Secret Santa has been!

Last year I got a bottle of Baileys, which I don't like but Sonia does. This year I felt the pressies up and it felt like a bottle in a gift bag.

And it was. Nearly. But not more Baileys, oh no, I got this

Trip to Dundee part 2

It's cold, it's damp, it's dark. I still love Dundee, great architecture in the city centre, nice people, a vibe about the place.

More on my nearly cancelled meeting. Turns out the buyer had "a garden full of sewage".

Finally the trains are definitely busier this week, people starting their Christmas travels with a week to go.

Meet or no Meet? Trip to Dundee part 1

So it's the last business trip of what's been a hectic quarter 4, racing around the country (and Budapest!) having 35 customer meetings. 10,174 miles by the time I get home tonight by rail, road and air.

And the last one has cancelled! Hasn't happened in a good few years, and to be fair they have put up his assistant as an alternative. So, I write this blog entry from the top deck of my Dundee bus on my way to see my final punter of the year.....

Grrrr bloody phone!

Trip to Nuneaton today. Phone had no signal all the way there. Complain to IT who get EE to issue a new registration text. I also switch off 4G, and suddenly its working!

I decide to fiddle with the settings, restore 4G auto mode, and it's dead again, going from full signal to none in different cells. Then I call EE and they explain. My HTC One Mini is a 4G phone, but we have a 3G only contract. The phone tries to register to the 4G network, it's barred, we get no signal. It'll drop 3G to 2G no problem, just not 4G to 3G.....

New phone resurrects blog

Been a while! Basically my Samsung Galaxy S2 got transferred to Sonia and I've been without a decent smartphone to blog on since.

Until today when Quorn provided me with the HTC One Mini that I'm writing this on. More to follow....

A warm weekend

Writing this a few days after the event, but last weekend finally felt like the end of Winter. We had lunch out in the garden which was Fab, and then a trip to Preston Park for a wall in the woods.

Quiet weekend but very good, helped by live Formula One from China....

Three days away

Went to the Nisa trade show at the National Agriculture Centre at Stoneleigh near Warwick.

Monday was set up day. Got down there for 12 and found that Ita and Janet our food technologists had already set things up! So lunch and a chat, and done for half one.

Drove across to the hotel to check in, and found that I had a suite with rooms across 2 floors including a spa bath! We then went into Warwick to find shops to look at- thy had a Holland and Barratt and nothing else relevant.

Following day off to the show, with the sales director coming to visit. He left impressed with our stand and the sheer scale of the show, and with the gushing praise from my Nisa trading manager ringing in his ears.

Show was busy at times, and with Phil The Power Taylor doing a darts demo a few stands down it was loud! Watching the man throw 180 after 180 close up was impressive. Lots of familiar faces there too and enjoyed a catch up coffee with Alex Calvert.

That night was the awards dinner. Service was glacial (didn't finish eating until 11pm!) and the comedian was offensive. To cap it all the "entertainment" ran over and our bus left people behind!

On the Wednesday the show descended into swapsies by 2 and downright theft by 3. The PA message imploring whoever had taken a bag containing car keys from the Honey Monster stand was funny! Came away with several bags full of porridge, biscuits, drinks etc

A first class trip to London

Used up my first batch of East Coast reward points to take Patrick to London. Up bright and early (still icu cold though!) to get the 07:31 from Darlington.

Breakfast was served almost straight away- coffee and pastry, followed by full English (including a cheese omelette which was lovely) followed by Toast and Marmalade and more coffee. Absolutely stuffed!

Arrived 45 down due to OHLE problems at Grantham which created a backlog of trains. Off to North Greenwich and onto the Emirates Airline cable car for a return ride across the river. It had been cold but sunny at home, London was just cold and grey with a blustery wind which made the cars sway quite a lot. Its a steep climb too, especially on the southern side.

After that a short walk to Greenwich pier where we managed to miss one Thames Clipper boat by about 30 seconds - happily there was a nice warm waiting room even if it was bobbing up and down slightly as the floating pier caught the waves.

The usual thrash on the boat was fun - stayed on the open rear deck as far as Tower Bridge, then as they slow down anyway for the inner London bit we came inside for a warm!

Lunch was Little Frankies which always amazes me hoe many tables they can squeeze inside such a small building. No wait though which was handy, before crossing Trafalgar Square for a wander round the National Gallery.

We had an hour and a half left so we went up to Hamleys (including a 2 stop bus ride up part of Regent Street), didn't buy anything and still had a bit of time to kill. So we jumped onto a bus ("just get on any bus!") as far as Great Portland Street then tube to Moorgate, FCC to Finsbury Park and Victoria Line to Kings Cross.

The train home was the 18:00 which had been swapped to an HST. Bag of peanuts on departure (described as an "appetizer") plus more tea and orders taken for dinner. Whilst we waited for mains we had biscuits to snack on plus coke for Patrick and an Old Speckled Hen for me.

Dinner was Roast Chicken with Lemon Risotto and Sugar Snap Peas (which was Fab) plus Chocolate Ovaltine Tart with Cinnamon sauce pudding (which was Fab) plus another Old Speckled Hen. Then later some more tea, more biscuits and some crisps....

A day out in York

Took the boys to York today. Round the railway museum then a walk round the walls to Clifford's Tower then into Costa for a snack. A fun day out!

Easter walk up Maze Hill

After church and a quantity of chocolate the boys and I went to the Barrage for a walk up the artificial hill built on part of the old Tees Yard. A good view from the top but still very cold!

Saturday morning picture show

Taken Daniel to see the big hit new release Monsters Inc....

A week late

Yesterday I had to travel to Denham for a supplier conference. I had decided to travel south on a more interesting route, and to redeem some rewards points to try the first class lounges.

I went into the lounge at Darlington and had a couple of coffees and some biscuits waiting for my Cross Country service to Sheffield. This was a once a day service using the Great Central route from Mexborough through Kilnhurst avoiding Swinton. The old road was slow as expected and the Voyager cramped, but made an interesting change from the usual blast down the East Coast.

I had 10 minutes in Sheffield to change onto an East Midlands Meridian to St Pancras. Considering these are mechanically clones of Voyagers the contrast is stark - plenty of room, plenty of tables that line up with windows. How could these trains have a layout so right when their voyager cousins are so wrong?

On arrival in London I spent an hour in the lounge at Kings Cross - more coffee, more biscuits, plus fruit and crisps. Then over to Denham. It was raining hard in London, but on arrival at Denham we were just ahead of the leading edge of the storm, allowing me to walk up to head office without getting wet.

And that's when I found out I was a week late! But the buyer was very accommodating! That meant that my expected 2 hour meeting lasted half that, so a taxi in the teeming rain to Gerrards Cross (photo) for a non-stop 168 blast to Marylebone, then another spell in the Kings Cross lounge before my train home.

A day trip to Watford

Had to go and see Costco, so an early (7am) train from Darlo. I'm in Denham on Monday so a large number of tickets collected together as shown on the picture!
As usual the train south was nowhere near loaded, and the early start allows for Breakfast on expenses, so a Sausage and Egg Panini on the train went down well.
On arrival I had enough time for a few photos on Euston Road on the walk to pick up the Watford train. On the return to Euston I passed on the first two trains to get one routed on the Fast (a wait of 15 mins!) - all were 350/1s, but the UF route meant we hit 110mph, a new pantograph mod on the fleet allowing the 10mph increase.
On the way back, into St Pancras for shots of the station statues before my usual Subway from next door to my old bedsit.
The 14:00 Aberdeen on a Friday was always likely to be busy, so I found the train on P5 and looked for unreserved seats - and found just half a dozen!