Life's What You Make It

On Monday, an apple and a slice of toast mysteriously disappear off the worktop. On Tuesday, an apple and a tomato mysteriously disappear off the worktop. I’m really not sure L feeds that dog. By Wednesday, L seems to have learnt her lesson.

On Monday I meet a chap from Nottingham City Homes to chat about the damage their lack of gardening next door has caused to our fence. He says it’s our fault for only telling them a year ago rather than two years ago when the problem first became apparent. As they did nothing when I told them anyway, I can’t see how this is a get out clause.

The boys are thrilled to have two people to turn up and kick balls but not so thrilled when we don’t stay long.

Derby are at Forest in the evening and lose. I don’t waste my money by paying to watch it on TV.

On Tuesday Mark Hollis of Talk Talk fame dies. Oh no. That’s very sad and ends my hopes of them reforming. Which was admittedly a distant hope given that he’d given it up performing for his family over 20 years ago.

“Life's what you make it, celebrate it, anticipate it, yesterday's faded, nothing can change it, life's what you make it.”

On Wednesday, I cycle for what is the first time in ages, I’m such a waster. There’s no Dogging in the evening because I go Tuesday instead so that after work on Wednesday we can duct tape the cheese and hide the cake before heading down to Luton Airport where we are staying in the Holiday Inn overnight before flying to Warsaw in the morning.

(Wednesday 27^th February)

The No Rush Hour

I’m back in London today for a meeting, so it’s an early start. I meet my boss at the Holiday Inn on the M1 junction and we head down in his car.

For once it’s a decent trip by road. The meeting has a late start and an early finish, so we miss most of the rush hour(s) traffic. We are back in Derby for 4pm despite stopping for lunch at Ed’s Diner, I’m home early to chuck balls and in plenty of time for tonight’s dog training.

(Wednesday 27^th September)

Angry Clouds

I bike and beat the rain, which I’m sure is on its way as I was followed by a particularly angry looking cloud all the way to work.

L has been for her ‘hands off’ physio and has been discharged. Personally I think she discharged herself which will only encourage them to do more of this non-contact virtual sort of thing which I really don’t see the point of. The physio was apparently delighted and they’ll chalk this one up as a success story alongside the likes of that chap Lazarus.

It’s also just in time for the Thunder Run which is, erm, tomorrow. Most folk seem to be already there, just like they were last year. It’s a bit early as it doesn’t start until midday tomorrow but I think a lot of folk don’t get to go wild with a tent very often. We probably do it too often, which is why L now looks forward to going wild with a Holiday Inn.

(Friday 21^st July)

Cheap Coffee

It’s my first day on site working on an automated weighbridge at a recycling plant in Islington where they were supposed to have got all the equipment installed and working by this morning but they haven’t. So rather than installing my software, I spend my day helping out with that equipment and everyone is very quickly sick of me borrowing their phones.

It's sort of reassuring to know that it’s not the same at home without me. L says its lonely in the bedroom but it may be less due to my absence than to the fact that both the dogs opted to sleep downstairs last night. Although MD did give up on me eventually and joined L upstairs.

I had hoped to be down here just for one day but that clearly isn’t going to happen so on leaving site at the end of the day, I look for another hotel. I dip into an Italian restaurant and ask if I can grab a coffee and use their wifi. They agree, bring me a coffee and their access codes then charge me only £1.50 and this is in London! I consider stopping for a meal there but by now I’ve booked into the cheaper Holiday Inn at Swiss Cottage, so I head off there.

After eating in the hotel, I head out into the big city for a wander and a pint (a pale one obviously) at the North Star on Finchley Road. An odd pub that look recently renovated but still retain untastefully ripped furniture.

(Wednesday 7^th June)

Phoneless In London

I do a small amble with Doggo just around the Spinney, so that L and MD can hit the park. Without Doggo to slow them down L observes, although she says I'll think she’s being paranoid, that he is also slowing down and they don't get as far as they used to. Well he 63 now, in dog years. Older than all of us bar Doggo of course, who’s a spritely 105.

I’m on the bus today because it looks like my trip to London is now going ahead. So L can start worrying and she says she has a huge list of places for me to avoid.

Despite their appalling website and phone system, DPD don’t seem totally useless on email and they get back to me saying they have told their driver to leave my phone with a neighbour when it is delivered this afternoon.

Which is better but still leaves me phoneless in London. I have my laptop so it will be lonesome emails to L instead of texts.

I catch the 5pm train to London and turn down L’s late offer of a dog to take with me. I would love a dog with me but I'm not sure they’d cope with all the trains, although they'd love the buffet breakfast.

I stay at the Camden Lock Holiday Inn which is expensive and went up another £50 between me cancelling last week and rebooking this week but at least I get the loyalty points. I also get free calls in the room, so at least I can ring L.

They have Camden bottled beers in the hotel bar but the best option for real ale is the nearby Wetherspoons.

