where art collides philosoperontap

Well, homeward bound. My bags are full, mostly of dirty washing, and I have fewer golf balls on the homeward leg than I did going out. Tired now. We will be glad to dump everything and rest a while. Some of the golfers have another week out in spain. They will be totes shattered.

Finished off with a good breakfast at the Waldorf. Cereal/fruit(grapefruit)/croissant/full English with toast. Struggled to finish the cooked. Too much maan. Won’t need to eat now until tomorrow. Will see how that goze. We get in to Lincoln at 12:35 and need to be unpacked by 14:00 when the Bournemouth v Liverpool game starts.

The lounge was rammed until a member of staff announced that the Edinburgh train was about to depart at which point two thirds of the inhabitants got up and left making for a far more relaxed experience.

I have a couple of very fine Spanish brandies to store away. Not sure when the bottles will be opened. Perhaps not until Christmas now. This segues nicely into an opportunity to tell you that I’ve been in touch with landlady Ness and fixed the date for the Christmas carol session at the morning Star to be Wednesday 23rd December (obvs). Usually 6 – 6.30 ish start but will let you know and I’ll also do a Facebook event. It is only surpassed really by Christmas itself in terms of tradition at that time of year.

Just left Grantham fwiw. Never really felt the urge to explore Grantham though I have been there a couple of times in the last 40 years. Now steaming through the flatlands (badlands?) of the Nottinghamshire/Lincolnshire borders. Coos are all sat down. We all know what that means. THG said she saw a hare and a muntjac deer. The attendant just presented me with a gin and tonic to consume later and a very refreshing satsuma, presented nicely on a white paper napkin.

The video is a random selection from the many interesting pics and vids taken on my stroll around the Covent Garden area yesterday.

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Home. The lake needed topping up and really needs another watering canful but that’ll wait. Unpacked and watched Liverpool play Bournemouth. We won. Phew.

Now, after a cheese and pickle toastie which was just the job, I am relaxing in the snug and reflecting on the past nine days. One thing I always think about when I’m back from a trip is how life goes on in the place that we’ve just been. In this case the Costa Del Sol. The same staff will be serving different people with the same drinks and dinners. It’s the same the whole world over. In London another batch of theatregoers will be lining up to watch Sinatra the Musical at the Aldwych. The guests at the nearby Waldorf Hotel will be a different set. Some will still be there from our stay but many will have moved on. We wouldn’t recognise them anyway.

When I started staying at the Waldorf I thought it was a bit run down and living on its past glory (?) but it was cheaper than The Trafalgar and still well situated for lots of the things we want to do. I think they must have been gradually renovating the rooms and nowadays when we stay there it is more like the standard that the hotel always wanted to project. It is v handy to get to Kings Cross as well. Drinks ain’t cheap mind you but it’s a quality bar.

Tonight we will find something to watch together and after a soak in the bath it’ll be an early night. THG is off to see her sister in Liverpool again in the morning. At some stage I’ll need to decide whether to go back down to London for a board meeting or do it remotely.

Nice night out with THG starting with cocktails at the hotel bar with our @Lils.Lovely little chat.  Then found an Italian around the corner from the hotel. It specialised in small sized plates so you could have more than one main, for example. Chiccetti. Half bottle of Valpoliccella to wash it down. Early night – golf trips away with the boys are tiring. 

Breakfast this morning was a step up from Hotel Mac Puerto Marina. I had avocado toast with a perfectly poached egg and freshly cooked streak bacon with it has to be said some v nice coffee. They only put one teabag in the teapot so that was a bit weak but I had forgotten that I normally ask for two. I now keep getting ads for Hotel Mac together with some rave customer reviews. Lots of them. In all fairness if you are a package holiday type of person it probably did the job. In fact I have no complaints about it at all. It’s just that the only time I am ever likely to stay in such a hotel is with the boys on tour.

Now off out for a stroll around Covent Garden and its surroundings before meeting the fam for lunch in  Cafe Pacifico and the “reveal”. This is when we get to find out the sex of Hannah’s baby. Was chatting to some Americans at the next table at breakfast and they were totes familiar with the concept but also agreed that there was no such thing “in our day”.

