Saturday 25th May 2013

Tuesday.

It has been quite a week so far.

It all began very relaxed with a fine day working from home with the cats, me sitting at the table with the occasional feline visitor asking for food or attention. I could feed the birds when they had eaten all what was outside. Although, the weather was not good, so I was not tempted to take an early stack and go for a wander with camera in hand.

I checked in online, and picked my preferred seat in seat 8A, so my view would not be blocked by the propellers or engine. And then it was a case of watching the hours slip by into later afternoon and evening.

Tuesday morning was the usual rush to get to the station in time. This was not helped with me coming down when it was getting near when it was urgent to leave with Jools having the door of her freezer in her hand. It just come off in my hand she said…..

Fnar

Fnar.

We got it back on by using the magnets in the seal and hoped for the best. I got to the station, got my ticket and the train arrived. I took a seat on my preferred side of the train so I can see the remains of Dover Town Yard, Shakespeare Beach, views of the sea, the Folkestone Harbour branch, views of the M20 and looking over the Thames at Grays as we sped over the M25. At Folkestone the train filled up, to be completed at Ashford. Although there seems to be enough seats for all.

At Stratford, I changed onto the DLR and headed to the airport. There were no queues so I checked by bag in, got through security and was sitting down for breakfast within ten minutes. Eggs Benedict and a huge cup of fresh coffee and soon enough I felt almost human again.

Sadly, there was almost total cloud cover, and after taking off we were in clouds from the time we flew over the Dome until we were skimming over the treetops approaching Billund. So, just as well I thought that was what was going to happen so I did leave my camera in my bag, even after what happened last week!



I collected my bag, went to the car hire place; I now know them all by name, and they know my e mail address by heart too! I was given the keys, and I went to see what I was given: a Golf automatic, which is good to drive and has lots of room, although I have nothing to fill it with.



A 40 minute drive to Esbjerg and straight to the office, and early enough to sit in a couple of meetings and get some work done before it was time to head to the hotel before all the parking spaces were taken. After chilling out reading, there was little doubt about how I would spend my evening, heading to Bones to have my usual meal of ribs and salad. It was all very good I have to say.



The other news was that Yahoo imposed many un-announced changes on Flickr; now, at first this was shocking, but in fact most of the changes are not that bad, and the changes don’t go very deep, but the fact changes to accounts was done to those that paid and were, as customers, were given no notice or choice says a lot about Yahoo and how they see their users; as product not customers. Anyway, the firestorm that erupted still has not died down, and no staff are being made available to address some justified questions. The main problem is the new version of the site does not offer thumbnails on the front page, just tiled justified images which eat up bandwidth, which will cause problems for those of us who live in rural locations.



Wednesday.

Meetings. And more meetings. A day in which time slipped through my hands like sand on a beach. As Bill and Ted would have put it. At two we realised we were hungry, so we went out for bagels; I had a garlic bagel with garlic cream cheese, but I skip the garlic dressing as I was sharing an office with my boss!

As warm as Tuesday was, Wednesday was so windy and cold it felt like winter. Clearly it was too bad for there to be no work possible, but of course, that does not affect those of us chained to our desks…..

As we ate lunch so late, it meant that I was not hungry until after eight; so I went to Dronning Louise for a beer and a plate of cheesy nachos, which was just about the right amount of food. I had a very good pint of Adnams, so 7% mighty strong beer that I have forgotten the name off. It went down very well indeed.

And there is no football with which to tempt me into a last night, so I go to bed at a sensible time once again, while daylight still creeps round the side of the curtains……

Thursday

Work ended on Thursday and so I made arrangements to meet Steffen for a meal and drink and to meet his friend who may, or may not, be our next padowan in Esbjerg. We tried to get into Bones, but due to a lack of free tables, we ended up at the place next to Dronning Louise, another bar/bistro thing, which quite soulless had decent beer and food.

So, we all ordered huge beers and huge burgers and chatted whilst we waited for our food to arrive.

After wards, we spit, and I thought maybe I would go to the Irish Bar, just for one…. It ended up being just two, but on top of the two in the bar it was enough for me. There was a pub quiz on, which I could have joined in with, but thought better of and headed back to the hotel.

Friday

And the sun shines, and people are giving us jobs like you would not believe. Still, it keeps us busy. And now it is near two and most folks have begun an early weekend, so I shall soon head back to Billund as I have a ticket to get into the business lounge, so I can relax and be fed otters noses, ocelot spleens and sweetmeats in aspic, rather than sit with the shouting classes below. But we shall have to sit next to each other on the plane.

And so, once landed, Jools will meet me and we will head to Woodfood and then by car to deepest, darkest Suffolk and a visit to see Mother.

Wish me well.