Dear Diary... February 2025
Wednesday 26th February - I've Heard Good Things
I have been spending a bit of time in the office this week, mainly to ensure that things are still going well with migrations over to the new laptops from our new overlords, but also because I have a fairly big task on - check and document the meeting rooms once more. Nothing has changed hardware wise, but with a gradual shift on from Google Meet to Microsoft Teams, it may make sense to cover both. I came up with a sensible brainwave - to utilise the opening side for basic connections and Google, and the second side for Teams.
This way, there are nice and easy guides each side, and when laminated it'll look neat too. I also added the revised company branding as well and also tidied things up, so that makes sense. Getting into the rooms themselves to be able to adjust what was needed but also get some screen shots was a different kettle of fish though, so that was enteraining to try and time a run in each room to ensure I got the right display name for each audio and video piece (so it matches when you look.) I think I got it all sorted though at least which has to be something.
In the meantime, I also was working on some cleanup when I had a visitor from the Netherlands - it transpires that this person was the overall boss of the digital workplace team we had been working with, and he said that he had heard good things about me - which was a compliment. It was also explained that it was good that I had knowledge of both Windows and Mac machines, and asked about how future developments might shape management of OSes. I think that it was positive overall and maybe the reputation is getting round that I am able to at least show some ability. That made a positive feeling. Tune of the day in fact is the excellent Good Feeling by Violent Femmes for that reason.
And the positives went into the evening too as I got back home in good time to listen to the commentary for the Tottenham Hotspur v Manchester City game. City did a good flowing move down the left with Jeremy Doku, and his low cross into the box was just the ball Erling Haaland wanted on his return and slotted it home comfortably. We should have admittely been three up by half time and we did hold on a bit towards the end, but ultimately I will always take a 1-0 win away from home if that means three crucial points in the race for the top four positions without a doubt.
To finish the day off, I also had a chat with The Love In My Heart and after some discussion, we've now booked our Summer break. I had been wanting to hang on a litle bit and see what the state of play was job wise, but as I'd saved up a bit over the last two months anyway it made perfect sense to be able to sort it now and make sure we had somewhere nice to go. And in fact, it will be somewhere new we haven't been to before (as it was when we went to Porto last year) so that's all good!
Sunday 23rd February - Expected To Lose
After having some nice breakfast earlier with The Love In My Heart, and indeed a bit of a lie in, we were going to head out for a walk but the weather definitely took a turn for the worst (understatement) with wind and rain coming in. Brian the cat did have a wander and then realised how awful it was out there and so sensibly decided not to bother (a wise move I think!) and so that was us all staying in and snuggled. I did get myself up and ready later on as I was off to see some football, and we also weighed up the options for holidays too. I really needed to look at booking the time off work so will do that tomorrow.
It was off to the Etihad for the big game - Manchester City against Liverpool. In truth, and with Erling Haaland out through injury and whom had also missed our Champions League exit against Real Madrid, really did seem like that the only thing I thought would happen was for City to lose. Naturally I wanted to be optimistic and would be cheering on the lads as ever to the end. I got to the ground and my seat was in block 127 of the Colin Bell Stand, where I had an excellent view of the pitch but with the seat next to the Tunnel Club VIP area, with fans mingling on the pitch before the game and seeing Jamie Carragher too.
The crowd roared as Manchester City came out and Liverpool really did have their fans behind them with a full crowd coming from their end. Both fans shared a banner to stay to stop exploiting fans, this was a unified front from both to stop ticket price rises and make football more affordable (and with kick off times at sensible hours please, that would be good.) and then the teams came out. I was a little concerned but the wing play from Jeremy Doku and Savinho may be enough to trouble Liverpool, and with Omar Marmoush up front after his hat trick against Newcastle Unitedlast week. We shall see.
City did attack reasonably well but the defensive wall of the Liverpool captain Virgil van Dijk with his team mate Ibrahim Kounate next to him did prove to be resolute, and no way were we getting past them easily. There were some chances at each end but from a corner, Liverpool played it short and laid it into the centre of the box for who else but Mo Salah to score, and that's 1-0 to Liverpool. Not unexpected and as much as City tried that half, it was only a matter of time that Salah would head down the right, put the ball in the middle and Dominik Szoboszlai would score for 2-0.