11pmish. Tough day golfing at one of the hardest courses you could find. Alhaurin. The fairways were tight and on some of them the golfers from parallel holes would cross over to play what they notionally thought were their own balls but which made for real confusion and occasionally our party were suspicious that someone else had played one of our balls.

Back to Hotel Mac Puerto Marina and a dip in the pool followed by a stroll into the Marina for not a particularly edifying meal. Tourist central.

Back to the UUUK tomorrow and meeting THG for a couple of nights in town. I’ll leave the hotel at around 11am for a 2pm flight. Could probs leave it a little later but we shall see.

Unlikely THG and I will return here for a holiday ourselves. Not our scene.

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Next morning. Friday. Back out on the balcony whilst Jezzer is still sleeping. A few insect bites from yesterday’s golf giving me some gyp. I don’t have any spray but do have some sudocrem and have slapped some of that on. Not confident it is the right stuff. Farmacia opens at ten. I’m leaving for the airport at around eleven so that does give me a window to head out and buy some insect bite treatment if I still need it by then. Trouble is you can’t bring everything you might need from a first aid perspective when all you have is carry on luggage for the plane. When we went to France in the summer we took the car so were able to take an extensive first aid kit that we mostly did not use. The other problem with buying anything locally here is if it comes in a container of over 100ml you can’t take it on the plane! Might be a fire and forget job. Use it and chuck it. First world problems.

Another clear blue sky in Andalucia. Ten degrees cooler at home. Bliss 🙂 

Bit of a cough coming from the next balcony. Bloke having a telephone conference with his missus. Hello darlin, just got back from breakfast. He is having problems with his trousers falling down. I think he might have forgotten his belt! Hey ho… Ah, he is going to have to try and take a belt off another pair. Might have to buy one. We haven’t got that much money in the bank. Three eighteen.

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Made it to breakfast solo for around nine thirty. Had just about finished when Ajax and Banner turned up so I stayed on a little longer for a chat and to save them my outside table – these are in great demand. Far more pleasant than inside. In fact you develop a strategy for bagging one. The thing to do is pick up a coffee or a fruit  juice as soon as you get to the breakfast room and then look for a table. If you find a free one you stick the cup down thereby making it known to the world that someone is sat there. A bit like getting to the pool early to stick a towel down on the sun lounger. It really does happen. You can then safely go and get some food at your leisure.

The food is nothing special but there is a good variety on offer and if you want a full English there is one to be had. It is clear what nationality the majority of guests are here. I don’t think this would be a holiday destination for me ‘n’ THG. The nightly cabaret is not an attraction and I’m not sure about the half board buffet either though I haven’t really eyeballed what’s on offer. All the restaurants are geared at the tourist market.

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Uber to the airport was an E Class. V comfortable fair play. Security Fast Track was fast. Big queue if you didn’t have it. Picked up some Cardenal Mendoza Carta Real something or other (not sure as it is now in my bag and on the receipt the name was too long for it all to print) and Carlos 1 Imperial XO. I have great expectations of both. The lounge is clean and airy and the food selection looks a step up from the stuff BA dish out. I now have just over an hour before I need to go to the gate. Plane delayed by 10 mins.

I also return home from Malaga with a very fine Rolex picked up for next to nothing from a vendor working the bars at Puerto Marina. He had a few of them to offload as he needed money to send home to his wife to pay for a life saving operation for one of his kids. It’s good to be able to help someone out like that and walk away with a bargain yerself. I don’t wear a watch but the Rolex will no doubt be a good long term investment. I must have it valued when I get home. Am expecting 20 Euros. The guy said it was worth 45 but I don’t think I really believed him 🙂 

Meanwhile I’m sitting in the lounge relaxing. One or two people on the Cava but I’m ok with sparkling water.

Couple boarding in front of me claiming they had paid for speedy boarding. Ba don’t do that they go by groups. They were in group 4 and were most miffed to be sent to the very back of the boarding queue. 

