travel

2012 Review

| Richard

With 2013 upon us, it’s time to look back on an eventful 2012 for me.

January

I was based up in Wigan for January, staying in a Premier Inn for almost the entire time. Just as well they’re comfortable, clean and friendly.

Another photoshoot with the delightful Polly Lockitt … which I haven’t really edited yet. Oops!

January also saw the end of an irritation for me: the psycho ex-girlfriend had been badgering her local police trying to get them to take action against me for what she claimed was harassment by me. They’d been in touch with me to make an appointment for them to come and see me for an interview and a time and a place to suit me, so I saw them at a Solicitors’ offices in Liverpool. It was a very light-hearted afternoon given the increasingly bizarre allegations we went through and we finished by me giving them some real evidence of her (sadly ongoing) harassment and stalking of me. Needless to say, it wasn’t long after this that they dropped their investigations against me completely.

Of far more importance was my father’s funeral. It’s sad that it’s only times like these when we get to hear about people from others’ perspectives. My stepmother was upset not to be able to attend but she had been admitted to hospital herself the day before.

My wife and I agreed terms for our divorce at the very end of January. I suggested we get her Solicitor to tidy things up and agreed to share costs doing so, assuming – very incorrectly as it turned out – that we’d be divorced by my 50th birthday in April…

February

A short month, mainly spent in Wigan.

March

With a few days to spare following the completion of my work in Wigan, the highlight this month was that I took the chance to head off to Barcelona for a break and a few photos, taking a suite in a fabulous luxury hotel on Las Ramblas.

The month ended with the first of many gigs this year – Pop Will Eat Itself – and a weekend away staying in a suite at Luton Hoo with another quickie photoshoot with GT thrown in for good measure.

April

My 50th birthday was celebrated in a lovely restaurant in Ireland with GT where we’d gone for a week’s break. My first time visiting Ireland as a tourist rather than on business. That came the following week with some work in Dublin.

GT ran the London Marathon prior to which we decided she’d do the Venice Marathon in October. On the same day, it was Kawasaki Day at the Ace Cafe which meant a blast to the Ace in the morning – and a dyno session – before heading to the finish to meet GT.

The month ended with me heading off to Vienna to do some client training.

May

May saw a load of work and play in Manchester plus another photoshoot with Marlyn Lindsay.

June

A busy month, mainly in Manchester for work plus lecturing at the University of Vienna which was good fun.

And of course there was the BBC Radio 1 Hackney Weekend. That plus the House of Burlesque (with me on stage…) was where it was all happening!

My Decree Nisi was granted in the middle of June, some 4 months after getting things moving.

On a sad note, my stepmother joined my father on 24th June.

July

It started getting a wee bit hectic in July. The month started off with work in Manchester and the Marilyn Manson/Lacuna Coil gig, plus my day driving a Ferrari on track.

Then it was Paris do some training for one of our clients there.

And then, of course, there was my flight to Chicago…

August

…for my little trip across the United States along Route 66 on a Harley. Truly epic stuff.

Once back, it was more work including more training for a client in the Paris.

September

More work, more champagne receptions and more shopping, mainly! Most of it was recounted in this blog entry.

October

I started October with trips to Paris for two clients as well as another breakfast seminar. This one was videoed and a copy was allegedly on YouTube for a while! It’s now forming part of our company showreel.

Mid-month and I was finally divorced: almost nine months after starting the divorce process on an uncontested divorce!

At the end of the month, it was off to Venice for GT to take part in the Venice Marathon and a lovely stay in a luxury hotel. Great time! Oh and confirmation that I was booked to take part in the Berlin Marathon in September 2013…

November

More of the same, work-wise. Birmingham, Glasgow and London mainly.

Gigs included Fields of the Nephilim and Marilyn Manson with Rob Zombie.

And some mucking about with a camera with my friend Alix and, of course, Movember!

December

As the year drew to a close, my diary was a little crammed.

Work was London and Paris and there was a little trip out to Fuertevenura before Christmas which was great to recharge the batteries.

Gigs were Fear Factory and the Prodigy.

2013

And here we are! Crawley this week, Paris next. And so it starts all over again.

I need to start some training for the marathon and then buy myself somewhere to live in London to plan for the future. Torn between apartments and penthouses and actual houses.

Live Out Loud!

| Richard

Well since I last updated this blog, a lot has happened. Obviously the main event was my trip along Route 66 on an Electra Glide (posts syndicated below and on my Big Trip Blog). Breathtaking!

A week back in the UK – missing the States a lot – and I was off to Paris for a couple of days again with one of our Clients.

Back in London and the weather was wonderful at last, making walking home from work lovely if challenging – trying to avoid pubs!

Silhouette
Silhouette

Paralympics were on, bringing with it the Mayor’s fun: a big screen on Potters Field between County Hall and Tower Bridge with stalls selling all sorts of food and a bar. Made walking home and indeed lunchtimes different and bringing out the crowds.

