Day 1344 & 1345 (31/08 01/09/2013)

Yesterday I drove to London, in reasonably bad traffic, to pick Kelly up.

Nothing says arriving in London more than the Lucozade sign, it has such memories for me.

Kelly's place seemed quite nice but that's the end of that month.

Now time for another series of experiences by living in Brighton, by the beach, lucky girl.

After a 15 minute rest for kelly to load the car I had a long drive home in reasonably bad traffic but decided to go on the A303 as the M4 was looking a bit congested. Its a long boring journey but you know your on the homeward stretch when you see Stonehenge.

So up early on Saturday catching up on work and stuff.

Found this on the Facebook page of some strange anarchist group.

Well its nice to be appreciated.

Update - Saturday 19:15 Good news Thomas got an online publication at the Yeovil game.

Bad news whilst he was sat there at the end of the match editing & sending his photo's they turned the sprinklers on without warning and soaked & broke his new Apple Macbook Pro.

They've half admitted responsibility but we could have done without this and I think he was quite upset (understandably) at expensive kit being broken.

Day 1343 (30/08/2013)

Busy morning then driving to London to pick up Kelly, who is home for the weekend before she moves to Brighton.

Day 1342 (29/08/2013)

Home doing things still got the remains of my cold, so not back at the gym yet... hang about deja vous.

Day 1341 (28/08/2013)

Home doing things still got the remains of my cold, so not back at the gym yet.

Day 1340 (27/08/2013)

Early start and a busy day.

Kelly's car off to the garage for a service and MOT

and a new exhaust (wow what a bargin).

Then a man was coming round from a holiday company but he didn't show up, which was a relief as our cleaner was here just after midday.

Update - 20:15 - Made a nice sweet & sour pork for dinner.

Well I liked it.

Hearing about Kelly's wild night of fun, don't think she would get that in Taunton.

Day 1339 (26/08/2013)

Bank Holiday and the sun was out. Being boring and middle aged we went back to Knightshayes to look around the gardens this time

and obviously to try more tea & cake.

Then off to Sidmouth for a walk along the seafront and have some fish & chips.

We shared the Fish & Chips which we got at Dukes, as can you believe there are no actual fish & chip shop take aways at Sidmouth, just cafe's that also do take away, which just isn't the same.

Even then one of these cafe's had run out of chips by 5.30pm on a Bank Holiday during a really good summer, the fools.  

Then mini-crepes with banana & maple syrup, which we also shared.

What a lovely day but I'm thinking Kelly had more fun, out with Sue Perkins and Boz Boorer.

Day 1337 & 1338 (24 & 25/08/2013)

Bank holiday weekend and the nice weather is .... gone. Hopefully we will miss the worst of the rain but its annoying that it has not stayed nice.

We might venture out to a National Trust property as its just us today, which in some ways is nice but I do miss the kids (they are adults but still toddlers to me) when they are not around (sometimes).

Update - Sunday 10:00am - We went to Knightshayes a National Trust property near Tiverton, which was quite nice,

as was their tea & cake.

Then a walk along the Great Western Canal at Tiverton, which was lovely.

We had a slow drive back and stopped off at The Anchor Inn at Exebridge for a spot of dinner, which was lovely. We had a fw olives and drink on the riverbank whilst waiting.

Then had the Mussels for starter, followed by the roast ling for me and dressed crab for her.

We must come back here for some more food.

Day 1336 (23/08/2013)

My cold has just about gone although my wife is now wingeing that she has a cold. Women! they will never know what true pain and illness is like. OK they do I'm just a wingeing bloke but it was quite a bad cold, for a couple of days.

Work is a bit slow but at least it has given me a chance to catch up on things and create a website for my new venture. Now I just have to secure lots of money to kick-start it.

My parents are settling into their new house and have changed the photo of me & my wife they have out as the other one was starting to fade, as we've been married that long.

So yet another old photo showing how young and slim I once was, plus how smart I could be back then. It was another nice suit, although somewhat dated nowadays. I was going through a stage of paisley ties at this time and this was pink & grey. Oh the 1980's in someways they were quite a good time.

Day 1335 (22/08/2013)

My cold is getting better but still here.

It is a friends 21st Wedding Anniversary today so she posted a photo from her wedding on Facebook, where we all look so young and for me so smart for a change.

It's Kelly sat on my wifes lap and I remember her in that dress as if it was last year not 21yrs ago, and have carried a photo of my wife & Kelly in my wallet everyday since.

I also remember my suit, shirt & tie, I quite liked them even though it was a Prince of Wales check, which I probably wouldn't buy now.

Day 1334 (21/08/2013)

Still full of a col (flu) but I'm struggling on like a hero.