Try as City might during the second half, nothing was doing and even a couple of chances hit on target were straight at the keeper Allison. Liverpool almost scored a third but their goal was offside, and we did have a Marmoush shot disallowed (correctly I should add) for offside in the first half, so swings and roundabouts. Oddly I wasn't that disappointed, daft as it may sound. I was fearing a thrashing but it was a professional performance from Liverpool and when they do win the league this season, I have to say it will be deserved, they have played the best this season no doubt. Tune of the day is quite apt really: Disappointed by Morrissey. Sums it up...
Saturday 22nd February - Bouncing!
It was nice to have come up on the train last night ready for a lovely weekend with The Love In My Heart, and more so because I did the Seatfrog upgrade to first class and had won the auction early - which meant I could use the lounge as well as later on having carriage K to myself and enjoying a lovely evening meal including dessert and some beer from the Bowland Brewery as well. That was what I called a result, and best of all the beer I had brought with me had survived the journey so that was good too.
It was an early rise for The Love and myself though, as it was off to Bounce Central which is in Pendlebury, as the place had been booked for a birthday party for family and friends of Little Miss E, whose birthday it was yesterday. She was happy with the present I got for her and was really happy to see me and Nana today. Naturally having friends and family relations with her meant she was all raring to go, but the good thing about the place is that they make sure they get all the kids to sit and make sure they watch the safety briefing first, which to be fair was good to see - and they all were watching glued and understanding before being escorted on.
The place effectively has lots of trampolines and soft play type cushions between, so you can bounce around or just bounce in the same place, with also a soft play area for the more little ones and indeed a soft play type castle on two levels to explore too. They all also get a pair of grip socks to wear so that they don't slip whilst playing (and they get to keep them) which just adds nicely to the experience to be honest. I also love that they even get a little bit of a tune where you can sing Happy Birthday whilst they play - and the café area is upstairs which overlooks the play area, so you can watch and natter at the same time.
It definitely was all good as I got a few coffees and we were able to chatter, and for some of Little Miss E's family, it was nice to chat to some of those and be able to divulge some useful train info for one of them - as she is a teacher she does get teacher discounts on Avanti West Coast, meaning trains for £25 or so which in a lot of cases may be considerably cheaper - it's the same for one of The Love's nieces who works in a school also, so always happy to spread the word and save a few quid of course.
Later on after the little ones had some nice chicken nuggets and chips with some music playing along, which was quite nice, we all headed off back towards Little Miss E's house. In fact she insisted on coming with Nana in her car, so she sat in the child seat and was happily spotting bee buses ahead of me and enjoying her little self, which was lovely. Once back at the house, there was plenty for the younger relations to do, with the front room having a nice Trolls themed little area for them all (they had balloons of Poppy Troll as well in the Bounce Central) and it was nice to sit and chatter.
Of course, Little Miss O was being utterly adorable all day with her many smiles and giggles being a real highlight. Lots of happy faces and generally just having lots of attention, and even playing with her new activity table and sorting out the shapes. In fact she had a number of us all wanting to help her with that and be all playful, so that was good. There were nibbles for everyone and the time sped by really quickly, it has to be said, and that was a lovely day all told. Tune of the day is of course a kids' tv theme, and Gabby's Doll House at that, which Little Miss E adores, so why the hell not?
Tuesday 18th February - Hoxton Home
It was off to the office in Hoxton today, primarily to make sure I could account for some of the kit in there and do some checks, but also to make sure we had enough in that office too. For safety reasons we have a minimum in there which does mean some careful planning to be in the office of course, and that does also mean that I can work around with some of the other people to ensure we have the right numbers. It's also a much easier commute on the Overground from my place to there too, and that really does help with the fact I can get up a little later in the morning and arrive back a little earlier too.
I got to the office and all was well and toasty and warm, which was really good. I managed to work out which crates in one of the arches had the kit in, so managed to get all of that catalogued as well. I think from what it sounded like, we may need it for later in the year but good to know what we actually have so we can prepare a bit more as well. I also was able to effectively check on some issues and noted I had to report one of my own - as it seems a web add-in for Outlook has been distributed without suitable knowledge. Hmm.
We also needed to reconfigure a Google Nest / Home device which was going to be present at one of the events. Once we found the way to reset it, and use the Google Home app to connect to the device, we could either send music to it or ask it to play certain songs. In fact I'd asked it to play I Could Be So Good For You by Dennis Waterman (the Minder theme tune of course, write the theme toon, sing the theme toon etc) - and after that it ended up playing Rabbit by Chas and Dave, so tune of the day there and that certainly made us all laugh as I belted out "with your incessant talking!" at the right point. Well, it's a belter.
