Well after what was a very busy week last week, culminating with a (literally) flying visit to Athens on Thursday and Friday (with a nice stay at the Athens Park Hotel), the weekend was my chance to chill out … ish!
I only got back in from Greece very late on Friday night and slept in until late morning on Saturday. By lunchtime, I was up and ready to roll: heading off to Chelmsford for Mozie’s 40th birthday celebrations on the ZRX. Â On the way round the M25 I saw the clockwise carriageway was busy through the roadworks so made a mental note about the need to do some “extreme filtering” on my way back.
Arrived at Chelmsford Social Club and grabbed a pint of shandy and chewed the fat with Mozie for an hour or so until I had to leave. A blast back down the A12 before hitting the M25 and some extreme filtering (lane splitting) probably much to the annoyance of a police car on ‘blues and twos’ who was struggling to clear his way through the sometimes stationary traffic with me following and at times running parallel with them with no problems whatsoever!
Back home and a quick shower and change as I drove over to Epsom to meet GT for an evening out and a leaving do for one of her colleagues. Stopping first at Nando’s for something to eat before heading on to the Marquis of Granby, then the Vestry, before heading back to the Marquis of Granby and home to GT’s. Â The night itself was a lot of fun due to her colleagues being a really good laugh … and a lot of alcohol being consumed! We even managed – after only five months! – to get some photos of the two of us together.
Sunday saw a leisurely start before GT cooked me – I assisted a bit! – a lovely prawn risotto for lunch and we then headed off to Bluewater for some retail therapy before a tasty pizza, etc. for dinner at one of the restaurants. I scored by managing to get another pair of John Lewis‘ own brand Oxford shoes for work at less than the listed price as they were old stock and ever so slightly different from their new range (and neither were available on their website for some bizarre reason).
Sadly, I had to leave GT’s on Bank Holiday Monday to head back to the flat to pack and head off to Wigan for a few days of meetings. On arrival at the Premier Inn – compare and contrast with the week before’s accommodation!) – I went next door to the attached Taybarns for something to eat. A bit of an eye-opener as it was absolutely heaving! Check their website for an idea of what it’s like…