home is the hunter!
And whilst it’s looking like a busy week (not least as the DIY and decorating continues apace) I have finally arrived back at HQ for a sensible interval after what seems like interminable weeks of go away-come back-do laundry-repack-go away again and weeks it is, if we count from my setting off for New York via Dublin on February 4th to now, some twenty thousand miles later. Suffice to say there’s been no rest for the wicked; the apartment is coming along nicely and will be nicer still once the smell of paint has begun to dissipate a bit (my fondness for proper old fashioned eggshell being largely to blame) and the floors are finally laid (hopefully sometime before Crossrail is finished), and I have also welcomed an unexpected addition to Tank 2 in the plumply orange shape of New Fish, who took up residence earlier today and is just getting settled in.
Last week saw the first returns to Cork and York of the year and some fabulous weather – Douglas village in particular is home to my favourite branch of McDonald’s in the world (there’s a sentence you don’t say every day), spotlessly clean with ample comfy seating and lots of natural light, excellent free wifi and newspapers, lovely friendly servers and food that looks better than the pictures including exemplary french fries – never let it be said that the Irish don’t know their way around a potato. It being a week to St Patrick’s Day, the mint-flavoured Shamrock Shakes were proffered; sadly I wasn’t feeling quite that brave even before a Big Mac, fries and six nuggets, let alone after, but I will definitely be back. Ditto York, where the quick on-the-way-home pitstop is becoming a habit – a fine time was had by all, and I don’t think the novelty of boarding a train and being home in less time than it takes to drink a regular-size tea from Pumpkin (I finished it on the walk across Valley Bridge) will ever wear off.
By way of reward for all the hard work and charging about, next week is finally Champney’s time – yay! Three days and three nights of not being required to do anything bar waft languidly about between the cosy lounge’s many settees in a lightly perfumed fug, with occasional pit stops to the restaurant, pool and even more occasionally the gym. As very longstanding readers will know, the place has been a favourite of mine since my deeply suspicious and cynical first visit way back in 2009, when fearful of what the regime might entail I arrived with mini Snickers and Babybels concealed in my gym socks (just in case), to find that the days of being tasered out of bed at 4am to run laps around a muddy field with a rucksack full of breeze blocks before a cup of water and a rice cake for breakfast are long gone. As it is, the current pre-breakfast regime of ensuring one is perpendicular to the carpet before putting on a fluffy dressing gown (having had a shower if you can be bothered) is very agreeable indeed, and to say I’m looking forward to it would be understatement of the century.
Next update will be at some point Post Spa and possibly pre-London, although not necessarily; I will be back (refreshed, bright eyed, bushy tailed and hopefully still at roughly the same weight) at my usual South Bank digs on Sunday week, and around for fun and games until the Thursday lunchtime before dashing off home for more DIY followed by Chester and the Isle of Man before Easter, and then back to Edinburgh for my favourite of all the horror fests, Dead By Dawn at the end of next month. In the meantime and in other news, for anybody who hasn’t read about the plan to axe BBC3, the home of virtually all new, original British television that anybody may want to actually watch (plus Snog, Marry, Avoid and Don’t Tell The Bride) and also the only channel to broadcast live coverage of nearly all the UK’s major music events – please sign the petition! 
Unlike some prossies my age I make no claim to be part of BBC3’s 16-34 year old target audience, but even if I didn’t find chopping any bits off the BBC an objectionable idea (and who’s to say which channel/station would be next?) I’ve enjoyed much of it’s output far more than that of the ‘main’ channels (Gavin and Stacey, Nighty Night, Him and Her, Being Human for starters) and it’s clear that nothing is planned to replace it. There will be nowhere for the new British programmes and programme makers to go, except away, and nothing for younger viewers to watch, whether they’ve paid their license fees or not. People power worked for 6Music, it can work again and even if not we can but try, anyway.
Back to this week, and as stated on the site/profile/autotexter (I think), Scarborough incalls remain limited to previous visitors only – there may be plans afoot over the next few months regarding incall arrangements, but nothing’s cast in stone just yet. Watch this space…
Bedtime – and for the fourth night in a row, my own! Bliss.
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