Wheeler, leave the ladies bag! Breaking new ground on kids names?

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Looking like a full flight. At 13:55 we are still boarding. It’s scheduled departure time was 14:00 although that was delayed (to 14:04 fwiw). Not much chance of that I’d say. Bloke carrying a v noisy babyt just walked past. Sufficiently far back by the sound of it now.

Now half way through the flight. Ploughmans for lunch with one of those small bottles of red wine. Chilean cabernet sauvignon. Bit of a change from the flght out which was party central. Meeting THG and my niece Lils in the Waldorf for cocktails. I should be able to get there for five thirty. Lils finishes work at around 5ish. Whitehall somewhere.

Early night ce soir after a full on golfing trip. Can’t see the lads wanting to play today. They are there until tomorrow. Nothing was arranged. I came back early as we were originally goign to fly to Malta for a week’s break but decided we needed a break from travelling so now just staying in London for a couple of nights. Seeing Sinatra, the musical tomorrow evening.

Might come as a bit of a surprise but this is my first ever experience of a costa del sol package holiday hotel. Maybe first of that kind of hotel anywhere. There was a wide selection  of full english ingredients available at breakfast where all the outdoor tables had already been taken.

Did a little bit of work out on the balcony after that including a chat with our John about QJay Studios (if ya need any videos produced let me know). The website is looking really good. Then booked tickets for a visit to the Reichstag Dome next month. The maid came in to service the room whilst I was sat on the balcony. Never actually saw her but she sounded like a maid should sound and when I eventually turned around the bed had been made and she was gone. I had visions of her not really being a maid but a trained assassin like in the Johnny English move. Might have been a pink panther filum.

Checked at reception about taking delivery of my hired golf clubs and hey presto they had already arrived. Yay. Then i looked to see how much an uber to the golf course would be and it came out at something like 130euros. The hotel receptionist said a normal taxi is half that.

Now chillin out around the pool awaiting the arrival of the rest of the golfing party. They were Sending messages at 4.30am my time which is when they would likely have been setting off for the airport. Most of the pool loungers have been taken. This is package holiday central. If you’ve seen Benidorm then you can picture this place. Only difference is that there are no kids as they’ve all gone back to school. Just ageing sagging bodies.

I have a couple of towels and have been on for a dip.

THG dropped me off at the stayshun at around nine ey em. Lots of traffic for some reason, though all going the other way. Fortunately she is off to B&Q to buy some screws or g-clamps or a router or something. Plants that’s it. Hopefully the traffique will have died down by the time she needs to get back.

Bit of drama before we left the house. A buzzing sound could distinctly be heard from the bathroom. THG’s electric toothbrush would not switch off. Oh dear. It always needs charging anyway. Now I know what I can get her for Christmas. Don’t tell her will you. She will just have to make do somehow until then. I once saw a Robin Hood film with Sean Connery where he brushed his teeth with a bit of twig. Maybe I can suggest that as an interim solution. Or let her borrow mine. I don’t use it that much anyway.

Slight bit of drama when collecting my tickets.I don’t normally use paper tickets but I’m changing at Kings Cross to go to Gatwick Airport from St Pancras and apaz paper is the thing for doing that. Anyways I entered my collection code in the machine and it said please touch or insert the card you used for payment so I did. Uhoh “this wasn’t the right card” or similar. Hmm. I dug out the confirmation email to check and yes it was the right card. I tried again but inserted the actual card instead of tapping the phone. Bingo. Out chundered my tix. Three tix actually. The receipt, the ticket and the seat reservation(s).

Only one other person in  coach E which is a bit of a result. Makes for a comfortable trip. The young girl sat in a wheelchair at the end of the carriage is “doing her eyebrows” using her phone as a mirror. 

It may interest/nay shock you to hear that I have declined a bacon roll for my on train breakfast and settled for just a cup of tea and a glass of orange juice. There was quite a bit of bacon in the fridge at home that needed using so I made a bigger than usual bacon sarnie.

