Turns out that we have arranged an alternative method of a hire car. And when I saw we, I mean Jools, obviously. So, she had to leave for work nearly an hour later than usual.
The weather said it was going to be good in the morning with rain in the afternoon. Which meant the long-delayed trip to the village post office to post my six months of travel claims. I did some work, in the meantime, and tried to ignore the cats. At ten I set off for the post office, pocketful of change with me, as well as the package, now a small parcel.
Anyway, a pleasant walk down the hill and up the other side. Wait a minute, this counts as work, right? Better look like I’m not enjoying it, which is why, I guess, after posting the parcel, I bought an ice cream from the village shop. And crisps. And chocolate coated ginger biscuits. And the washing up liquid I went in for in the first place.
Once home, it began to cloud over, and soon enough heavy rain began to fall. The cats sat at the window and looked out, mournfully wishing they could go back out. Work carried on.
The day passed. Rain continued to fall, interspersed with hail storms. All the fun of the fair. All that changed, however, at two when I had to go with Tony to pick up his computer form the repair shop. The hard drive had been reformatted, cleaned up, now all was ready for them to mess it up again. The plan had been to give them a massive talk on how to be careful, but it goes in one ear and out the other. I hope that having to fork out eighty quid this time, it will sink in.
It also meant Tony was going to pick me up and drive me to Deal to the shop, then take me back to Whitfield, for me to fix their home page, then take me back home. A drive with him takes years off your life; the random driving, random indicating, poor road sense and he is also stone deaf. He could not hear my directions at first, and told me not to mumble.
Once we picked up the computer, he mistook a queue of traffic at the lights for parked cars, left it too late to get in the right lane, so he decided we could go ‘another way.’ This was the country way, through Mongeham, Sutton and onto Whitfield. He drives some kind of MPV bus thing, and he likes to drive in the middle of the road, and down narrow lanes, it meant having to almost get into the hedges to allow cars to pass the other side.
I was happy to get to their house, set up the laptop, and have a cuppa before he took me back. I lost another cup of lives on that trip, but did get home safe. So, I pack so I am all ready for the trip in the morning. Jools comes home in the hire car, another Corsa. We have chorizo hash and some wine/cider/beer, and pretty soon it is getting dark outside, and time has gotten away from me again.
News came in the afternoon that no tickets would be available for City fans who were not members, which means no Wembley trip for me next week, which sucks, but I was expecting it.
Wednesday
It seems I am always travelling, preparing for travel or recovering. And yet I did miss it this past week, but it took being on the DLR train for 5 minutes, and then the chaos at the airport to convince me that what I really needed is a few weeks at home. And that is hopefully the case from Friday, once I get home.
As the flight to Amsterdam is at twenty past nine, I have to catch the first train out of Martin Mill, just gone six, which means being up an hour early for coffee. And dressing.
It is a glorious morning, the sun had just risen in the east, and it was the light that woke me up at five. I am all ready to go at quarter to six, so Jools drops me off before she heads to work. There are a few others out and about getting the early train, but the train, when it arrived, was mostly empty, and after stowing my bags, I settled down to stare out the window.
Kent is in bloom, or growing leaves. Or, more likely, had grown all the leaves and now looks radiant. I mean the English countryside in the full bloom of late spring is a wondrous thing. What I really wanted to do was go out with my camera to the orchid sites, but instead I was on my way to the airport. Again.
The train fills up, but is not that full, but fills to capacity at Ebbsfleet as yet more people squeeze on.
At Stratford, many of us get off, and I make my way to the DLR station. It is a journey as familiar as walking to the end of the street to be honest, and nothing out of the ordinary. I kinda just drift off into daydreams as we rattle our was south through West Ham, Canning Town and to the airport.
At the airport, it was chaos. Seems the runway had a hole the day before, lots of flights cancelled, and so many of the flights today had delayed passengers. Including mine. However, the City Jet queue was small, and I dropped my bag off and was up the stairs to security, I looked back and the BA queue stretched round the hall and out of the building.
I try to have breakfast, and do, but it is full, and the order takes an hour to come, as does the coffee as they have just the one machine. But, I am fed and watered, and ready to go. I even meet a couple of colleagues heading back home to Denmark, we talk work and beer. As is the way.
Now, as I said before, there had been some delays the day before at LCY, but even still it was a surprise to find the flight fully booked. And as most people were using it to connect to a flight to Lagos, many were laden down with extra bags, most of all decided to try to take them into the cabin. It was chaos again, and the poor cabin staff tried to get all the bags to fit.
We took off half an hour late, and I feared so over-laden we might not take off. But we did. And the short hop to Amsterdam was noticeable for the guy in the seat next to me, checking his four phones, tablet, and as soon as we landed, he switched them all on, and began texting again. It was a relief to get off, into the orderly chaos of the airport, and the long walk to the baggage reclaim.
Four of us got off with bags to collect, we sat and sat and sat. In the end a sorry looking official came to tell us our bags had been unloaded, but lost. Not lost, but misplaced. We had to go to make a report out, and they would be brought to our hotel in due course. After filling the form in, I walk to the car hire place, only to find my car was still being cleaned. So after signing the paperwork, I begin the walk to the garage, only to stop for a coffee and a piece of cake. Not cake, some kind of flan, all with strawberries and raspberries in jelly on a crispy base.
It was mighty fine.
By the time I arrived at the garage, the car was ready. I take the keys, program the sat nav for the trip to Ijmuiden. Along Holland’s very busy motorways, over canals and dikes. All pretty unremarkable stuff. Turn off, drive along the canal into the town, then to the cruise terminal as our office is next door. And there was a cruise ship in, like a skyscraper laid on its side. Massive, and making ready to sail.
In the office there is no one about from my team, so I make myself comfortable in the office and get down to work.
I then realise I have to buy some toothpaste and a brush for the evening, so just before 5 I set off for the hotel in the hope there would be a shop nearby. The hotel was in Haarlem, a new one on me, and looked OK from the outside, although it was surrounded by dikes, would I be flooded out? The receptionist tells me where a supermarket was, so I walk along the street, along a cyclepath, through an underpass and find myself in a small village. Or town, hard to say, really. Anyway, I walk up the street hoping to find the shop or a chemist, but as it was just before six, most were either closing or already closed.
I spot the shop the other side of the street, and so go over and manage to find what I need, along with some Dutch mayonnaise, which is unlike no other. I am tempted to have dinner in a couple of places, but think I should just relax at the hotel and see what the food was like. It was great, I had ribs, three big racks of them, frites with sauce and veggies. It was wonderful, and very filling. I am stuffed, and tired. I take another beer to my room, do some work, listen to the radio before my eyes get so heavy, I cannot keep them open.
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