I was going to go to Scarborough today, but the weather's not so flash. Tomorrow, I think ( Read more... )

Zapped down to Paddington for an interview for 5pm. Train from Leeds to Kings Cross, two and a bit hours down, longer coming back. I like London; crowded, noisy, dysfunctional, no manners, difficult to get around, doing a refugee-camp imitation, but still has something about it ( Read more... )

A meeting in Rome. Left yesterday from East Midland, a 2 hour drive from Leeds. I don't have a car - I'm trying to travel (I still feel I'm only travelling through) light and I've nowhere to park a car where I'm living anyway - so Karen picked me up ( Read more... )

Ginny, my ex, arrived today. Her mother's had a heart-attack. The hospital can't organise an angiogram in under ten years, so she's been advised to stay there until they can get one done. The NHS .... ho, ho .. yeah, right.

KLM didn't cancel the flight out this time, but did manage to run it 50 minutes late so I just made my connecting flight. Not with my baggage, however. And the cretin at Leeds-Bradford wasn't going to get it to me tonight ... it is a long weekend, you realise? My baggage had a higher intelligence.

I'd read that the Parque de Retiro was a popular place to be on a Sunday. Sure was - must have been most of Madrid there by early afternoon. A full orchestra playing, a book-fair, puppet-shows, boating on the lake, falun gong doing their thing, some Catalans doing their thing, a rose garden, crystal palace and bulk people. I fell in love with ( Read more... )

Great being a tourist and getting used to my new second-hand Canon EOS, circa 1990s. After using a manual camera for thirty years, having anything automatic is a big change. Had I not had my Minolta stolen, I'd not have bought the Canon. Yes, I did leave it on the bus coming back from a testimonial match at Leeds' Elland Road, but a 30 year old ( Read more... )

To the Prado. Bulk Goya. But I found a Caravaggio and a Gentileschi. Spent hours there, lost track of time.
Then spent more hours wandering the streets. The tapas bars are great but no-one to talk to, so eat, drink, watch people. Fell in love with the city. I could live here, but I always think that wherever I go.

Meeting in the morning. I had a ticket to the bullfights to pick up that evening (from a scalper) at the Plaza Santa Anna. My hotel's up in Avenida, so a few changes on the Metro to get to Sol.

Wander around that part of the city for awhile then on to Ventas and the bull-fights. Different to the Portuguese bullfights.

Meetings all day. Dinner off the Castellana with some guys from work. Eating far too early for Madrid, but Matt is a Liverpool fan and so we're off to an Irish bar to watch Liverpool play Milan for the European cup. I'm not a fan of the game, but it was a exciting match. And the Guinness was good.