The train is now trundling at a relaxed pace towards Collingham. Bare fields in various browns fill the landscape windows, some already planted with the next crop and some left fallow. A blue sky is dotted with low lying wisps of white and grey clouds. We had some rain overnight but none in prospect for today. Certainly not in Malaga which is my final destination today.

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Train arrived a few minutes early and I arrived at Platform A with 4 mins to spare before the next Brighton/Gatwick service. At Farringdon every tourist under the sun got on, oblivious to the fact that this is a First Class compartment. You have to ask why I bother but I have been sat in First Class on this service when the train inspector came along and “did” a yoof sat  nearby. Keeping my eye on my bag which is on the luggage storage rack in front of me.

I remember after one of my parties at the Phoenix Arts Club @Matt Russell got on a late train to go to his hotel in Gatwick but fell asleep and woke up in Brighton. Had to catch the first one back in the morning.

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I am, I believe suitably attired for this trip. Shorts, tshirt and blue linen jacket. The jacket is more for wearing back in the UK as it is going to be in the high twenties/early thirties in Ma lah gaa but I have limited luggage space so it is easier to put it on for travel. Also wearing my broad rimmed straw hat.

I’ll be spending a lot longer in the lounge than planned. When you book a train with a connection they always leave far too long between arriving and departing. I think I’m going to be an hour or so earlier than I thought. I imagine I will find something to do 🙂 Look at the airplanes etc Always better to be too early rather than late.

Bloke in shorts got on at East Croydon and started a conversation with the guy already sat opposite. Both know each other. Broad Laandan accents. They both work for the train company and one of them has forgotten his pass. Left it on the table in the kitchen at home. “It’s alright I’ll just claim it back but it irks dunnit. £28 return.” Sounds like they are union reps. I heard the word branch.

Carriage seems to have emptied out at East Croydon.

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In the lounge, Gatwick South. Rammed. Slight miscalculation of times. 3 ½ hours until boarding. Problem is if I had caught the next direct train and there had been a problem it might have been cutting it a bit fine. Food looks pretty unappetising but I’ve had a bowl of thin potato and corn chowder and rubbery bread roll.

Lots of talk of golf around plus mentions of “all inclusive”. Never been tempted by all inclusive. “Anyone want some fizz”. People always say that when it isn’t champagne. There is champagne if you go and sit at the cocktail bar which I might do in a bit. Don’t want to get there too early. Not to drink champagne per se. It’s more of somewhere to sit and chat with a neighbour.

Back in my conservatory, doors open, birds singing away and the sun streaming in. I’ve had to move the chair around so I don’t get dazzled. I have my dressing gown on which actually makes it a little on the warm side.

Breakfasted well on two fine Weetabix biscuits with milk and a couple of slices of seeded toast which were ok but not as good as sourdough. THG’s home made marmalade, yum, natch.

The overnight news is that our Tom picked up my macbook charger from the hotel, yay. Although I won’t get it back until a week on Saturday I have decided not to buy a new one in the interim period. It charges overnight using a mobile phone charger and most of next week is going to be spent playing golf, eating and drinking in  Mala’ ga so I’ll get by.

In anticipation of some terrific golf I yesterday invested in a new pair of golf shoes. I did buy some new rubber studs for my existing footjoys but couldn’t get the old ones off! They are about 14 years old and still a very good pair of shoes but without a grip they ain’t so much use. Also bought some new tees and balls. I only really need the one ball, two just in case I have to play a provisional but it is more economic to buy them in packs.

I set off for the South of Spain on the 09:20 on Monday morning headed for Gatwick. The rest of the Lincoln based party are on a crack of dawn Ryan Air or similar flight from East Midlands on the Tuesday. Not my thang. I shall have a bacon sandwich on the train, a glass of beer or two or maybe a cocktail in the lounge and a relaxing three hour flight to Andalucía where a car will then whisk me to the accommodation and perhaps a digestif before hitting the hay. Life is there to be lived. The others should arrive at the hotel around lunchtime on Tuesday.

