Sunday 23rd October 2022, 11.30am (day 4,077)

Quite enjoyed yesterday’s trip to Portsmouth, or at least Portchester, but I can’t say Southampton has endeared itself to me as a place this weekend, and that continued this morning when I attempted to leave it. With the railway closed for engineering works we were obliged to contend with that modern phenomenon, the ‘Rail Replacement Bus’. What you see here is just the tip of the iceberg, as, brilliantly, the authorities had decided that the perfect day to run these operations would be one on which Southampton FC were playing at home against Arsenal. Christ knows what it was like after the match — but fortunately by then, I was well away.