Saturday 28th April 2012

Here I am sitting in a dull hotel room in Warrington, Lancs. The rain is beating down outside, the light is awful, and so there really is no need to be going out into the night to take in the bright lights of the town. I would have done if it had been dry, but there really is little point in going out. To reach ‘normal’ life from this surreal one in this faceless business park beside the M62 requires a car or taxi, a tenner in a taxi, and double that for the return trip. I am staying at the local Ramada, I stayed here before and it was awful. It promises to be no better; catering for the business traveller has made them lazy as they know thay can get away with moor food and service; if I had my way, I would go somewhere else. But…….

So, this week has seen a continuation of the dreary wet weather. I say dreary, it is anything but, as the sky is torn in twain by bolts of lightning on a regular basis, and torrents of rain of biblical proportions falls from the sky once again. I can just sit and watch from my office in Ramsgate.

So, the week passed slowly, with the excitement of heading into Canterbury on Tuesday night as we got tickets to see Paul Merton on stage at the new Marlowe Theatre. We headed out once we had changed and wolfed down cheese and beans on toast; the rain had stopped and there was sunshine! Time for some photography beforehand then. We parked up and walked to the theatre to collect our tickets, then to the Cathedral to snap it in the warm evening light. We called in at a pub, the Thomas Becket for some liquid refreshment before it was time to head to the Marlowe and take our seats.

Two of the few tickets were in a small box overlooking the stage; the website called them restricted view, but to us they were fine. It had just two seats, and the view was fine, certainly for some standup, and there would be no people wanting to push past us to get to their seats. The show was fine, and revealing about the life of one of the country’s leading comedians.

Once over we walked through the crowds, pausing just for me to snap the theatre in the dark; and then back to the car and home. I had thought, like most folk, that Chelsea stood no chance against Barcelona in the CL semi-final; but despite having John Terry sent off and going two goals down before half time, they fought back to draw 2-2 and go through. I kept up to date via my mobile, and twice I saw the scores and failed to realise it was good news for Chelsea. I can’t even blame it on booze as I was driving.

And now here I am up here in the north of England, although it looks as though it could be anywhere in truth. Our head office is just another faceless office building, but it is where I SHOULD work, but my boss lets me use the office in Ramsgate. Thanks to the high-speed line into St Pancras, and the great trains out of Euston, it only took three and a half hours to get to Warrington from Dover, and was really quite painless; well, except for the endless chattering, loud chattering, in Chinese, of the woman opposite me for the whole hour and three quarters out of London.

The countryside is clearly waking up; trees have leaves opening, and the fields are green and mostly yellow thanks to the huge amount of rapeseed being grown again. The train goes too fast through stations to actually see their names, but some I guessed, but most were pretty faceless and slipped by in a couple of blinks.

And here we are; back in the north, if only for a day. I have a meeting with my boss in the morning, before heading back south and home for the weekend. Still, makes a change and breaks the week up a bit, and gets me riding trains for free.

Which is nice.