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December So Far…

| Richard

Well November ended on a high: whilst up in Norfolk for the weekend, I took Amy – Jack baled out at the last moment – to see London Grammar play the Open in Norwich and very good they were too (as expected).

Hannah Reid of London Grammar at the Open, Norwich
Hannah Reid of London Grammar at the Open, Norwich
London Grammar at the Open, Norwich
London Grammar at the Open, Norwich

I was also impressed in particular by one of the support acts: Josh Record, who may or may not use my suggestion of “Geoff” for the title of their presently unnamed track. Or not.

Josh Record at the Open, Norwich
Josh Record at the Open, Norwich

Tuesday of the following week and I was back off to Canada; Toronto this time to speak at a major exhibition (people actually had to pay to see me speaking). This time, it was a morning flight so I arrived at lunchtime EDT . Straight from the Airport via our offices to check the venue out for the following day, then off to the hotel to do a quick shower and change and back out for the evening: dinner at the Toronto Maple Leafs where their top player, Phil Kessel, celebrated his career 200th goal after scoring against the San Jose Sharks. Very enjoyable evening.

Toronto Maple Leafs v San Jose Sharks
Toronto Maple Leafs v San Jose Sharks

Wednesday and it was up early for breakfast and meeting colleagues before heading down to the convention centre to do my thing. A quick drink afterwards – bought for me by an ex-pat British lawyer (I didn’t have time to get her name) – then off to the airport for the red-eye to Heathrow.

Friday I had the day off: I was heading down to Gloucester for the PurplePort social. Great fun with lots of drink and chat: Katra was memorable for touching my face all evening looking for (non-existent) plastic surgery scars and Ali was memorable for not falling out of her corset despite all odds!

After breakfast, I headed back to London … via Bourton-on-the-Water where I lived when I was a little boy and we’d come back to the UK from Malta. I’d been taught our address parrot-fashion as we all do with our kids, so I popped it in to Waze on my iPhone and headed there. It was still as I remembered it, bar the houses that had been built behind the bungalow. Off into the village centre which was as I remembered it for a coffee and a walk around.

Fosse View
Fosse View
Selfie in Bourton
Selfie in Bourton

More of the same the following week – another seminar to give in London – and then the following week was fabulous, starting with the Placebo gig at Brixton on Monday 16th with GT. Really, really good they were too and it was nice to see GT after a few weeks.

Placebo at the O2 Academy, Brixton
Placebo at the O2 Academy, Brixton
Placebo at the O2 Academy, Brixton
Placebo at the O2 Academy, Brixton

Later that week, in Crawley at a Client’s, I dropped the RX-8 off at the nearby dealer to see if they could sort out the headlight washers: hitting a pheasant at {cough} MPH had split and lost the thick hose that feeds the headlight washers. They have had to order-in the hose which will be a massive £380 fitted! Expensive car, this one. Then back on Thursday evening for the company Christmas Dinner Cruise along the Thames, during which I gave a younger colleague a pep-talk about his forthcoming new baby and how he shouldn’t envy my lifestyle. He didn’t go home that night, apparently. So much for mentoring…

Friday I had the afternoon off as a friend, NT, was coming to stay at mine for the weekend. I picked her up from the railway station and we stopped off at London Bridge to pick up my car from the office where I’d left it overnight. As it was a lovely day, I took her up the Shard – fnarr! – before heading home. A lovely steak at Gaucho that evening. Saturday she wanted to do some shopping for her kids so we went up to Camden; tapas and t-shirts. Saturday and it was off to Le Pont de la Tour for dinner from their tasting menu. Excellent nosh.

NT at Tower Bridge
NT at Tower Bridge

Then into the Christmas Week: Christmas Eve was peculiar as due to the storms that hit the UK, I was one of the first into the office and it remained that way until mid-morning when just a few made it in. Drinks and snacks at the pub and then home. Christmas Day and I’d been invited to GT’s for what was a lovely Christmas Dinner including her fabulous Cheesy Chestnut Roast. Feeling bloated, I headed home to an early night before heading up to Norfolk for Boxing Day and the first of two defeats this week for Norwich City.

New Year’s Eve beckons now – after a shoot I have planned tomorrow with Marlyn Lindsay – and my plans include a possible NYE at Slimelight. I did wonder about grabbing a last-minute flight to Moscow to see the New Year in with Manuel and Angelo (friends from Route 66) but flights are stupidly expensive for what would be a one-night stay!

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 🙂

Quick Update

| Richard

A busy couple of weeks! The last fixture of Norwich City’s Premier League season saw a lot of good-hearted banter with the Aston Villa fans on a warm and sunny Sunday afternoon.

The Saturday had seen tapas and shopping in Norwich with Jack before going ti watch Dark Shadows that evening. It didn’t quite live up to the hype but I enjoyed it anyway.

Lots of business development since then with lunches and dinners to attend so it was nice to be able to fit in dinner at Gaucho with Amy even it was a tad expensive.

In other work news, apart from work and meetings coming up in Manchester, I will also be lecturing in Vienna next month again – I’m hoping to be able to take GT over there for at least part of the time as well as our planned Venice trip as a prequel to her birthday in November.

GT Meet Jack, Jack Meet GT

| Richard

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!