We did head out at lunch time to the local proper pie and mash shop. What we didn't realise was that they do actually do take out, so that meant we could head back to the warm office with our pie and mash (and liquor if you so wanted) and that proved to be tasty and warming all round, so definitely the right decision for us to have that methinks. The afternoon was spent with some additional stock checks and also making sure that I had something else prepped for documentation, as well as sorting out what the plan might be for a future event accordingly.
With that all done, I headed home and later on watched the F1 75 celebration event at the O2 in London, thanks to the sensible move of the F1 Youtube channel to show the whole thing for free online. The ten teams, in reverse finishing order of the teams' championship, came out with their new cars and drivers. It was noticeable that Christian Horner, Red Bull team principal, was roundly booed and that contrasted to massive cheers for Sir Lewis Hamilton with the Ferrari team and to a lesser extent Lando Norris with the McLaren. It seemed pretty slick but not sure why they needed to close the show with Take That though..
Sunday 16th February - Super Duper
The Love In My Heart and I woke up relatively early this morning, primarily for one main reason - that we might be able to meet up in town with some of her family and that would mean time with Little Miss E and Little Miss O. Ah yes, those that I previously referenced as The Cute Little One and The Cute Tiny One respectively. Both of them are growing quicker these days, so and as a nod to the Mr Men and Little Miss books, a slight change needed. Of course, if I was one of those characters, I'd probably be Mr Daydream as I loved that particular book when I was younger.
Anyway, sure enough, The Love got the message, and so it was up and being ready in good time. The Love did have to wait for something this morning, so couldn't leave straight off, but that gave me time to get everything packed as my train home was back to normal times today following the strike suspensions (thankfullly!) We were soon on the tram and heading to Manchester City centre, and would walk down Market Street and towards Exchnage Square, where Little Miss E and Little Miss O were with their parents, and having been already to the Printworks, were having fun.
It was all part of a half term event in the city centre called Super Duper, which had various places where you could go with your children and have all sorts of activities, including some quieter spaces and also plenty to make and do. In fact in Exchange Square, Lush had a stand where you could make your own bath bomb, so Little Miss E and The Love did that together. Let's just say they were glad to have some blue gloves on whilst sorting that out, and you can then take the bath bomb home to set and have fun times. The activity was £6 per child, but the bath bomb would be around £4 or £5 in Lush anyway, so not too bad really.
Later on after passing down New Cathedral Street, we decided that lunch in Pizza Hut was going to be on. They now do lunchtime buffet on a Sunday so that was me and The Love sorted, and they had a voucher so Little Miss E's kids buffer was free. It was all nice and we all enjoyed the food, especially the nice hot cheese and broccoli pasta and for me the barbecue chicken pizza also. Little Miss O was more than happy to munch on the outer pizza crusts and when I came back from the buffer section, she was gleefully eyeing up the plate from the armachair and being all cute. Awww.
With lunch consumed we headed down toward St Ann's Square and we did notice a carousel ride. Little Miss E fancied going on it but wanted to go on the sleighs and not the horses, so her Daddy spotted where they were and once the ride was opened for the next set of people (free to ride as well) they managed to get round the back and grab a coveted sleigh spot, and she was happily blowing kisses to her Mummy and Nana, which made The Love feel rather happy too - so that was good.
We then headed via King Street and spotted a place for you to have a picture under a chandelier and that was all funky, in fact the four pictures were emailed. The one with Little Miss E being lifted upside down ad giggling is an absolute hoot, and made it all the more lovely. We also went to Great Northern and that had table tennis tables, racing games and all sorts, and also a little play area for little ones, so Little Miss O went in with The Love and had a whale of a time sat down playing with toys and being oh so adorably cute. The time whizzed by and it was soon time to say some very fond farewells.
The Love and I had time for a drink before I got the train home and so we went to Port Street Beer House where a dark mild beer was mine to be had, and that was gorgeous. We had a good chat and there were some cracking tunes on - including Our House by Madness, and the superlative Lullaby by The Cure - tune of the day without a doubt. The time had gone by much too fast and before long I was giving The Love a massive hug and kiss goodbye at Piccadilly station, where my train home (for once) was actually on time. Woohoo!
Saturday 15th February - Marmoushka, Ay-Ay!
