Londinium
Posted: Sun 24 December, 2006 Filed under: Own Business, Reviews(ish), Thoughts, Travel Leave a comment »Well, we’re back home. Knackered, but it was worth it.
I’ll write more about the St Martins Lane Hotel on Where’s Good (and add a link here when I’ve got round to it – ooh look, there it is) but well, while it was OK, I can honestly say I wasn’t overly impressed. It’s OK – I’ve certainly stayed in far worse – but the overall impression is one that can be summarised as “Trying way too hard”.
Sound of Music, on the other hand, was bloody marvellous. I must be one of the very few people in the world who has never seen the film, so I didn’t really know what to expect – yes, I’ve seen clips, and know most of the songs, but I’d not seen the show in its entirety.
Anyway, it was absolutely great. On a techie front, the set is stunning – the way scenery changes and moves is brilliant. The rest of it, cast etc. is great too – well worth the price of the tickets, and definitely something worth seeing.
Yodel-eh-i-ooooooo
Posted: Sat 23 December, 2006 Filed under: Domestic, Festering Season, Travel 1 Comment »Yes, that’s right. We’re away in London tonight, seeing – and I don’t believe I’m saying this – Sound of Music at the Palladium. You just couldn’t make it up.
Oh, and then staying overnight at the über-swanky St. Martin’s Lane Hotel. As you can see, I’m being paid way too much.
Reviews of both will be provided when we return.
Brrrrrrr
Posted: Thu 21 December, 2006 Filed under: Travel 1 Comment »Sometimes I think that the world of logic has completely deserted us – and in particular, it’s deserted train companies.
This morning in Norfolk, it was bloody freezing. BBC Weather reckoned it was going to be around -4°C overnight. The maximum temperature for today? 1°C.
So of course this morning it made absolute sense to be on a train for the cold air to be blasting out, and the heating to be turned off (or, possibly, broken)
Frost and Fog
Posted: Wed 20 December, 2006 Filed under: Cynicism, Thoughts, Travel, Weirdness 3 Comments »Last night, I did the drive back from Poole to Attleborough. I left at 5, which was already a bad move – it took an hour just to get to the M27. Absolute nightmare.
Anyway, I got home at 9.30 in the end – so once things got going, I actually made exceptionally good time – the Laguna was an absolute joy to drive, and had some decent speed, which made the journey a lot easier as well.
What was surprising, though, even to a cynic such as myself, was how many drivers seemed to forget that
- they had fog lights on
- they had full-beam headlights on
and on a couple of memorable occasions - that they really should put their lights on once they’d left a services area.
Considering that the weather was foul – although I definitely now have no problems driving in fog – it was amazing to me just how many fucking idiots there are on the roads. I know it shouldn’t, but it did/does.
This morning it was the same thing – the entire drive was pretty much blanketed in fog, and in some areas ice/frost as well – and yet there were people (mainly in white cars/vans, which didn’t help) who didn’t even have lights on, so their vehicles just disappeared into the fog. Very scary.
All went well though, and that’s another set of ticks in the “Done That” list – but jesus, people scare me.
Drive
Posted: Tue 19 December, 2006 Filed under: General, Travel Leave a comment »Well, the drive down to Poole actually went really smoothly. Met up with colleague in Cambridge at 9.30, and we were in Poole by midnight.
Of course, we then got lost, and couldn’t find the hotel.
So we actually got in to the hotel at 1am. Knackered.
Another of those things where I can sit back and say “Yeah, I did that, and managed it just fine”.
The training course went well too (well, the first day of it, anyway) and things seem like they’re coming together at last. Then a very pleasant evening in a fantastic little restaurant – a whole seven tables, in what could almost have been the front room of a house – that I’d just come across while wandering (sounds familiar from my Amsterdam trip last year!)
Of course, there’s now the drive back tonight….