Work trip to Marseille

Flight Wednesday morning at 8:30 - Bristol to Nice. Picked up rental car at Nice airport and drove to Marseille. Lovely sunny weather. Went to hotel first (arrived about 3:30) and the made way to FT Office on metro.
Jeanne & Nicolas took me out in the evening - first to a bar for an aperitif and then on to a very nice (expensive) fish restaurant - L'Epuisette.
Work on Thursday with a long lunch near the Vieux Port. Didn't leave office until about 7:00 in the evening. Went to Toinou restaurant that only does shellfish. Had an excellent platter of Crab, King Prawns, Cockles & Languostines.
Friday morning did some work in the morning and then drove to Nice, taking a rural route for part of the way. The car I had was a convertible Astra so did some of the trip with the top down. A bit cold but very nice :-)

Nice Airport

Conference call at Nice airport @ 1:00 then went through security. Disappointing that there were no restaurants so lunch was a sandwich. Got home about 6:00

Wardrobe weekend

Spent the weekend making George's wardrobe. Still not finished however it is functional.

Slipped over outside and grazed leg.

George returned home from skiing (near Morzine, Port de Soleil) about 8pm Sunday night after a great weeks skiing. Excellent weather & snow

Georgina's new wardrobe

The progress on building a new wardrobe for George...

old wardrobe


new wardrobe design


progress...

ebay items sold

Sold a few things on eBay and they were picked up this week:

• Shower & base - £27 - Tuesday
• Water Feature - £7.50 - Tuesday
• Georges wash hand basin - £58 Friday

No luck with selling used tiles - even for £5

Valentines day

Did the flower thing and went to dinner at The Arch Restaurant 2-3 Queen St. Wouldn't rush back however nice evening.

George was travelling to skiing.

Keane concert & flat tyre

Picked up George & Liz from school and headed up to London. After much traffic and some navigation problems arrived at O2 arena (was The Dome) at about 7:30. Made way to Tower Bridge (More London) and met Vivienne and Angela for dinner at Strada. Was nowing as we arrived - late! Great view of Tower Bridge. Lovely to see Angela again - just back from Patagonia.

Left about 10:30 and made way back to O2. Picked up the girls, they had a fab time. Were in back row at top of stadium. Said it was huge. They bought the T shirts.

Didn't get far from the stadium and got a flat tyre. Couldn't get wheel off so called AA. Eventually got it fixed and then drove back home - getting into bed about 3:30am!

Snow still around from last week

Busy week for George

Yes it was...

Monday - went to comedy play at school
Tuesday - Charlies birthday - dinner at Wagamama
Wednesday - Jazz Concert in Chippenham
Thursday - Keane concert London

Plus

Monday - received Stephens Stag party invitation - to Amserdam. Booked flights
Into the office Tuesday & Wednesday
Tuesday - melting snow and rain caused river Avon to rise and flooded some of central Bath - http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/somerset/7881283.stm
Wednesday - Andy asked me to be Godfather to Hector
Friday - Marian here, wardrobe wood arrived
Booked trips to Marseille & Warsaw in coming weeks

Got to London for Testing workshop

Snow again overnight but managed to get out of drive and caught train to London. No real problems.

Met Eric & Matt in London for workshop.

Caught 4pm train home

Meant to be in London

Planned trip to London for Testing workshop. Woke up and about 6" of snow so didn't go anywhere. Managed by phone.

Georges school was closed today and tommorrow.

Back home from Madrid

Workshop in morning. Left for airport mid afternoon by metro. Took about 1h30 from office to gate. Plane was delayed a bit due to step problems. Jayne & George had lot of snow previous day/evening

UQS workshop all day

All day in workshop. Problems with phone made it very difficult for Clive & Richard.

Got back to hotel about 9pm and out to local restaurant - nothing special.

Madrid and delay at Bristol

Trip to Madrid for UQS work. Planned departure from Bristol was 13:45 - actual was about 3 hours later! The flight before us took off on time and then the snow came, closing the airport for a while. Still eventually got there OK. Collegues Richard & Clive were not so lucky - there were going from Heathrow and had to turn back because of weather.

Dinner at restaurant Lateral (mainly tapas) in Plaza St Anna (lots of pubs/restaurant). Was good.

Decided it would be useful to have a compass. Coming out of a new metro station it is not always clear which way to head - especially at night.

Hotel was Senator in Gran Via - excellent location, good traditional hotel.

Snow in London

Lot of snow in South East england and London on Sunday evening. Didn't get to Bath/Bristol until later....