After heading up on the train from London yesterday evening, and was able to swap Valentine's cards with The Love In My Heart (which is what we do, no need to go overboard love should be 365 days a year) and chill out with a bit of telly last night, we were due a delivery from the folks at ao.com today - namely The Love's new oven. Her old one which she had for a long time finally gave up the ghost, and after some checking we came across a nice Bosch one which looked like it'd do the business, and based on where the plug socket is, had a long enough cable to reach. An increasing number of ovens now come with a cable and moulded plug on the end, meaning you can plug in without the need for any rewiring or electrician to do it at extra cost.
We had a note of the delivery time and indeed The Love had paid for the old one to be taken away and recycled, so all good there. Sure enough, a van turned up in good time with the two people to lift and shift, and were really good and friendly dropping it off. And to be fair, the customer service that had been provided to The Love when she needed to check some of the dimensions or make sure that (and something they've taken on board) that the power cable is long enough. I ended up checking the manufacturer's site to be sure, which did have it on, but always useful to know as much as possible beforehand.
With all of that sorted and all plugged in and ready for some nice tea later on, it was time for me to head over tot the Etihad and watch Manchester City's game against Newcastle United. Admittedly, I had been a bit gutted about our late loss to Real Madrid in the week and with the Barcodes doing reasonably well as of late with Alexander Isak on good scoring form, I was concerned. I got into the North Stand, had my customary drink before the game, and was ready to see what would happen. We all cheered the lads out and I was hoping for any sort of win to take to Madrid on Wednesday.
City pressed forward well but already the side looked more balanced, with John Stones being super impressive at the back, helping out Abdukodir Khusanov, who had a solid game and definitely benefitted from having experience close by to call on. Nico Gonzalez in midfield definitely added some steel and his spotting and breaking down of Newcastle's attacks was seen by us all to be a good thing. Ederson cleared the ball long and it was a perfect pass to Omar Marmoush, who skipped past Kieran Tripper and lobbed the ball superbly over the incoming Martin Dubravaka for the opening goal. Nice.
Even nicer was a few minutes later as the ball was played forward and found Ilkay Gundogan in acres of space. He ran forward and slotted the ball perfectly on to Omar Marmoush who cut inside and shot low and hard into the bottom corner, and whilst it did take a slight deflection, it was going in anyway and that meant it was 2-0 to City. And even better was to come as a hat trick for Marmoush was completed in fourteen minutes from first to last - Savinho went well down the right hand side and cut the ball across superbly for Marmoush to whack it home from ten yards or so. 3-0 at half time, first half hat-trick, and all looking a lot more positive than it had been previously.
The second half was a much slower paced affair with both teams making changes and bringing on substitutes. Sensibly we took off Marmoush (with some City fans singing a chant about him to Kate Bush's Baboushka, make that tune of the day) and as the game wore on, City got a corner. From the corner there was a near post headed flick on from Erling Haaland which found James McAtee to hit home from close range. 4-0 is what it finished and definitely for me a much welcome result all round. I have to say that we played a lot better than recent weeks and that might hopefully bode well for the FA Cup run we can hopefully have later in the season.
Back at The Love's place later, we had tea and it was rather gorgeous all round, a delightful coq au vin complete with gorgeous sauce, mushrooms and carrots, and some roast potatoes which were really crispy too, so the new oven was doing its business nicely. In fact we settled in and watched a programme about the legacy of the Bridget Jones films (which The Love adores of course) - and naturally I've spotted a few of the filming locations around London. I suspect at some point we'll see the fourth film as it came out in the UK over this weekend...
Wednesday 12th February - Hoxton Hoedown
It was off to our office in Hoxton today and that is the one we have underneath the railway arches. It's become quite an iconic place for some of us to be based at, not least when we're doing necessary preparation for events and ensuring everything ticks over well. Since I'd been there before Christmas there were some improvements made - and one of them means a nice warm toasty office in the main of the three arches. This really does give it more comfort for all and we all really do now have that nice feeling of keeping cosy.
I got to the office first and opened up, and two of our temporary staff arrived with a colleague later on, so was good to be able to see them and get their reactions to the place. I had another member of staff come in and she wanted a few things to be checked over where possible, so was able to at least get some of those all ticked off, including one of their specialist printers which they use - and we found that after the refurb, one of the contractors had left all the network cables loose so managed to sort it so printing and scanning was working correctly as intended, which was a positive thing overall.
