Saturday 10th January 2015

Thursday.

Hoorah for a good nights sleep! I mean it does make all the difference. I lay in bed, listening to the world outside making it's way to work, and being as I'm in Denmark, and it's before nine, it is dark. As dark as night. Which it really is.

I pack, check out and have a bite for breakfast, but that is spoilt by the coffee machining being BROKEN! Oh noes! So, I skip the roll, and instead walk to the car park, load the car and make my way the 30Km to Varde for yet another day or inspecting. At least their coffee machine is working, so I have a huge cup, I am tempted to just drink it straight from the pot, but that might be considered bad manners....

Anyway, the day passes, and things begin to go slightly wrong, the first time this has happened. It livens things up and stops me dropping off.

At three the day is done, and so am I. My friends are not at the office in Esbjerg, they are taking place in a team building things, which I should have been taking part in; they did driving Landrovers and drinking beer from what I heard. Just as well I was working, but it does make it feel like I am not part of the team, but its not really true or course. I pour myself into the car and drive to Billund: once again I am staying at the Zleep and flying back to London in the morning.



After checking in, dropping off my bags, I take the car back and drop the keys off at the rental office. And then go to the cafe to grab a coffee. It was sitting there that the phone rung, then two of my team members came by on their way home. By the time the call ended and my friends left, the coffee was cold. I ate the chocolate though. In the hotel room, I send off loads of mails whilst listening to the radio, and the evening passes. I walk back over the terminal for dinner: burger and a beer only, as usual. But its good enough for me, and the beer is enough to make me get very tired.

So I go to bed, as I have to be up at five fifteen in the morning.

Friday.

The alarm goes off at five fifteen, just as I set it. I lay in bed, thinking about how long it will take me to walk to the terminal (5 minutes), check in (5 minutes), go through security (10 minutes): in doing so I realise that I am maybe an hour early, so I lay in bed looking at the street light coming in around the curtains.

At six, I hear the first of the jets warming up and making ready to taxi off. I had better get ready then. So, I have a shower, get dressed, pack and have breakfast, well a roll and a coffee, before walking in the driving rain to the terminal. I check in, go through security, and indeed I am in so much time I can answer the early mails from work.



The plane has about ten passengers, so we spread out. The wind is making the plane shake, and I ten realise that it might be an interesting flight to say the least. As we are accelerating down the runway, the plane is already swerving from side to side, but we lift off, the lights of Legoland are left below as we climb into the low cloud. Rain hammers into the plane, sounding like tap dancers. I close my eyes as the plane leaps around like an unbroken colt.

Breakfast is delayed, as it is unsafe for anyone to be walking around as we pass through many pockets of turbulence. We just about clear the clouds, but there are more above, it isn't getting any lighter as we fly south. But, as we approach the Essex coast, I see white horses on the sea below, away in the distance I can make out the shape of Thanet again, and the curve of Pegwell Bay beyond. Nearly home.



We cruise over south Essex and north Kent, making tight turns until we get a slot before we can turn and drop down as we travel up the river. Lower and lower before we drop onto the runway, no drama at all. Safe and sound, How I love the ground.



There are no queues at immigration, which means there is a wait for a change for our bags. I fed calls as I make my way over to Stratford, once again missing the train to Dover by a few minutes, so I make the most of my time ordering an early breakfast with a gingerbread latte (with an extra shot). Lovely.



The train arrives on time, and it is almost empty, so I grab a seat, close my eyes as we move off and enter the long tunnel under east London. Out into the sunshine in Essex, across the marshes, under the Thames then into Kent, passing over the Medway, under the North Downs. Getting nearer home.



I get a taxi at the station, there is hardly any wind here at all. So, he drives like Tony, not indicating, undertaking, the usual taxi driver stuff. But I am home, safe, and confronted by the three cats all demanding. Meow.

Inbetween coffees and yet more lunch, I finish of the mails from work, and that is it: the weekend.