Phew. Somehow I survived my first week in London, somehow being the operative word, because let’s just say things didn’t go entirely to plan

I had been looking forward to staying in the Hilton because I figured we might get nice rooms, so I was quite surprised when I checked in on Monday night to discover that it was the second worst hotel room I’ve ever stayed in in my entire life. The fact that it was only a single bed didn’t bother me, because I am perfectly happy sleeping in single beds, but the fact that the room was only wide enough for a single bed and so I didn’t even get a bedside table, was rather a disappointment. The second thing which struck me as I entered the room was that there was a nice long window at the far end of it. I approached this and pulled back the curtain to see what sort of view I had, and this is what confronted me… (more…)

I apologise for the distinct lack of blogging over the course of the past week, and resolve to do better going forward After my rather wonderful birthday, I proceeded to have a rather miserable week in which I succumbed to a slight cold and had to get up at the godforsaken hour of five in the morning to commute to London. I was booked to a small audit in London, of a computer software business my firm had never dealt with before, and so there was some uncertainty over how long the job was going to take. For this reason the manager decided it was going to be too risky for me to book hotel accommodation, which I then might have to cancel at a later date and incur charges for, and thus I merrily agreed to commute. Commuting to London is something which sounds like a perfectly reasonable idea on paper, but when it gets to 5am, it’s cold and dark outside and your breathing resembles that of Darth Vader, it’s the sort of thing you wish you hadn’t volunteered for (more…)

It seems there has been a distinct lack of blogging yet again My WordPress is actually full of draft posts which I have started, then lacked the time or motivation to continue with. I don’t understand why, but for some reason work is ridiculously busy at the moment and that means blogging time is restricted I did, however, have a rather exciting weekend at the London Language Show. I was about to say ‘enjoyable’, but I wasn’t sure that was the best word; firstly because it was so utterly exhausting I haven’t recovered from it yet, and secondly because I spent the entire time being scared stiff. Nah, it was enjoyable over all – just not quite as relaxing as the previous weekend in Barlaston.

It all started at 5.30am on Saturday morning, which was the time at which my alarm went off. For me this was an interesting experiment, because I had previously been unaware that 5.30am on a Saturday actually existed, it not being a time I have ever seen Here’s hoping that I don’t have to see it again in a hurry! 5.30am on a Saturday is cold, dark, and more depressing than 5.30am on a Monday, because you *know* you should be having a lie in Sadly it was absolutely necessary to get up at this ungodly hour, because I was aiming to get to the London Olympia for 10. (more…)

I have not been wilfully neglecting my blog recently, I have just been exceptionally busy. I know that sounds a bit lame, but I really have been It all started the Friday before last when I had the first of far too many recent five thirty starts to my day, in order to attend a course about Solicitors’ Accounts Rules at the London headquarters of my firm. A pleasant day, spent gazing out of a massive plate glass window in an eighth floor meeting room with a wondrous view across the city. Around lunch time the clouds cleared and I realised I could see the Gherkin, which was pretty cool We had a rather posh buffet with cute little burgers on sticks and the whole experience was marred only by the extreme lack of aptitude of the main presenter for public speaking and the fact that my friend Mark dropped part of his banana down a radiator vent (more…)