Oh the glamour pt 2: Bradford, Cambridge, London

I'm writing this post on a train, reflecting on how much this particular environment will be a feature of my life this week. The two projects I've found myself on lately (the Irish thing does indeed seem to have let me go... fingers crossed) are helpfully located in Cambridge and Bradford, so I've seen a bit more of Kings Cross than I normally prefer to of late.

Small mercies: the majority of the work for both can be done either at my home office near the city or the offices of a creative agency in Piccadilly, but nonetheless this week I'm in Cambridge this afternoon and tomorrow afternoon, Bradford Wednesday and Thursday and hopefully London on Friday but who knows.

Both are good, fun, broadening projects which I'm enjoying a lot at the moment, but the travelling thing does put a bit of a dent in my life and my cashflow (racking up near £500 in travel expenses every month can be tricky to manage). Still, I'm not complaining, it pays the bills, most months.

Last week I ran another wine tasting for the team at work, with attendees from various other parts of the business taking the numbers up to around 30 or so, an improvement on previous evenings and weirdly for some reason suggested that a room of 30 people is easier to control than 20 - or perhaps I'm getting better at it, I dunno. Still, they seemed to enjoy it, and for the Facebookers amongst you the photos are up on our company group somewhere should you wish.

The weekend which followed was great, if surprisingly brief, with E&T coming round for dinner on Saturday night, which involved a morning's barging round Borough Market and Tesco and an afternoon's increasingly frantic cooking. Most of it went well, with the notable exception of me screwing up a lemon meringue pie AGAIN - this is turning into something of a culinary nemesis for me.

I'm sure I've made it perfectly at least once, but for some reason over the past few years they won't hold their shape properly. It all generally tastes great, but it's just a bit runny. I set some of the curd separately this time, and it set perfectly, so I think it's my meringue that's the problem - I think I need to spend a bit more time making sure it's properly robust, otherwise it sags a bit and (I think) causes the filling to sort of unset.

The Kiwi has got tickets to the wrestling tonight. Can't wait.

Sniffle, Cough, Flight, PIE!

Looking back on recent holidays, this is happening to me with alarming frequency: I AM ILL. Again. This time it's a particularly evil little virus that's had me incapacitated all weekend and is still, STILL poking at my sinuses with spiky poking sticks and leaving horrid things in my lungs and banging on my head incessantly. All this despite first attempting the holistic healthy approach and then, faced with a deadline of Wednesday morning to get well again, attacking it with good ol'fashioned over the counter Drugs.

The deadline of Wednesday looms because Wednesday is the day upon which we embark on an aeroplane journey which will end on Friday morning. Leaving Heathrow at around 1400 on the 12th. Arriving in LA at 2000 on the 12th. Arriving in Auckland in the early morning of the 15th. Arriving in Brisbane some time later that day. What happened to the 14th? Lord only knows. I'm trying to get my head around this but frankly it's beyond me, so I've voted to just screw my eyes tight shut from the London tarmac until when someone says 'Welcome to Brizbin'.

The journey back is simpler. Leaving Auckland at midnight, we arrive in London at around lunchtime that day, the only problem is that 24 hours will have passed in the meantime.

In the meantime we'll have had a brilliant time I'm sure, and I'm really looking forwards to catching up with the Family Kiwi and the Auckland lot (not to mention those in Hamilton and Hawkes Bay), and everything in between. I'm sure photos will follow.

So tonight we're packing (and I'm secretly looking forwards to the flight out, so long as I'm virus free at the time), and having a couple of the best pies in the world (sorry NZ, I do mean literally the best). One more day of work... then we're off. Bloody brilliant.

Oh. One more thing. When I said 'we're packing', I actually meant 'the Kiwi's packing'. I'm on the sofa being poorly.