Oh I do like to be beside the seaside

45 miles up the road from me is the seaside town of Scarborough. It's a nice enough town but for some reason if I want seaside I also go to Filey instead which is about 5 miles further south. Not entirely sure why I do this, habit I suppose but a habit I think I will have to break.

Yesterday evening I had reason to go to Scarborough in that myself and my better half were going to see Amy Macdonald in concert. We like Amy Macdonald. She does a damn good live performance and last night was as awesome as the three previous occasions We have seen her. What made it even better was the location; beautiful summers evening along with the elegant location at The Scarborough Spa and it made me think I might have to come and visit again. Just need to find somewhere useful to put all the damn tourists. 

Pointless but good

Some of the customer visits I do rely entirely on me to sort and arrange whatever is required, however on some I need a bit of cooperation from the client and this especially applies when I am installing equipment on a customer site. For Thursdays customer I was eager to get it sorted this time as a previous visit back in May had been aborted as the customer had not fitted his equipment correctly for me to attach to. During that last visit I took some photos and marked up exactly where everything needed to go. After a pain in the neck (traffic wise) journey from York to Barrow In Furness I was hoping to get to a successful conclusion, but after less than a minute on site I had to abort again. The

customer had installed the equipment this time. but in an entirely inappropriate spot that only would class as a health and safety risk but was also no where near where I had marked on the previous photos. More photos taken to prove the point and I guess I will be going back again, again. Grrrr!!

The good side of the journey was where I ended up. A quick salad purchase at a local supermarket and I decided to take the scenic route back home along a coast road with a stop to eat as well. The Lake District is mainly famous for the actual lakes but too many people forget it has a beautiful coastline as well and that definitely improved my day.

It's good when it's not just for work

This weeks working week started on Sunday evening. This was not because I was getting paid to be working on a Sunday but simply because the first meeting of the week was at 9.30 on Monday morning in Reading and there was no way I could get to Reading on time and awake enough to work if I left from home at the required 5am. Instead I drove a couple of hours on Sunday evening and stayed at East Midlands Airport Holiday Inn Express. If all you need is somewhere to sleep, it ticks the boxes nicely but just remember that it is an airport hotel and people may be awake and banging about at all sorts of daft times. Also when I went down for breakfast at 6:30am no one else was there, very spooky!! Two and half hours more driving and I was in my all day meeting, awake and on time!

I don't like days like Monday as I woke up in a hotel and went to bed in a hotel as well. That's nice when on holiday but not so nice when working as it means I don't get to see my family. This Monday was different though as I got invited for tea by some friends I had not seen in about 6 years. That made the day significantly better though talking far too much and not managing to leave them till half 11 at night may have been an error as I was knackered the following day.

The Monday night was spent in the Reading South Holiday Inn It's a very very convenient location and has a decent restaurant but the rooms are only OK and the pool really needs a refit. Pity really, letting themselves down on that point. Finally got home at about 6pm on the Tuesday, glad to be home but could do with a kip.

Sunday traffic is so much easier.

I will admit that I am not happy to be away for work on a Sunday night but as the alternative would be getting up at 4am on the Monday morning, then I think it is the better option. I need to be in Reading by half nine tomorrow morning so I ahve driven as far as East Midland Airport tonight and that should (traffic permitting) leave me with 2 and half hours of driving to do tomorrow. The other good point of driving down tonight is that the traffic is wonderful. Average speed is just short of 70 miles an hour and not a single delay. Why can't all journeys be like that?

That's better!

Another day, another road but this time the A66 from Scotch Corner over to Penrith. It also is a long A-road with a lot of heavy traffic but road building folk realised this and made a lot of it a dual-carriageway. I wish their was a way that the A14 could meet the A66, it would feel so inferior. Bit of decent music helped. Blue skies, 20+ degrees C and The Beach Boys on the stereo. Perfect recipe to put a smile on my face.

I still don't like that road

Yesterday and today was another round trip to Norwich. Pleasant people and a nice Holiday Inn But I had to go on THAT road again. I may have mentioned before how much I don't like the A17 from Newark to Kings Lynn, but it's worth mentioning again. I really REALLY do not like that road. It is just so dull its daft.

Did spot something odd this time. Their is a truck stop half way along with a tank and an old military airplane in the car park. not what you expect to see in a car park. Next time I really should stop and have a proper look.