Just before Autumn arrived in Wigan, I ran my route again, made more difficult by the 50mph crosswind and the threat of rain. Here’s the fly-through:
In other news, Garmin have accepted my Forerunner 410 is faulty and it’s been sent back for exchange. We’ll see how long it takes…
I made the most of the last of the Indian Summer we’re enjoying at the moment to go for another run near the Premier Inn at Wigan (M6, J25). Â The first mile is uphill which means a bit of an effort to start off with.
Because my Garmin Forerunner 410 has decided it doesn’t want to work, I’ve had to switch to using iMapMyRun on my iPhone, but the benefit is Google Earth fly-through:
Well that was another busy weekend. Friday evening saw me collecting Jack from Stratford and trying to order pizzas using the Domino’s iPhone App. And failing. Repeatedly. Gah! So we rang from Canada Water and our pizzas were delivered just after 9.00pm.
Saturday and after a fabulous full English breakfast at Café Frizzante at the Surrey Docks Farm, we went shopping for FIFA 11 for the Xbox so Jack can play when he’s at mine. Plus a load of groceries and things. Then we sat and watched England v Switzerland on the telly which was a tad embarrassing for us Brits.
GT rang us to say she was at Waterloo so we jumped in the car to meet her a few minutes later at Canada Water from where we went to Frankie & Benny’s for tea before heading on to the Odeon to watch Hangover II, which was excellent with a lot of belly-laughs for me.
Then back home for a very late night/early morning.
Up to do breakfast – eggs, muffins and cafetière coffee – before  driving GT back to Waterloo so she could get home.
Jack and I then hung out for a while before hearding off to Oxford Street to shop. This included an expensive lunch at Yo! Sushi in Selfridges – our fault as we kept grabbing interesting-looking dishes – before a lightning-fast visit to M&S to buy me a new suit – dark blue with a woven dark blue stripe – for work. Oh and another pair of Jimmy Choos for GT!
Then a horrendously expensive black cab back to the flat to pack us both before driving to Liverpool Street station for a coffee and tea. Jack on the Cambridge train and me back to the car for a drive up North to Wigan again.
Phew!
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…
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