Not totes decided on the luggage yet. I don’t really want to take a suitcase/check in bag but will be away for 6 nights including two back in London. Weroff to see the Sinatra musical, conveniently located next to our hotel, having cocktails with my niece Lils and lunch at Cafe Pacifico with the kids (and Lils).

In other news the Newport Arch chinese, closed since covid times, has reopened as an Indo Chinese gaff called Ni Hao Delhi. A visit is called for but it won’t be for a while. Actually I don’t think it has physically opened yet but it has an online presence. Warming up the audience. I like the idea of being able to order a chinese starter (crispy duck) and indian main (special mixed balti with plain naan). Never bother with a pud. Looking at their website however neither of these dishes are on the menu. I’m sure we will find something that works.

Another vid on the QJAY Studios website shows how you use AI to make a vid – it’s not all about just telling AI to go make a vid.

https://qjaystudios.com/blog/i-opened-my-dream-restaurant-using-ai-video

Dunno if I’ve mentioned but our John owns and operates QJAY Studios. He is a talented musician and video producer. Looking at ads online these days they are mostly AI produced. Or at least have significant AI involvement. However if you leave it to AI to make the soundtrack you tend to get elevator muzak and John’s big differentiator is that he can add humanity to an AI generated video with human produced sounds. His own instrument is the sax but he uses a lot of high end music generation tools (the modern versions of a synth) to create the sounds around it.

Left me macbook pro charger in the hotel room yesterday dinneye. Worra pain. The macbook does charge up overnight using a phone charger but will hopefully get it back. Spoke to the night porter and when housekeeping get in this morning they are going to report back. In the meantime my third day (well lunch actually) on the trot in London has been cancelled due to Adam having a bit of a sniffle. Actually happy with that. It’s a six hour round trip really when you top and tail the train time with travel and waiting time at each end. Should I not go I can get on with a few jobs.

In the meantime dropping THG off at the station this am.

Managed to get an earlier train home yesterday so had a bit of time to prep for the Scouts AGM which went well. New leadership team since last year’s AGM. All change.

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Didn’t go to London. Popped in to Waitrose for some provisions and came away with a free Pieminster steak and ale pie which will be tonight’s tea. Coming out of Waitrose the sun was shining and I drew in a deep breath of the beautiful autumn air. Then at home I spent an hour or so catching up on some admin.

Hotel called. The charger has been found and our Tom, who is in the area this evening, is picking it up for me. I’ll be seeing him next weekend and can pick it up then, if I can wait that long. Left the hotel a good review, fair play to them.

Watched a bit of cricket. Pakistan being walloped. Then figured I’d try changing the studs on my golf shoes. They haven’t been changed since I bought the shoes maybe 14 or 15 years ago when I was a member of Torksey. Not a hope in hell. Glued in solid. Took them to American Golf to see if they could sort it but no chance. Ended up buying a new pair of Under Armors. Grates to spell Armour that way. I guess after 15 years the old Footjoys don’t owe me anything.

Now back in the shed watching da criquet again. Pakistan trail by 312 and lost two wickets in the first over of their second innings.

THG is on her way back from Liverpool. Poor girl has had a nightmare of a trip. Train between Sheffield and Liverpool delayed due to an onboard medical incident and arrived late. Then all the Merseyrail trains were cancelled because of someone on the line. No way THG was going to get to see her sister. Ended up turning around and catching an earlier train to retrace her route back to Lincoln. The train between Liverpool and Sheffield arrived late and she missed the connection. Picking her up at 6pm to go for a drink in the Blue Monkey (or whatever it is called).

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This afternoon, on my way back from American Golf I observed a dead badger on the bypass going up the hill. Shame I thought but I believe that that is a sign that there are a lot of them around. Then after I’d been for a drink with THG on my way back to the car a bloke ran past me on the road in the rain. I thought to myself I wonder why he isn’t running on the pavement. It is quite narrow on the Eastgate I guess. Then a car rolled up behind him and had to slow down to his speed. The woman driver wound her window down and shouted at him “hey mate, there is a path you know”. Hehehe.

