Air quality

Fine clear day yesterday, with a bit of breeze and decent if not balmy temperatures, so we decided to take a ride down to Romney Marsh for a much longed-for glimpse of the sea.

We were just climbing out of Bodiam when the car pinged a tyre pressure warning for the offside front.  The tyre wasn’t obviously flat, so we persevered gingerly, stopping from time to time to check.  We called in at Rye Tyres, where a helpful chap established that the pressure was 40psi, a whisker above normal.  So we reset the apparatus and went on our way, rejoicing.  The last car occasionally gave a false fault reading, once when we were barrelling down across the Beauce on a very wet A20. Once I’d shifted all the luggage to get to the tyre pump (and it was a good job the back seats weren’t in use!) we found the pressures all to be fine, and carried on.  So good air quality after all, both times.  Anyway, I have used up the latest amazon voucher on a new tyre pump.

From the waterfront at Greatstone yesterday we could just about see Cap Gris Nez, but when we got out of the car it soon became clear that this was not to be our picnic venue.  The stench of manure was overpowering, coming no doubt from the fields just inland.  Air quality impeccable in one sense, execrable in another.  We drove fast and breathed shallow along to Dungeness, where we paused for our sandwiches in a much more salubrious atmosphere - at least from the noses’ points of view.  Surprising how busy it was, but I suppose every self-catering property on the south coast is full of holidaymakers unable to get to Spain.

The builders opposite did a lot of clearing up yesterday, so we hoped we’d seen the last of them after fully eight months.  But no: since lunch time, our ears have been assailed by the scream of an angle grinder yet again.  Maybe not for much longer.  Please!