Tuesday 15th March 2016

Monday

I wake up in another strange hotel room. No change there. And as ever, dawn is creeping round the edge of the curtains, and sounds from the already busy kitchen is floating in through my open window. It is just after six, and I don't have to be at the venue for three hours, but I feel the need to have music, so power up the laptop, find a new Radcliffe and Maconie show to listen to, then go back to lay down for an hour. As close as it gets to luxury.

At seven, I get up. Again. Have a shower, put on a shirt and tie (an trousers) and am ready for the day ahead. In the restaurant, I find that continental breakfast is proced at twelve pounds fifty, and a cooked breakfast is nineteen of your English pounds. However, I am not told the difference, so have fruit, bacon rolls, yoghurt, coffee, more coffee, and the hotel forgets to charge me for it I find out later. I think the twelve quid for the two breakfasts I have sounds much fairer, so call it quits.

I don't have too much to eat, as these course seem to think that we will starve with all the using our brains, so I don't overdo it. Not a bad decision as it turns out.

I could go by tube the one station, but work out that I won't be that much nearer the venue than I already was. So, I set out down Tottenham Court Road, hang a right pastt he base of the old Post Office Tower, GPO Tower, BT Tower or whatever it is called today. A small army of BT engineers are going in, maybe it broke

I am walking through and area now called Fitzrovia, a grand name for a district sandwiched between Kings Cross and Soho, all full of narrow streets and smart townhouses. I notice a couple of interesting old pubs, and ponder whether to call in on the way back to the hotel in the evening. Maybe I will.

I come out in Langham Square, most famous for being where BBC Broadcasting House is found, the Langham Hotel is opposite, and just at the top of Regent Street. And yet it is fairly quiet, with lots of free, if expensive, parking spaces. I am nearly an hour early, but the instructor is already there, so I take a seat and begin the day, as it will continue, by drinking several cups of coffee.

I am there for an update to an ISO standard, ISO 9001. I won't go into details, if you want, you can Google it and see if it sounds interesting. A revised version has just been published, and before companies transfer to the new version, we all have to learn about it. I am with a mixed bunch of other quality people; someone from Pepsi, London Underground, Network Rail, The Highways Agency, a couple of consultants from Norway.

The day begins. And goes on and on and on. There is no way to make it interesting, although we all have an interest in the subject, we do our best to stay attentive, which I think we do. We have regular coffee and cookie breaks, a good lunch, cake and more coffee in the afternoon. We finish at half four, and have little homework, which is unusual for a course like this.

I feel tired, so walk back to the hotel without stopping at either of the pubs in Fitzrovia, nor any on Tottenham Court Road, I have work to do once back at my room, and need to have a lay down.

I feel I should go into the City to take yet more shots, but the crowds outside will be just as bad down by the river, and once I do work, do homework, it is half seven, and I have to find somewhere for dinner. I could eat in the hotel, but that could be very expensive. Just down the road I had noticed a small curry house, so go there and have a prawn and lentil curry, rice and naan. And a beer. It came to a grand total of twenty four pounds.

I walk back to the hotel, past people calling in at the Tesco Metro and other smaller shops along the road for suppliers for dinner. It seems all so busy. I check with the pubs to see if they were showing the football. None were, so I make my way back to the hotel, and into the calm of the lift and the long and winding corridor back to my room. Leicester have just scored when I put the radio on, and hang on to win 1-0, thus extending their lead at the top, and doing City a favour by beating The Toon. I am happy with that, but still looks grim.