Monday, April 10, 2006
Written in flight, to be posted goodness knows when
Yesterday(Thursday 6th April) was a good day. I was collected by my chaffeur from Newcastle Central station at the agreed time and the drive across Northumberland to Cumbria was really pretty pleasant. The moors look nice bathed in spring sunshine. Despite the sun it was really pretty cold, and although we weren't affected by this inside of the car (except for the air temperature indicator on the dashboard) we were sprayed by a gritter travelling in the opposite direction. Obviously someone thought there was a reasonable chance of it freezing that night.
The drive through the Lake District from Penrith to Borrowdale was also relaxing. It is a pleasant change to have someone else driving. The hotel in Borrowdale was a gem. Frankly it was more than I would choose to spend myself, but the room, the service and the dinner were all excellent. It was expecially good to wake up in a room which had a view of the mountains.
One downside is that whatever was wrong with me last week seems to be making a recurrence. I had a brief shivering fit in the hotel room last night (and the room was not cold), woke up in the middle of the night with profuse sweating and aching limbs and I seem to have swollen glands in my neck as well (are they really "glands" or are they lymph nodes?). Whichever, I have a stiff neck and a swollen something on one side. Of course this all means that I feel less than one-hundred-percent, which is not the best way to go into a meeting.
The meeting has been delayed, which is while I'm writing this stream of conciousness entry while I'm waiting. Inevitably I'm going to get home late tonight. I think I am going to have to "take care of myself" a bit at the weekend. If the symptoms don't go away then I think I should go to the Doctor on Monday. Of course, being an idiot, whether I do is another matter altogether.
(posted on Monday - Yes, I survived. I don't feel bad at all. I didn't go to the Doctor, but I did go to the Dentist and I'm going to give myself a quiet night in!)
The drive through the Lake District from Penrith to Borrowdale was also relaxing. It is a pleasant change to have someone else driving. The hotel in Borrowdale was a gem. Frankly it was more than I would choose to spend myself, but the room, the service and the dinner were all excellent. It was expecially good to wake up in a room which had a view of the mountains.
One downside is that whatever was wrong with me last week seems to be making a recurrence. I had a brief shivering fit in the hotel room last night (and the room was not cold), woke up in the middle of the night with profuse sweating and aching limbs and I seem to have swollen glands in my neck as well (are they really "glands" or are they lymph nodes?). Whichever, I have a stiff neck and a swollen something on one side. Of course this all means that I feel less than one-hundred-percent, which is not the best way to go into a meeting.
The meeting has been delayed, which is while I'm writing this stream of conciousness entry while I'm waiting. Inevitably I'm going to get home late tonight. I think I am going to have to "take care of myself" a bit at the weekend. If the symptoms don't go away then I think I should go to the Doctor on Monday. Of course, being an idiot, whether I do is another matter altogether.
(posted on Monday - Yes, I survived. I don't feel bad at all. I didn't go to the Doctor, but I did go to the Dentist and I'm going to give myself a quiet night in!)
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Another "Grand Tour" about to begin
I turned up at the "Northern Office" (York) on Monday this week. This is Thursday and my plans have almost completely changed:
Hmm. That is about 270 degrees anticlockwise covering a great deal of England in about 36 hours.
On a completely unrelated subject, the (black) MZ took its first unassisted breath last weekend. All in all it was pretty satisfactory. New petrol, new oil, new plug and off it went. All the electrics work fine (just shows that all the bench testing was worth it). The only remaining problem is slow-running. I can't get it to tick-over properly. Suggestions welcome, but I'm going to check the timing etc and then have another go, probably this weekend.
...And for Easter it's home to Ireland (for a week's vacation).
- In about an hour, instead of going home, I'm going to catch a train to Newcastle (yup, that's going in completely the wrong direction),
- There I'm going to meet a colleague who is going to drive us both across the Pennines and through the Lake District to Borrowdale. That should be pretty at this time of the year ("a host of golden daffodils" and all that)
- There we will refresh ourselves with dinner, a few drinks and an early night.
- Tomorrow we have an "intersting" meeting with the customer.
- Then another colleague takes me to a different railway station in Cumbria
- And from there I catch a train to the "London Office" (via London).
Hmm. That is about 270 degrees anticlockwise covering a great deal of England in about 36 hours.
On a completely unrelated subject, the (black) MZ took its first unassisted breath last weekend. All in all it was pretty satisfactory. New petrol, new oil, new plug and off it went. All the electrics work fine (just shows that all the bench testing was worth it). The only remaining problem is slow-running. I can't get it to tick-over properly. Suggestions welcome, but I'm going to check the timing etc and then have another go, probably this weekend.
...And for Easter it's home to Ireland (for a week's vacation).