Staying in a new hotel, the Derby Curio by Hilton or simlar. Only been open 4 months.  Ice room, nice bar and nice breakfast room. Breakfast was okay. I don’t have high expectations when it comes to hotel brekkies. I did observe a few things. The shower head,  despite only having been used for only 4 months, has some of the nozzles spurting water at an angle. This is easily fixed by rubbing the nozzle and is caused by calcium build up due to hard water. Note it didn’t affect the performance of the shower but it is interesting (well I think so anyway) to see this sort of thing happen after only 4 months. Most of the nozzles were ok. They all are now. Bit nerdy i know.

At breakfast, everyone was a corporate type. I heard a bloke drop the words SVP Sales into his Spanish sentence. Smartly dressed woman at the next table to me observed that it was nice for me to have a day off. I told her that shorts and tshirt were my work attire.

A gentle stroll around the corner to 8 Bishopsgate. The lift ride to The Lookout on the 50th floor took over a minute. 2 lift vids shown here inc floors 5 to 7 of the hotel. There were others in the lift that got out at floor 5. 3rd vid of the view from The Lookout.

Breakfasted well on a partial English. Almost full but no egg or tomayto. I don’t do black pudding. Two sausages which for me is over the top but there were two left in the fridge that needed using, so used they were. I did think I was facing a relaxed morning ahead but realise now that I have a meeting with my accountant at nine thirty so I’ll have to get dressed for that 🙂 

Heading for London this pm. I was going to have dinner with one of the boys from Brussels but he changed his schedule to come tomorrow morning and so that’s off. However I booked a non-cancellable hotel room rate so I’m going anyway. I don’t normally book a non-cancellable tariff but London prices can get so ridiculous that it can be the only way to get a vaguely sensible room rate. Even then it is expensive. The upside is that I now get to meet our Joe.

Trying a new hotel this trip, the Derby Curio by Hilton or some such moniker. It’s new to me but also new on the market. See how it goze. It happens to be the nearest Hilton to Bishopsgate which is why I chose it. Just a short walk in the morning.

THG is off out running with the Pink Ladies, fair play. She is running the Lincoln 10k this year and is starting to gear up for it. V proud of her. 

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Meeting over and now need to think what to do with the rest of the morning. Gotta pack obvs. Socks, pants, tshirt and jeans, toothbrush etc. That doesn’t take long. 2 mins ish. I wouldn’t even bother sticking the jeans in but I’m currently in shorts mode and don’t really want to wear shorts tomorrow. Could also take out the recycling.

Now playing Stacey’s Mom in the shed. Came on as a random track. Not seen the accompanying vid before. Before we know it the music has moved on to Stayin’ Alive. Really my era. The Cave disco under Summerland at the end of the prom in Douglas. Now playing Kung Fu Fighting. It is the tref’s faves playlist on random with some Spotify suggested tracks interspersed with my choices.

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Uneventful trip to Laandan other than it was raining when I got ere so I jumped in a cab. Not much of a queue which surprised me a little as I thought London Taxis got busier during wet weather. The hotel is nice enough and they’ve given me a voucher for a free cocktail which I’ll have to decide whether to spend before going out or when I get back. Depends really whether I can find a pub showing the Bournemouth v Lincoln game. Trouble is there is European Cup action and a few games in the Carabao (league) Cup that are probably of more interest to the general public so the Imps will be lower down in the priority. The solution would be to come back to the hotel and watch it on my laptop in the bar, which is where the free cocktail would come into it. It’s also half price between 5pm and 6pm but I won’t be around then. I’ll let you know what happens obvs.

Good night’s kip. Been an exhausting summer. Need a holiday now where I do nothing. Will be a couple of weeks yet. 3 days in London this week then Malaga for golf the next one.

We did have a nice afternoon at Auburn Hall Gardens with @phil, Rachel, Rob and Jen the pilates teacher. Was chucking it down when we got there so we did the visit in reverse order starting with a cup of tea and coffee cake before wandering around les jardins when the sun came out.

