A rare four day weekend started here. For today, I stood astride a chasm of fatigue separating on the one side achievement and on the other, anticipation. It had been a difficult night duty requiring difficult decisions against the background of an imprecise weather forecast. My morning sleep was necessarily minimal before going to collect my Mum for lunch.

Beefeater is the kind of place people go when they believe they have become too sophisticated for KFC or, perhaps, simply to collect Nectar points. I intended to do so but ultimately forgot after a visit frustratingly protracted by courteous but rather harassed service. I don't think the Harbour Lights in-house analyst had done his/her half-term predictions. The food was adequate but indisputably overpriced. My prawns which were about £9 each or thereabouts were cooling rapidly when they arrived. My fillet steak was quite possibly the correct cut but of mediocre quality.

I felt that Mum and Greg did not need my company for their Tesco shopping in the half-term crowds of people on their way to or from Beefeater (or perhaps KFC for those wearing tracksuit bottoms). From the car park I captured a scene which might well have been from America and is now on Facebook and Flickr. The light was unpredictable but, with Greg driving, I was able to add to my Chinese restauarant portfolio. The truth is I could not wait for tomorrow's start of a two day excursion to Kent and Sussex. With the weather unpredictable our itinerary remains fluid but I can predict with certainty that we shall not cover all the potential destinations.