Thomas found a few more online publication from the cricket, one of which looks fun and seems to have been highlighted as one of the top photos from the recent ICC competition.

If only there was a prize.

Day 1333 (20/08/2013)

Full of a cold (flu) after my trip abroad, probably too many other people breathing my air on the plane.

Doing work and sniffing lots.

Nice to have Kelly home for the night as she has a meeting near Taunton tomorrow.

Day 1332 (19/08/2013)

Time to catch up on work, which is one of the many annoying things about working away for a few days.

Sorry to say good bye to Kelly for another couple of weeks.

A successful weekend for Thomas who was at the Bournemouth v Wigan match, as he was in one newspaper and two online publications.

Plus another appearance on the telly.

Well I recognised him, with his much shorter & smarter hair cut.

Day 1330 & 1331 (17 & 18/08/2013)

Saturday started with another talk to the journalism students and a few of the speakers sat in, so quite a bit of pressure but it seemed to go OK.

Then I had about an 8 hour wait at the airport before my flight home. Thankfully they had a TGI Fridays at the airport, where I could sit comfortably eating some lovely food, next to a plug for my phone and free WiFi. This was heaven.

OK it might look a lot but it was over several hours and I did need to catch up.

Got back to the UK then a long drive home so I didn't get back until 3 am.

It was great to have Kelly back, so we had a nice Sunday roast dinner, at her request, as apparently they don't have that in London. Glad she's enjoying herself there, even if we do miss her lots. Fingers crossed that she gets a permanent job doing what she wants soon.

Day 1329 (16/08/2013)

I had a day off and had intended to go to listen to some of the other lectures but I had a lazy day in bed sleeping and watching the telly. This was possibly due to Latvia being 2 hours ahead of the UK, so that 9 am start the previous day was actually a 7 am start, and I don't really do those anymore.

I stayed at the hotel and had dinner, but again it was not great but bless them I think they make an effort.

In Lithuania it looked crap and tasted crap, whereas in Latvia they make it look nice but haven't quite considered the taste yet.

Day 1328 (15/08/2013)

In Riga and giving 3 talks today to Investigative Journalism students at The Stockholm School of Economics, which went down quite well but was quite tiring as I had to make an allowance and a few changes for the fact that everyone else in the room was from various country Nordic & Balkan countries, so were not native English speakers, but were fairly easy to understand.

 

 Riga looks quite nice and was much better than Lithuania but the food was not brilliant.

 

 

Day 1327 (14/08/2013)

A long driver to Stansted in mixed weather then a few hours to wait before the flight, so time for a combined breakfast, lunch and dinner visit to Frankie & Bennys.

It was very nice and just about set me up for the day.

RyanAir are handy but you are treated a bit like cattle, crammed in with very little space.

It was strange arriving at an international airport to be met by a driver holding a card with my name on it, he even had a Mercedes to drive me in but he was only a taxi driver, so it was not exactly film star treatment but quite handy.

The hotel is quite nice and it should be an OK couple of days as there is good free WiFi and a nice restaurant nearby.

Tonight we are all if different countries, with Kelly still up in Edinburgh at the festival and Thomas roped in at the last minute to cover the Wales v Ireland match in Cardiff for his photo agency. Fingers crossed for both of their careers.

Day 1326 (13/08/2013)

Still busy getting ready for this weeks presentations.

Day 1325 (12/08/2013)

Busy working as I have to get everything done as I'm off to Latvia on Wednesday for a few days to give some presentations.

I've been put in the Hotel Albert, which looks and has WiFi and the write ups in Trip Advisor seem quite good and better than Lithuania.

Although it looks OK I'm already looking forward to getting back in the UK on Saturday night.

Day 1323 & 1324 (10 & 11/08/2013)

We spent Saturday slowly coming home visiting a few places like Bideford and Lynmouth, where we had Fish & Chips.

On Sunday had work to do but still had to cut the grass then make dinner. We had nice mussels for starter followed by a lovely roast beef.

We are missing Kelly lots but it was nice to get roast potatoes in goose fat and Yorkshire puddings made with beef dripping.

Yum Yum Yum.

Day 1322 (09/08/2013)

We stayed in a lovely room at The Sail Loft extension to The Red Lion in Clovelly.

As well as being a lovely room it had a great view of the sea, which was only about 20 feet away.

 We also had a lovely view from our table at the restaurant.
 

Then some very nice food, with a grilled mackerel starter for me,

and a three eat and roast vegetables for my wife.

The Skate main meal with horseradish mash,

and a bream fillet with a potato pancake for my wife.

And really nice afters.

It was a lovely evening.