sitting in the sunshine is good for chatter

Sometimes its fun to just sit in the sunshine and chat.

That was the basis of our Sunday after Jo & Andrew's occasion on Saturday.

Breakfast at the hotel. As an aside, I should count how many days away from home I've had this year so far. I noticed I was up to 28 flights since January the last time I looked on the BA site.

Then a leisurely pack and checkout from the hotel before heading to walk along the canal side and finally to arrive at the Rising Sun for a late lunch - sitting outside in the sunshine whilst various from the previous day's wedding party came and departed towards their various homes.

We stayed until late afternoon, chatting and occasionally watching a pair of buzzards swoop across the valley with the Mendip hills in the distance. Then a winding B road route back towards London where, for much of the route, we were the only car on the road.

Jo and Andrew's wedding pix

The main reason for the Cheltenham weekend!
Congratulations to Jo and Andrew - and these are my snaps from the occasion.

one for analysis

My work phone/blackberry accompanies me most of the time when I'm away from home, although I have a separate iPhone for 'social use'.

Of course with my two day escape for a short vacation, the work phone has been buzzing like a swarm of wasps. The problem with onesy-twosy holidays is that no-one else really cottons on that you're away and so all the work just stacks for return. I mainly resisted the temptation to answer the calls although the BLOCK CAPITAL SMS messages seemed to grab my attention.

In addition to the two phones, like many, I also attempt to keep some separation and filtering with the blog.

I've written ages ago about my own little rules when blogging about what can and can't make it into 'publication'. I'm also sure that anyone who reads a blog for a while could start to piece together aspects of a blogger's life and interest, which I'm sure is acceptable and in many cases encouraged.

Its like a Venn diagram of Work, Social and Self and a set of decisions about how much to disclose. It shouldn't really be a worry, because it assumes that any passing readership really has the time or inclination to join the dots - which mainly they don't.

So back to the phones...Next week, we are all being issued with new gadgets at work because the phone contract provider is changing and the old ones won't work. I had a choice of a replacement Blackberry or iPhone. My current 'personal' phone is already an iPhone, so I could theoretically simplify my life with a single device for both business and social.

But I've resisted.

I'm keeping the work phone separate.

I justify the easier typing of emails on a blackberry keyboard, but at the same time I know it is easier to keep a gap between business - world and rashbre central.

strozzi palace

Another interesting apartment for Thursday and Friday, as we travelled to Cheltenham prior to Jo and Andrew's wedding at the weekend.

Stupendous weather to help us enjoy the cafe society of central Cheltenham. Some last minute shopping before the weekend and a move to yet another hotel which was the base for the occasion.

In the meantime I was able to drift off towards Montpelier although the run of events has successfully prevented me from any other blog posts.

accidental and spontaneous profiterole consumption

I had to crawl out of bed extra early on this Bank Holiday morning and once more make my way to LHR T5 for another quick flit abroad. The roads were clear and I whisked through the check-in/security in about five minutes. I even stopped by the lounge to drink some Executive Coffee.

But I couldn't help thinking that I was all bizzed up on a day when everyone else was in their recreational garb. Of course, by the time I got to my destination, it was back to normal.

By this evening the thought that UK was having a day of stupendous sofa sales and blockbuster television talent show semi finals is just a distant concept.

So Bart and I headed off to a nearby open air bistro, where we cracked open some Cote du Rhone, dined and enjoyed some accidental profiteroles.

spinning through a sale dvd

Impossible to miss the 'Sale' signs spread across London yesterday, along with the nostalgic advertisements for just about everything.

I briefly succumbed, buying the DVD of "the Thick of It" upon which the current movie "In the Loop" is based. Spin doctored macho politics, describing a fictional Ministry of Social Affairs. Remarkable how many currently topical events get referenced, even MP expenses.

I missed the original series on telly, but it was a worthy £5 purchase for all six episodes of the original.

Apparently the makers were given enough money to make a single pilot episode but reasoned that if they filmed it very quickly they could get three episodes made within the original budget; slightly at odds with most real government situations.