Had a snooze when we got home followed by a bit of chicken salad with the last of the baguettes from Saturday night, a bath and early to bed. My first bath of 2027. I know this because Hannah bought me some bubble bath last Christmas and this was the first time I’d used it!

Looks like a nice day out. Need to decide what to have for breakfast. Did have a bacon sarnie in mind but we don’t got no bred so that’s off. Had a weetabix yesterday so might do same again today, with the remaining grapefruit.

Gotta take the car to Wilco Motosave down the road to get the tyre fixed. Currently running on the spare since the puncture on our last day in Normandy. There was no obvious sign of the cause of the problemo. Also going to see if I can make a start with the log splitter that Ajax dropped off yesterday. Aaand got a bit of work to do in prep for meeting Manuel in London on Wednesday though that can probs wait until tomorrow morning as I’m not going down until the afternoon. Staying the night because of an early ish start for the conference on Wednesday which would otherwise mean catching a train from Newark to get to London by 08:30 or thereabouts. I didn’t do very early starts these days if I can help it. Bleurgh.

Staying at a new gaff cos it’s near where the meeting is: The Derby London City, Curio Collection by Hilton, fwiw.

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News from the tyre front is that it is kaput as it has a nail in at an angle. Brand new tyre that.

French evening went well. We were celebrating philosopherontap’s 18th birthday. Only a few of us but it worked out. Good job I had a spare gas cylinder. I hadn’t turned it off at the cylinder after cleaning the bbq grill earlier and there is almost certainly a leek somewhere in the metal piping. Gonna need to buy a new regulator as well methinks. Will be next year before we need it now as I suspect the bbq season is mostly over. My sister @ann and husband Toby use theirs all year round, including Christmas Day. Anyway after a bit of a slow start the meat turned out perfect. I was using a meater probe in the beef and that alerted me to the fact that the gas had run out as the temperature didn’t seem to be rising. Itwas nice to see @Ivan who came up for the afternoon/bbq.

Just started to rain. Quite refreshing/relaxing. THG will need to take a brolly with her to church. I’ll be chillin out and putting some stuff away from last night. The cognac, Normandy whisky and calvados were big hits. They will be put away now until the next get together. Maybe even until Christmas. Amazing that we now start talking about Christmas. People have already started posting pics of mince pies for sale in Tesco. I don’t mind a mince pie.

This afternoon we are off to Auburn Hall for their annual garden open day. The rain is only expected to last the morning and hopefully it won’t spoil the open day. It’s a charidee job. There is an alternative jaunt if necessary to see Ajax’s vehicle on display in the vintage vehicle day at the Bomber Command Memorial but there again that too is an outdoor event.

Rain is getting heavier. 09:35 and I’ve not yet had breakfast. THG has left some grapefruit segments out for me. Not particularly hungry yet. There are ingreds in the fridge to make a full English but they can happily stay there until another day. Seem to have a bit of a dodgy tummy anyway. 

It is amazing how quickly the garden has turned green again. Shows how resilient grass is.

All is quiet.

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Bit of a power nap when we got back from Auburn Hall gardens. Totes zonked and guts been playing up a bit. A quiet night in front of the telly with THG is called for. Dunno what’s on. Songs of Praise with Harry Secombe, probs.

Read the paper this morning (oh boy) whilst downstairs making the tea. Wasn’t paper paper obvs, it was online, but I still call it reading the paper. Years ago we used to get a paper, on a weekend, the Sunday Times. It was quite a tome and the different sections were useful for things like lighting the fire. Stopped bothering decades ago. It ain’t cheap nowadays. I do sometimes get the FT on Saturday though I haven’t for a while.

Gotta nip out shortly. Need some baguettes, ice and milk. We are having a French themed bbq with tomahawk steak, butterflied lamb, pommes sarladaises, French beans and a green salad with some of my v nice French dressing. Apericubes, salami/saucisson, pongy cheese and tarte tartin top and tail the evening and I have a number of bottles of cognac, Normandy whisky and calvados to throw into the mix.

