Saturday 4 January 2020

Some ramblings to kick start the New Year


My “man flu” has lasted for over a week now, and seems to come and go in varying degrees of severity. It’s in one of its “here I am again” phases at the moment, so I might have to see if alcohol, of some description can shift it. I haven’t actually felt like any beer this past week, so it’s been something of a  post-Christmas detox, but at the moment it’s a case of “kill or cure!”

My company re-opened for business on 2nd January, but fortunately those initial two days were fairly quiet, as quite a few colleagues took the opportunity of extending the Christmas-New Year break until 6th January.

I’m heading up to Dundee, on a short business trip on the 6th, so it made sense for me to go in at the end of last week, to get things ready. I’m assisting our Business Development Manager with a presentation to our second largest UK customer, so it should be an interesting experience. The only down-side is the dinner, at the end of the evening is a “fancy dress” event; something neither of us are keen on.

What makes it worse is the theme chosen is “Disney!” I let my colleague decide what we should go as, so he decided that we’d turn up as the two chefs from the Pixar animation, "Ratatouille." His girlfriend sourced the chef’s tunics from a charity shop, whilst I picked up the diamond-pattern chef’s trousers from Amazon. As for the hats, we'll have a look in the local cash & carry, tomorrow!

It seemed a decent enough compromise, and as he said, “Better than turning up at the airport, dressed as Buzz Light-year and Woody and being denied boarding!” Other work colleagues have requested photos, so I expect some will escape onto Social Media, and possibly this blog, as well.

So there’s a bit of packing to do tomorrow, but nothing too serious as we’re travelling with carry-on bags only. Then there’s the joy of a round-about train journey to Gatwick on Monday morning. The Tonbridge-Redhill rail-line remains closed, due to a serious landslip, which followed the pre-Christmas deluge, and is likely to remain shut for some time.

The story of that final Friday before Christmas is one of torrential rain, severe flooding and of almost ending up being trapped at work, due to rising river levels – the joys of working in a rural location! Mrs PBT’s and her friends had to abandon their planned, pre-Christmas dinner that evening, due to the road being impassable at Penshurst.

The re-scheduled event took place last night, and from what she said, they enjoyed an excellent meal at the Spotted Dog, Smart’s Hill; a lovely old pub, in a very isolated location. Matthew and I didn’t fare quite so well at the local Hungry Horse, but as I said to him, you get what you pay for. Next time, I will choose the venue!

I made a start getting back into the lunchtime walking on Thursday and Friday, but on both days only made it as far as the start of the path across the old airfield. I couldn’t believe how knackered I felt. Nothing to do with the Christmas lay-off, and everything to do with this unwelcome bug. I was pleased though, to see that the temporary gate had been removed from across the path, and the sheep safely behind the re-instated electric fence – see pre-Christmas post.

So with those ramblings out of the way, I’m off to pour myself the first beer of 2020!

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