having bought Mal’s sister Marion a meerkat experience for Christmas, today is the day we booked it for. It was at Wingham Wildlife Park. We collected her from Broadstairs and then went to the park. There weren’t many other animals out as it was so cold and a lot were staying indoors.

A young fella met us at the meerkats and instead of being outside, he took Marion to a shed with some meerkats in and told us we could take photos from outside. We couldn’t because the sun was so bright that the window was covered in reflections!

However Marion loved it and fed the meerkats and stroked them, having been warned that they can bite!

We then went to the Waterside Cafe to have our lunch, which Marion enjoyed as well. Marion’s only problem is when she gets excited she gets louder and louder but she was quite good today considering how excited she was!

A job well done, she really enjoyed it and fell asleep on the drive home!

Hammers in the evening, oh dear, they are going down!!

A work day. No customers at all for the first hour obviously the cold weather kept them indoors first thing.

Then it did get busy.  I do prefer it when it is busy but thankfully not as bad as last week.

A fresh walk over the fields. The sun was out but the ground was frozen.

Spurs played. The first half was an improvement, the second half was rubbish. A draw.

We had the idea of taking Ellie to Minnis Bay. I had to drop something off at the shop and so we had a chat with Jack and he fed Ellie treats!

Then on to Minnis Bay. We are possibly insane (as Jack had suggested!) It was bitterly cold and the sea was horrendous, it covered my car at one point and there was no way we could get anywhere near the beach.

I think it took us all day to feel warm again!!

A dreadful Hammers game in the afternoon and Traitors in the evening. We had planned to meet up with Dom and Jem for the Hoodening and Wassall Day in town but even they decided it was too cold to go!!! I can’t imagine there was any heating in the medieval centre.

I had a very ornate small photo frame next to my bed with a photo of Torin in it. The whole frame fell apart (I have had it years!) and rather than try and fix it I decided to go to Deal and look for another. I knew the right shop to go to, 123 High Street. It is a quirky shop with lovely goods in it.

When I arrived there, typical…

I don’t think Deal had quite recovered from Christmas / New Year yet as a few of the other independent shops were also shut. So, post office, a couple of charity shops , where I found an expensive make of purple top, ideal for Hatters and Sainsburys that was it!

I discovered that there are a lot of restaurants in Thanet who are offering 3 courses for £20.26 in the week 2-6 February. I guess there are so many restaurants in the Margate area now , a lot there for the DFL’s . I guess February is make or break time for them.  We have booked two. Two that we know are very good.

Traitors in the evening!!

We walked through the orchards in Wingham. Cold!

Spurs played in the evening, not a great game…a draw.