If anything, current truths are proving stranger than the fiction.

i am welcomed back with tube, bus and road closures

Saturday's early morning cocktails supported overwhelming logic to stay at the Sanderson rather than crosstowning with limited direction finding faculties. The room was all a bit Philipe Starck, white box, stainless steel, electric voile curtains, deliberately offset bed and strange workout devices augmented with a ceiling landscape picture.

By proper morning the inadvertent jaunt to Berners Street seemed entirely logical, as did the very late breakfast considerately served until 11:30.

Then outside into everchanging London streets. Nearby Oxford Circus tube's big gates were pulled shut. Oxford Street had its usual roadworks. The easy 137 bus route to Sloane Square was cancelled because "A Night at The Museum 2" was sponsoring a pedestrian only day for the entire length of the shopping area.

Our simple resourcefulness found another route, but I feel sorry for the confused tourists arguing with the shouty man in the yellow jacket at the myriad non functioning bus stops.

I smiled to myself about this place called London.

hotel lobby

spring awakening, malaysian supper and martini cocktails

I'll come clean, I was late.

My ticket was left in the lobby and the others were already watching when I arrived late for Spring Awakening at the Novello.

The play/musical is set in a 19th Century German school and is an emo teenage self discovery piece, from an original Frank Wedekind script from the 1890s updated with angsty rock music.

I'm guessing Frank didn't have a very good time of it, judging by the storylines of this play which was banned when it was first shown in its original form.

Many of the story arcs describe young hopes dashed upon the rocks of ill fortune with gothic paths of teenage self destruction at every twist.

Its still an interesting piece and has a strong cast who keep the pace through a story which ends gloomily and then gets picked up again in a couple of refrains to re-lift the audience.

Then out into the Aldwych and across to Suka, where we'd booked a 10:30 table for a late supper. Malaysian dishes to accompany stories of Mel's recent visit to Melbourne, Singapore and Hong Kong.

Followed by a short walk to the Purple Room for some frisky Martini cocktails.

I could tell I was back in London.

time to leave this foreign city

03:44 am. I just woke up. The windows are open. Its already getting light. Across to the left there's a slash in the sky where early red sunlight is cutting over the horizon. White and orange bursts against a receding night.

I hear a gull's scree, from the nearby waterside.

Dim light several floors below me bathe communal areas in safety. From the other side of the building there's shouts from revellers, whose voices I have become accustomed to in this foreign town.

In the full morning I will pack. Leave this place. Next time I will be here as a visitor.

can't find my way home

I'm late getting back to the Temporary Apartment, after a business meeting which overran. For the locals the weekend starts now, because of various holidays that can be linked together to make a four day weekend.

I'm heading home tomorrow, mainly because all of the flights were full tonight and I couldn't even get a seat on an early flight in the morning. Everyone must be taking mini-breaks.

Tonight, I've just ordered a pizza from the Italian takeaway and am on my way to buy some milk from the Seven-Eleven because The Nearby Shop That Never Opens is, as usual, closed.

testing flip mino hd upload straight from camera to youtube

A geeky post today.

Seeing whether I can record video whilst on the road and upload it to youtube with a soundtrack using just bent coathangers and old chewing-gum.

And for something more inspired, here's Vermillion Lies rather good video using Barbie and Ken.

and today I was the loathsome traveller

There's a few rituals associated with regular business flying. Getting on and off planes speedily, not blocking the aisles, good baggage management.

The same as regular London commuters know about how to navigate pavements, the Tube and to avoid stopping in inconvenient places. The same sideways look when a Slow Moving Object interferes with the flow.

So I have this thing about phones on planes. The last call made just before the bing-bongs sound or the naff nokia tones at landing to show how many txt msg u hv rcvd bcs u cnt b out of cntct 4 vry lng. These things also get the sideways looks.

But today I must hold my head in shame as I walked all the way onto the plane whilst in a headset conference call, sat down at my seat and continued until I noticed the sideways glance from my co-located passenger. That sideways glance. Oh no. I had turned into one of them.

I shall try not to let it happen again.