twirly for foto
There’s a song that starts “It’s four in the morning…” That applies to me right now. Had 6 hours kip and am awake so came downstairs. I did have to think about it. That bed is toasty. Really nice. I knew that this would not be the case outside the duvet. However I figured I wouldn’t get much sleep now because the alarm is set for 6.15 in order to be ready for Handsom Cabs to pick us up at 7. Better to do something productive.
I put my glasses on in the dark. It’s amazing how they gave focus to darkness. The room was not totally dark because there was the LED from the clock and a faint glow around the top of the curtains from the street light outside. Still the blackness seemed to gain clarity when I put my specs on.
I am now downstairs in the TV room, blanket over my legs, tapping away. I didn’t leave the bedroom as quietly as I might have liked. The door made a noise opening and closing. Anne is a light sleeper. Hopefully she will now have a good hour and a half more kip without me there shifting around.
The clock under the TV is ticking. You don’t normally notice this during the day. It’s ticking my life away. Each tick represents an irretrievable part of my time spent on this planet. Normally I don’t think about it but with nothing but this room for company it is different. I almost resent the clock. I want to make it disappear. Disintegrate. Vanish into a different dimension. Irrational I know and not really like me. It doesn’t match my philosophy of life. I’ll move on.
Today we are off to Krakow. We are on the 07.30 direct train from Lincoln to London Kings Cross. We arrive in Kings Cross at 09.26 but our flight from LHR is at 14.30 so we have a bit of spare time. Let’s say we want to be at the airport by 12.30 and the Uber will take an hour to get there. Means we need to leave Kings Cross by 11.30 so we have two hours to kill.
We can either spend an additional 2 hours in the lounge or do something around Kings Cross. Not decided yet. We will have check in bags with us so need to take that into consideration when deciding. One option is to leave the bags in the Left Luggage place at the station (£12 for 2 hours for 2 bags) and stroll along to the British Library. They have an interesting “treasures” room displaying lots of famous books, first editions, Shakespeare etc. Also have a caff. We will have to discuss it on the train.
On the train we will partake of a full English breakfast. It’s not a bad breakfast fair play to them and the benefit of getting on at Lincoln is that it is right at the start of the journey and the food is fresh. I’ve normally finished it by the time we get to Newark. The tea is also fresh at that time. It can taste a little stewed later in the journey. Echoes of British Rail…
We are on our way to Krakow for an Euro-IX Forum. These are really nice events. They are the biannual get togethers of the IXP industry. We talk about IXP stuff. Internetty things. They move to different places in Europe every six months. Last one was Berlin. Not it wasn’t it was Luxembourg. Berlin was before that. We got stuck in a lift! The next one is Barcelona and the one after that Tampere in Finland which should be interesting. In 2018 they are talking about Svalbard. Population 3,000 with 5,000 polar bears! Its within the Arctic Circle. I think the 5,000 polar bears bit is only a joke but it gives you an idea of the location.
There are not many flight options to Krakow. We already had our Wednesday return cancelled. BA decided not to run a service on Wednesday so now we are coming back after the conference on Tuesday. It’s a 18.50 take off which means getting home really late that evening. We are booked on the 22.00 from Kings Cross. Urgh.
This is the last bit of international travel in 2016 afaik. Nothing else booked anyway. Just three trips to London, including the Christmas bash and my birthday which officially mark the beginning of the holiday season as far as I am concerned.
Bought a Peugeot 107 yesterday. Phoebe Wishart’s old car. It’s perfect for Anne and for John to learn to drive with. Tax is zero. Same as my VW T2 campervan but for different reasons. What’s more it does 60mpg (campervan does 23 ish) and insurance with John as a learner is only £330 a year. Result. Already sold the C4 to Coops and Anne needs to get rid of the Micra. It won’t fetch much but we might get a couple of hundred for it. We didn’t need three cars and now will have more room on the drive. Was always a little awkward having the three cars there.
It’s now 5.34. Came down at around quarter to. Time doth fly. The clock still ticketh. We get to Krakow at around 6pm. Collect the bags and taxi to the hotel. Should be there for 7 in time for a freshen up, a drink at the bar and then out to dinner somewhere. Maybe even dinner at the hotel. See when we get there.
When we got to Madrid we opted for a bite in the bar. It’s a long day’s travelling from Lincoln. Because of the distance I also add a couple of hours contingency to the timings. Hence the time to kill this morning. Who knows. The train could break down and use up all that contingency.
Not yet decided how to get out to LHR I’ve recently been catching an Uber. it’s more expensive if you are on your own but cheaper for two and not underground. Takes a little longer but you don’t have to cart your luggage around. The Heathrow Express leaves from Paddington which whilst it isn’t that far on the Tube does involve a bit of hoofing bags around. No brainer really.
In half an hour I will make the tea. I’m all packed so won’t really take that long to be ready. Just stick a last few things in the Osprey day bag, brush my teeth etc. The Bose headphones are charged, the Anker is charged. I’d only used 20% of the Bose battery but there is no harm in having it at 100% for the trip. They are fantastic for travelling. Really cut out the noise of an aircraft and also useful for blocking out inane discussions from the next table on the train.
Been looking at the return journey. We land at 20.30. Train is at 22.00. We have hold bags. Sgonna be touch and go. The only other train is at 23.30. Gets to Newark at 1am. 1.30 home. We don’t want to spend an extra night in a hotel in London. I think I’ll change the tickets when we get to Kings Cross. If we change the tickets in advance it will be cheaper than missing the train and copping for totally new single fares. Then if miraculously we do manage to get there for the 22.00 I’m sure we can blag our way on it. Will have to see.
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The train attendants are very cheerful serving breakfast this morning. Very good considering they start work at some unearthly hour to get from Leeds to lincoln for a 7.30 am service. The full English was as usual very good fair play. Taken with two slices of white toast, orange juice and a cup of tea.
Anne is now in a zone. Earphones in. Listening to the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4. I may join her. In a zone that is. Not the same one. Maybe some funky tunes. Polish folk tunes? Why not? Don’t know any off the top of my head.
It’s fairly dull out there. Dull sheep in dull green fields. Some fields have already been ploughed and replanted and one or two are already showing a green sheen of new growth. Winter wheat or something. I’m not particularly up with agriculture. Should be. Should try to stay in touch with my ancestral roots. Everybody’s roots really. We were all farmers at one time. Hunter gatherers even. Not suggesting we need to stay in tune with hunter gathering. Perhaps we should 🙂 Waitrose is easier.
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very unusual conversation going on a couple of seat pods away. Geezer with large belly and suit got on with younger suit, mid 30s say. Younger suit had a lapel badge. No idea what it was. Guard comes along and the belly tells him he must have picked up the wrong tickets and would need to pay an excess. He pays something like £140 (not sure I quite heard) for the two of them, including the return. When the guard had moved on the younger guy started talking about accommodation for some standards meeting they were going to in Paris. Ibis Hotel £40. Was a little bit of a whinge (understandably imho). This seemed slightly at odds with the fact that the belly had just forked out a load of dosh for making a mistake with the train tickets.
I’ve stuck my phones on to avoid having to listen to their totally uninteresting corporate chatter.
An executive decision has been made in respect of the two hour downtime we have in London. We are going to go straight to the airport. Expect copious amounts of (more) drivel from me on this blog. I have also decided to reuse the return tickets for another trip and grab a cab home. It’s not going to be any more expensive than changing the train tickets funnily enough and we will get home at the time we would have been catching the last train.
Tags: diary