Wednesday 16th March 2016

Tuesday

How can I be sure that the sore throat and coughing I woke up with at half two in the morning is a cold and not an allergy attack? All I can say is, that it feels different, there is that sandpaper feel in the back of my throat, its not an allergy. Probably. I have indigestion too from the curry as it was all smothered in garlic. So, being wide awake now, I get up and mess around on the computer some, and mess around for nearly two hours. I go back to bed and get two more hours in, I am confused because for reasons I can't even explain, the time on my mobile is set to Danish time, so when I look at it and it says a minute to seven, it is a minute to six. In London.

I have a shower, pack, get dressed and am ready for breakfast by quarter past seven. So I walk round the hotel via the wandering corridor, down in the lift. I am charged the twelve quid for breakfast, but I can eat as much as I want. I make do with a bowl of fruit followed by pancakes and syrup. If I wanted bacon, it would have cost me another seven quid for cooked food. I do without, but ponder a commando raid for some TSP.

Thinly Sliced Pork. I pay the bill without even looking at what I am charged, so used am I to this travel malarkey. That done, I can walk down Tottenham Court Road, then through Fitzrovia to Langham Square. Same walk as the day before, only this time dragging my overnight case. I give the poor guy begging outside a coffee shop the last of my change, then walk on until I arrive at Langham Square, cross that and am at the venue, and apart from the instructor, am the first to arrive.

I have more coffee. Of course.

And one by one the other arrive, until at just gone nine, we are ready to go. And here we go, eyes down, standards out.

We break for coffee, then lunch, afternoon coffee. After which we do some role playing, which despite being just that, is nerve wracking, but I think we do well enough, for a first stab. And opens our eyes to what we will face in the future. And then, just like that, it was all over. And all we had to do was get home. Only I was now on my own.

I had studied the Tube map, and thought the best way was to walk up to Regent Park station, go to Baker Street and then along to Kings Cross. What I can tell you is that spring has sprung in London; I mean its always warmer there, but with my shirt and tie on, and then a fleece, I am getting warm. There is a massive queue for the lifts in the station, so I take the stairs. The 96 stairs. At least they're going down I suppose, but by the time I get to the bottom I am officially warm.

I have to wait a minute for a train, then at Baker Street, up two flights of steps, along a corridor, down some more steps and there was a train waiting. Once inside I am sweating, but on the train. We sit there for 5 minutes, then trundle off. At least its just three stops, and looking at my watch I see that I had just missed a train to Folkestone, but at rush hour there were two an hour.

I walk the length of St Pancras, dodging the dawdlers with their cases. I reach the Southeastern platforms and see there is a train in a few minutes to Ashford. I double my pace and reach the first coach, get on to find it rammed. But I was on. I call Jools, who is surprised I will be so early. And there is a problem, there is the hire car.

Anyway, before we can clear that issue up, the train pulls out at five, and I lose the signal when we enter the long tunnel. Jools and I exchange texts, and she can pick me up, and will be at Folkestone as soon as possible, so no worries. I had just forgotten we were hiring a car as I need a car on my next three days off. Once a bloke gets off at Statford, I get one of the fold up seats, I have my coat off and am cooling down, but still hot.

I change at Ashford, wait just a couple of minutes before the connecting train arrives to take me closer to home.

I reach Folkestone at six, Jools arrives ten minutes later, in some kind of Japanese 4x4 thing, she will drop me off at the car hire place and I will drive our car back. Once I am in the car, I switch the work mobile off, and I let out a long sigh. I was on holiday.

I climb in our car, Jools drives off to KFC for some dirty food, and I drive home to feed the cats, and put the kettle on for when Jools comes home.

After we eat, I put the radio on, as there is football on. There is ALWAYS football on to be honest. But with the cats milling around, we see the evening out and give up on it at half nine and go to bed. I was still on holiday.....