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