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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