Tower Bridge Adornment
Tower Bridge Adornment

GT got us tickets for the weekend’s Paralympics so off we went for a look around and to be awestruck.

Coca-Cola "Bubbles"
Coca-Cola “Bubbles”

I think GT’s favourite part of the Olympic Park was probably the champagne and seafood restaurant where we spent a pleasant hour or two!

Then the following week, it was my daughter’s 21st birthday, so she came down to stay at mine for the weekend, with a trip to the West End shops for a dress and a champagne afternoon tea at Harrods’ Georgian Restaurant (after we’d had the Best Milkshakes Ever!).

Shake It Baby!
Shake It Baby!
'Arrods
‘Arrods

My 21st birthday present to her was a vanity plate for her car: 1991 AM (her birth year and initials). This was the end of the weekend that I’d spent with GT shopping in Kingston for an LBD for a do coming up with a lovely vegetarian meal on the Thames.

The following week saw more meals out plus a trip and stay in the Midlands to train a client’s staff. Great fun as always, but hard work.

Last week was fun: GT came with me to a champagne drinks reception at the Spencer House in St James Place, hence the new Karen Millen dress and Jimmy Choo killer heels! Driving in the back of a cab over Waterloo Bridge, we saw a huge ride at the Southbank that we decided we had to go on, so plans were hatched for coming back last weekend to ride on Priceless London Wonderground’s high-spinning swing ride, the Star Flyer, the tallest travelling ride in the country at 60m tall, with amazing views of London (especially when we went back later, after dark.

That was a weekend of film too, seeing “Killing Them Softly” (slow-paced but well done) on the Friday night and “The Sweeney” (which was an enjoyable romp if paying only lip service to the original series) on the wet Sunday afternoon.

Quite pleased too, recently, with the release of iOS6 and the iPhone 5 which is a lovely shiny thing!

And finally, Esther, I’ll leave you with my favourite track during this period which sums up a lot of things (more of which later):

Paris In The Spring

| Richard

…or the summer, as it turns out.

Well my travelling continues. This time to Paris by Eurostar for what turns out was some well-received training for a French Client about the contract on a project they’re bidding on. So late afternoon on Monday, I wandered off in the rain to Euston and a couple of hours later I arrived in sunny and warm Paris, heading to my hotel for the evening, the Hilton Paris La Défense which looked a bit like something from Austin Powers!

Eat your heart out, Austin Powers!
Plenty of room

An early breakfast and a wander past La Défense itself to grab a coffee in a café with a colleague before spending the day with the Clients, who were all really attentive and friendly which helps.

 

 

And then on to the Gare Du Nord to catch my train back. As I had plenty of time and it was warm, I decided it must be beer o’clock…

Gare Du Nord
Beer O’Clock
Meant To Be!

Back home around 10.30pm; long day!

Oh and I get to do it all again next month 🙂

Royal Wedding Public Holiday

| Richard

I took the opportunity of an extra public holiday this year to make the most of it and headed out to Epsom to see GT, arriving just in time to see the ceremony itself on the BBC.

The British do this sort of thing so well and the happy couple looked just that: happy.

Then out to do some shopping: a new LBD for GT to go with her Jimmy Choos as it’s the start of formal dinner season again for me; the first one is coming up in less than two weeks’ time. I actually enjoy going out shopping for clothes with my partner: my chance to play Gok Wan and choose dresses, bags and shoes for occasions. GT is a tall, leggy athlete with a great figure so choosing the dress was relatively easy and we soon ended up with a great ensemble: an asymmetrical, above the knee black dress and a black clutch bag with silver clasp and chain that will go very well with those Jimmy Choos, some silver drop earrings and her long, black hair curled over to one side. For good measure, we also bought a stylish black raincoat that we’d been trying to sort for a while. And yes, the coat and heels go very well without anything else on 😉

Travelling back this morning, I decided to take the Victoria train instead of the Waterloo train as I wasn’t in a hurry to head back and felt like a change of scenery for my route home. London has plenty of that and my new route on such a beautifully sunny day reminded me why I love living in London. London is a great place to live and work and my frequent visits to see my partner of four months are enjoyable and hassle-free, especially when compared to the weekly 7 hour round-trip drudgery (let alone the hideous expense) I used to have to endure to see the cheating, lying, slut ex-girlfriend I had the misfortune to have up in Grimsby, itself a horrid and depressing place to have to visit, let alone live.

The Royal Wedding and my thoughts about those wasted years reminded me that the ex-girlfriend had always been really keen to get married and was always banging on about it: the identity of the unfortunate groom is less important to her than actually being married which is her true priority – anyone will do! Must be the cakes and flowers she’s so keen on 🙂

Right! The call of a nice pub lunch on the Thames calls! I love my life!