The beef and lamb will need careful timing/coordination and I’ll finish off the pommes when the meat is resting. I’ve already thrown together a persillade and par cooked the spuds. Ciao amigos, Waitrose beckons.

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When I got back THG asked whether I’d be wearing the Breton stripey shirt I purchaysed for ten Euros in the market in Concarneau. Hadn’t really given it a thought though now that she’s mentioned it I might well do. Trouble is I don’t have a beret to go with it. The last one I bought was a bright pink one I got from a tourist stall near Montmartre after a boozy lunch with @Wayne and @Simon. Lasted less than two hours. Left it in the taxi en route to Au Bon Coin restaurant. At least that one was only six bucks.

Finished first meeting ahead of schedule and was able to bring the second forward. As a result I am now sat in the KLM lounge with 3 hours ahead of me before I need to set off for gate D 6 and the bus. The priority security pass worked a treat Andy Rawnsley. In fact I got there an hour and a half ahead of my booked slot (I couldn’t change it to  an earlier one) but I showed the guy at the entrance and he said just head on in. What’s more I can tell you the Duty Free strategy worked. 2 x 1l Tanqueray £25 in Humberside. 25 euros each in AMS. Same price as Tesco. I kept them in the sealed bags with receipts and after examination the security guy let them through. The limit is 48 hours so if you are just off on a short trip it works.

The trip was a success. Looking at conference venues and the last one I saw was the best.

Interesting to compare the security setups of Humberside and Schipol. Didn’t need to get anything out of the bag at the latter and my hips didn’t set off the alarm. The opposite was true in Humberside. In fact I had a trainee body searcher took me through the whole gamut of body searches You will be pleased to know I was “clean”.

Taxi arrived early to take me to Humberside airport. Said he was glad of the job as it got him out of Lincoln where the arrival of the tour de britain (or similar) cycle race was expected this morning. Lots of road closures. Told me he’d started work at 3:30 am so that he could finish before the bikes arrived. THG was planning to go and watch them whizz by. Over in the blink of an eye I’d imagine. The flutter of eyelashes.

Now on the 09:50 from HUY to AMS. sbeen a while since I’ve flown from here. Easy. Small airport with more helicopter and private jet flights than schedule airlines, the only one of which seems to be KLM. It’s an expensive airport to fly from but with v cheap duty free. The sales assistant persuaded me that as I was only away for less than 48 hours I could keep the duty free gin in sealed bags which would be acceptable to the security people on the return trip. This was a new one on me but with a litre of tanqueray at £12.50 I decided it was worth taking the risk. Even though the flights aint cheap the alternative is train to london and then eurostar. A whole days journey and probably more expensive, at least in business class. It isn’t worth paying an extra £500 for business class on this 45min flight. I’ve paid that much to upgrade to first with BA on a transatlantic flight. Now that was a reasonable deal I thought.

Breakfasted before security. I was the only person in the restaurant. £10 ish for a full english, tea, toast and a glass of milk. They gave me the milk free. It wasn’t on the pricelist. Just poured me a cupful from the sugar/milk station. Bit warm. The food was bearable but the service was top notch.

They printed both boarding cards on the one piece of paper this trip. Not seen that before. Mustn’t lose the bit of paper though they can easily print me another I guess. The only negative about the AMS flight is the return leg where the queues to get through security are notoriously long and i have no status to get in the priority queue. It wasn’t worth the cost of the biz class upgrade to skip the line. I will see if they have a paid for option for fast track though i don’t remember that they do. 

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Now on the train to Amsterdam central. 11.75 euros return. I did initially jump in a taxi to save me the effort of buying a ticket but when the driver told me it would be 93 euros one way I jumped out again. The hotel, the Barbizon Palace is directly opposite the train station.

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Turns out I’d bought a bus ticket not a train ticket so I couldn’t get out through the station barriers, doh. The woman in the kiosk said at least I’d paid for the ticket and gave me a free barcode to get me out!