Wednesday 4th July 2018

Independence Day (USA)

Travel day (for me)

Yes, back in the jug agane, meaning up at half four, have coffee, pack, shower and get dressed to be at the station at ten to six.

A cloudy and cool morning, but better for travel if I’m honest. Jools dropped me off at Martin Mill to get my ticket and then wait the ten minutes for the train. I sat on a station bench, watching the crows and magpies in the trees opposite argue about something.

Only four of us were waiting for the train, which glided in on time, allowing us to climb on and take our seats. I half-snooze the way to London, as the train filled up, but with holiday season under way, it wasn’t full.

Which was nice.

I have breakfast before catching the train to the airport, that was full, full of people working on the new flats going up endlessly in Silvertown, foundations for another block have been started.

Due to the fact that I checked my passport 500 times in the previous 24 hours, there was no worries about checking in, nor leaving my bag. And in security there was no queue. At all. Straight to the belt, empty my dirty pocketses and through the scanner, all done wth two hours before flight time.

I checked mails, then looked out from a seat near gate 3 of the planes coming and going.

The Billund flight was called, at gate 5, a 50m metre walk away. We go down, the four of us waiting show our passports and are allowed on. A few more people come, not empty, but not full either.

We take off on time, heading east, over the river and new docks down river from Greenwich. Over east London, out over Essex, crossing the coast at Orford Ness and over the sea.

I finish my magazine on the flight, so stare at the light fluffy clouds thousands of feet below.

Denmark is sunny intervals, but gets better the further east I travel until I reach the motorway and it is clear blue skies again, warmer than back home!

I was driving a Mini Cooper; a nice car, easy to drive and roomy, which is the opposite to what a Mini should be. Nice cabin layout too. I like it, but then it’s a BMW really under that Mini branding.

I go to the office, to check in a see my colleagues, but a lack of sleep meant I was on the verge of a migraine, so after a couple of hours I decide to head to the hotel for a lay down, leaving before rush hour kicked off, getting to the hotel at three. And as I managed to leave my computer in the office, no diversions from my aim of snoozing.

I did get into bed and my mind let me get about an hour.

Up and attem, as we had a team event in the evening; dinner at a posh restaurant near to the marina, and good news is that the project would be paying!

I get a taxi to drop me off with enough time to wander around to take snaps, as the marina under those azure blue skies looked like Monaco.

Into the restaurant, and way from the millionaires and billionaires yachts, where a table for eight is waiting.

One by one we arrive, we order drinks and then the first two courses, so we wait and talk and wait some more.

I had ordered insalata, which came with no mozzarella or basil, and so was in fact, a mixed salad; should I complain under the trade descriptions act?

And the steak was poor and on top of it we were told they did no chips, just pan fried tomatoes which are not the same!

We were told to have deserts, so I go for cheese and some wine. I mean, no one can mess up a cheese board.

And that is it, Sedin drops Tim and I off in the city centre, but Tim doesn’t want to go to his hotel, so I find myself agreeing to go to the Sherlock Holmes for a pint and a chat.

Time had stopped, apparently. I mean outside it was still light, and my brain told me as I walked back to the hotel, really needed a cocktail.

Yes, a cocktail. So, I instruct the barman how to make a Stardust recipe Mai Tai, as told to me by an aging bartending one late night on The Strip (true story).

I take that to my room and try to find something to watch, end up being one of the X Men films, which makes no sense as I had seen none of the previous ones in the series, the start of the film, and was a tad tipsy fart. I switched the TV off once I had finished the cocktail as people were throwing cars at each other.

Haven’t we all felt like that once in a while?