back on the rock!
And hello from Douglas! It’s not sunny, although it was (yesterday) and it’s still far from the spectacle which greeted me on Wednesday afternoon; that is, one of driving rain, gale force winds and bent over palm trees at the airport. It was also the only time I have ever arrived and had to wait over half an hour for a taxi, leaving me frozen to the marrow and in dire need of a hot bath and a cupasoup.
Despite the slightly bumpy start I settled in nicely soon after, helped along as ever by the friendly local folk (very friendly too – it must be the cold) and my suitcase stash of After Eights, oddbod Quality Streets and Mini Cheddars left over from Christmas; on a 15kg weight limit, sensible packing is the order of the day, after all. It’s by now my last full day and having had a lovely time as usual, home and flat are calling and I will be back bright eyed and bushy tailed on Monday morning ready to crack on with a few hastily-made New Year’s resolutions, mostly those involving the steam stripper, lining paper and generally making a mess.
Other tasks for the coming weeks include a variation of the Money Saving Expert no-spend challenge (and for anybody who’s feeling thrifty yet has never ventured onto the MSE site and it’s forums, if you can avoid the really psychotic suggestions it’s well worth a look) which involves keeping as much of your cash as possible firmly in your purse by using up what you’ve already got. My total spend for 2015 – nine days in – is a could-be-bettered £37.63, but given that £20.00 went on the bloody airport taxi and £10.00 on my (regular and prebooked) manicure which henceforth I will be doing myself, not bad! A full thirty pence, regrettably, went on the ladies toilets at the station but since no alternative facilities were available and I’d saved the best part of a tenner by bringing turkey sandwiches, bottled tap water and leftover Pringles with me for the journey, a balance was deemed to have been reached. That said, next time I’ll be pre-investigating the immediate vicinity for likely department stores.
The prospect of eating everything in the house because it’s part of A Master Plan has cheered me no end, and at least as much as the Great Wardrobe Clearout planned for an (and possibly more than one) upcoming Sunday afternoon – the last one turned up items including my beloved ox blood Doc Martens, the eye-wateringly expensive scarlet cashmere cardi bought in Paris six or seven years back (and which will be familiar to a few folk reading) and a Vivienne Westwood striped frock I’d worn precisely once and, to my shame, completely forgotten about. Plus (and as I’m probably making sound like far more of an Aladdin’s cave than it is) the usual cheap T-shirts with the inexplicable small holes and the (explicable) pizza marks that won’t wash out, and which are now – in the spirit of thrift – destined for the duster bag in the case of the white ones, and for the rest, a still-at-the-planning-stage rag rug – yay!
The likelihood of some seriously terrible weather setting in fairly shortly is increasing (given that it’s under two weeks to my birthday I speak from experience), but the travel is now over and done with until the next London trip in early February and whilst I’ll be taking incalls in Scarborough daily as we’ve all started getting used to, I won’t be hurrying down to the flat for 9am on the truly wild days. It’s always an idea to give me a good few hours warning anyway, but from next week on, anybody wanting an appointment beginning before 12 noon will need to let me know at at least an hour in advance and preferably more – it’s not just so I can get myself there but to give the thermostat a fighting chance to achieve a temperature anybody would want to get undressed in.
Next update (including the resolutions) soon! Some quick commiserations to Blyth and AFC Wimbledon whilst I’m here, and a thank you for keeping us entertained; in the absence of the mighty Scarborough Athletic from the upcoming FA Cup fourth round, I’ll be getting firmly behind Cambridge United on the 23rd (finally – Friday night TV worth watching!) So onto the packing it is and I’ll be heading for home tomorrow; there are a couple of slots still available in the morning even allowing for a Saturday lie in, but it’s probably worth getting in quick. I don’t know when I’ll be back, but I can never stay away for too long!
Back soon.
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