(Tuesday 6^th June)

A Punishing Schedule

Our punishing schedule, and that's just the beer,  takes us back to Brussels by local train where we then await the Eurostar back to London. It’s a good job L agreed to accompany me on this trip as I’m not sure I would have got anyone else through this sort of schedule.

While we wait for our connection in Brussels we have a Leffe Royale outside a bar there, which is a new beer to me and it's sort of a Pale Ale.

When we reach London via a small delay when someone is taken ill on the Eurostar we check into the Holiday Inn near Kings Cross.

L is feeling a bit beer-ed out by now and I am a bit too but only after failing to find anything exciting in the three bars we try. I end up with a glass of complimentary wine back at hotel.

(Sunday 5^th June)

The Shining And Other Stories

The dogs are gutted to find that they are not going to be part of the second half of our holiday double header. They realise this I suppose when we pull up at the gates of the Premier Pets Hotel. We depart towards Heathrow as MD loudly reintroduces himself to the other inmates. ‘Career of Evil’ is still playing as we drive down.

Security isn’t noticeably tighter at Heathrow, which is a surprise and possibly a disappointment to L who had hoped to get through a novel in the security queue.

The first night (Tuesday) is spent at the Holiday Inn near Zurich Airport which is the same place we stayed in last year. Last year it took us about an hour to find it, this year I know exactly where it is but still get lost in the one way system.

The next morning we head off in our hired Ford C-Max to Laax. The C-Max wasn’t my choice, we were upgraded by Hertz and given a car that is not only larger than we needed but also an automatic. Bit of a major downgrade in my book. Somehow I suspect an automatic (and a diesel one at that) is not the best car for ascending mountain passes and I am not wrong.

We spend two days skiing in the Flims-Laax-Falera which we have visited before back in 2005 but we can barely remember it. Last time we stayed in Laax itself this time we are in Flims where we are surprised to find that we are the only guests staying in the hotel. It is scarily eerie with echoes of ‘The Shining’ as we let ourselves back into a deserted hotel after going out for a meal. All the staff have gone home and they have simply left us with a phone number of someone in the next village to call in case of emergency.

Funnily enough the next day a coach party arrives and the place goes from dead to rocking all night in a blink of an eye.

On Friday we move onto Arosa to a hotel that looks more like a hostel but is at least occupied by more than just us. We haven’t visited Arosa before but they have recently added a new cable car that links the resort to Lenzerheide which we have been to a couple of times.

Arosa is slightly higher than Flims so the snow is less spring like, however over in Lenzerheide on the non-sunny side of the mountain it’s a different ball game entirely with harder snow producing some much faster pistes.

Throughout the week the weather is sunny and the promised rain never appears. L wins ‘Fall of the Week’ with the better of her two falls which was an impressive and painful face plant, so I’m told. I didn’t see either and as I didn’t manage to muster an entry myself I had to concede defeat to L.

Throughout the week lunch is usually liquid with cake, we do have some very impressive cakes, and evening meal is usually the cheapest we can get. This is usually pizza or pasta but we also managed to discover the humble rösti, which is also quite cheap. The prices of ‘normal’ food were simply eye watering along with all but the cheapest bottles of wine. We moan about the mark up on wine here but the Swiss seem to have no problem paying £30 for a bottle of wine that they get in their own supermarkets for £5. When not drinking the wine, it was Erdinger Weissbier for me preferably the Dunkel version but this serious starts to grate after a while. Erdinger is German, the only Swiss beer I had was Calanda, brewed locally at Chur, and I’m still recovering from that experience.

Our last night is back in the airport hotel at Zurich before flying home to the boys. 

(Monday 4^th April)

Next Stop Paris

Today we get the Eurostar over to Paris. It proves to be a quick and relaxed service, once you get on the train. Checking in was total chaos, just like catching a flight... Serves us right for picking a Saturday I suppose.

Once in Paris we head straight to registration for the half marathon at Château de Vincennes where we need to collect our race numbers but first we have to have our medical certificates approved. So we join our second big queue of the day. This one is even longer and slower than the Eurostar one but eventually we are in.

They also hand out the race t-shirts although L gets a sexy girlie vest while I get the bog standard issue t-shirt. Not that a sexy girlie vest would suite me.

Then it’s time to find the hotel. This time the Holiday Inn has upgraded me and I have been given a bachelor pad (or suite as they call it). Which is nice, I suppose. It’s probably bigger than Daughter’s new flat is. Not that we’re really going to use any of it, as we’re only really interested in the bedroom.

We head out for a wholesome pasta meal but spoil the healthy façade with a couple of Pelforth Blondes. That’s as in beer, not a couple of local women to invite back to the suite.

Rather than hit the wine in the hotel bar, this time we’re on the coffee. For once the hotel room TV gets some use as the French are at least covering the cycling so we can keep in touch with what is happening back at the track championships.

(Saturday 5^th March)