Yes, Bank holiday Monday, when, as tradition states, Britain heads to the seaside to huddle in shelters from the wind and driving rain tell each other how much they're enjoying it and as JCC put it, their chips turn to lard in the cold.
And it would be easy to think after the never-ending winter we had which stretched beyond Easter, that this Bank Holiday would be every bit as traditional as detailed above. Instead it has been warm(ish), sunny and very pleasant indeed We have been busy, busy, busy all three days, and now have a few precious hours before we go back to the grind.
So, let us go back a few days to Friday and my trip home then the coming of the weekend.....
Friday.
Why is it, that things choose to go wrong on a Friday? I mean, when I was at Marham, Friday afternoon duty armourer, doing trade cover. Phone rings, hello, yes its the police, the USAF have managed to crash a nuclear missile in Kings Lynn, can you help? Or at Lyneham: hello, is that the armoury, yes, we'd like to take out 50 pistols out so to arm an aircraft as we're evacuating some civvies from Albania. Not without a signature from the Station Commander you're not.....
Anyway, I digress.
So, things are not going smoothly in the erection of the turbines in the land of abba. In fact they have not arrived, or had not by Friday morning, and it was all going very pear-shaped. And as luck would have it, Friday was the day when all the staff were being bussed down to Esbjerg to see what we have been up to for the last three months. So, whilst we battled to get things under control, five tour parties wandered through the offices gawping in as we tried to look calm.
And then we all to stop at twelve to file in and listen to the CEO give a pep talk and say in the young Mr Grace stlee, 'You've all done very well'. If only he knew. Well, I know he does, but still.... And then we can tuck into the food that has been provided, and me get a chance to talk to my new boss. Sadly, that was cut shot as the bus was due to leave in like 15 minutes. So, bye bye.
I could have gone to work, but there was rumour of a BBQ in the warehouse. So I made my way over and sure enough, there is the smell of cooking bratties. So, I partake, and then I realise I am shattered and the idea to take off an hour early and call in at Legoland seems irresistible. So, I go back, fire off one or two pissed-off-o-grams and pack up and get the heck outta Dodge.
A quick blast up the motorway then cross country to Billund to Legoland. I park up to see that we were to be charged a fiver for parking and thirty quid to get in! Oh well, as its just the once....
We queue up behind an old couple who manage to stretch out the job of buying two tickets to fifteen minutes, I pay the money and I'm in.
I look round miniland, where they have all the model villages and scale models of famous buildings from around the work. I snap, snap away, avoiding crowds and barging children out of the way. There are various places in Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Germany as well as Cape Canavaral in the US. After 50 minutes I'm all lego'd out, and so make my way out of the park.
At least it was just a 5 minute drive to the airport and the hire car drop off, a quick walk to the terminal, check in, drop off my bag, get through security and head to the bar. And I thought i would check on my mail. OMG, capso-stab-party. all hell had broke loose. So, as I drunk a beer, I made calls sent mails, I began to realise my mails had a certain belligerent tone, then I looked at the beer bottle: 9.2% Oh, that explains it all. So, I decide to switch the phone off, read my book and finish the beer.
The flight was the usual; although this time with clear views the whole trip. I got some snaps over Essex and north Kent again before we headed in to land and the working week was nearly over. That extra day away really took it out of me.
Ayway, once I got my case and got through immigration, I left the hall and bumped into Jools who had come up to London for the day, so we chatted all the way across London to Stratford, and in a piece of luck arrived five minutes before the dover train was due. And once we got on we got seats too. And the biggest bonus was making the twenty past seven train, which meant we were home a whole hour earlier than normal.
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