It was also good to be able to get several things sorted today too - so as I needed to update one of our Windows build images and needed to run the task sequence to create the WIM, I usually use a Hyper-V machine on the laptop to get it done. I can't do it on the new device (new company policy apparently, there's requests for Windows 365 virtual hosts instead) and so because I know the old process works, commandeered an older laptop and got that set up, and could run the updated task sequence to create it. Worked first go as I expected and shows just how much I still have it.
With that done, the day went really well. The journey home however did not. I got to the station and my train to West Croydon had been cancelled. I walked up the road to Haggerston station to start from there (so got a good little walk in and also minimised the next train wait.) Then when I got on that, it was understandably busy and especially so at Canada Water. By the time it got to Sydenham I knew something was amiss and sure enough the driver decided it was going to Crystal Palace instead, so you'd get off here and wait for the next train. With one cancelled and one curtailed on this route, didn't chance it, and at Crystal Palace changed for the Southern train to West Croydon - job done but later than expected.
I did have a delivery on Monday from Chalkys, which was the new Dream Theater album Parasomnia, and the whole album has themes about sleep and nightmares which really does come across well. Of course I still absolutely adore Night Terror, but what is becoming another firm favourite is Midnight Messiah (make it tune of the day) with several tempo changes and also some stunning drums from Mike Portnoy, with the speed guitar parts also really hitting the mark ever so well. It's so good to hear the band back on such good form and it shows how much Mike Portnoy was missed, and as good as Mike Mangini was, and a superb drummer in his own right, there's something about some musicians being a perfect fit for the band.
Talking of perfect fits, David Moyes and Everton. It just works. There's something about him being there which has galvanised that club and they earned a hard fought 2-2 draw in the Merseyside derby with James Tarkowski showing captain's grit and determination by blasting home the equaliser in stoppage time. Mayhem at the final whistle though as Abdoulaye Docoure decided to go and wind up the Liverpool fans, end up in a scrap with Curtis Jones and both of them having a second yellow and therefore red card - and Liverpool manager Arne Slot also being sent off too. Mayhem but in all that, the spirit and fight Everton have under Moyes - night and day compared to the useless Sean Dyche.
Sunday 9th February - Sunday Roast and Ale
It was nice to have a bit more of a lie in this morning, as Brian the cat decided that snuggling at the end of the bed and having the odd tummy tickle from his Mummy was a good thing. He is adorable when he does that, as he stretches and just looks at Mummy all cute. Once we did get up and have some bacon muffins for breakfast, it was time to get ourselves ready and out for later on. I would have been getting the train later today normally but due to the strikes on Avanti Worst Coast that isn't happening, and so am working from The Love's place tomorrow - thankfully I still have that option.
We had arranged to meet up with a couple of friends for a Sunday roast and a few drinks - and would be good to see them both as we'd not got together since between Christmas and New Year (or Betwixmas as we call it.) Our usual meeting spot of Fierce Beer had of course closed down which was a shame. In any case we met up later on, but before we did The Love In My Heart and I headed into the city centre and had a good mooch around the shops, and got a birthday present in good time as well.
We walked over to Terrace and met our friends in there - and we did note that the Titanic Plum Porter was on cask in there, so we'd definitely need to head over there later and enjoy that for definite. I did have the Vocation Bread and Butter ale and that was pretty nice all told (had it before) so all was good. One of our friends had landed a new job and so was pleased to hear him talk about that too - definitely sounds a positive move all told and I kind of wish on occasion that would happen to me as well.
Anyway, we headed to Smithfield Social for the Sunday roast in there. Their vegan option is a mushroom wellington which really does go down well with all the trimmings, and one of our friends had that - with two of us having the pork which looked gorgeous (almost tempted to have it myself) and I had the roast beef, which was still a little pink in the middle - I don't mind it that way but others do. They also had the Shindigger Mango Unchained ale which is pretty light and refreshing an went surprisingly well with the roast to be fair.
After that it was a walk over to Port Street Beer House to indulge in some lovely ale, and that included a nice dark mild from a local brewery. It was noted they were shutting early tonight and by the looks of it doing a refurb of the flooring with a contractor's van outside ready to crack on later. I did also try out a really nice session ale too even though Thornbridge Jaipur was on cask and very tempting indeed, before we went back to Terrace, two of us had the Titanic Plum Porter and all was very well the world. Somehow it was just all lovely, and somehow Queen's Lazing on a Sunday Afternoon was in my head, so tune of the day right there (along with Everything is Awesome by Tegan and Sara, because Lego)
Saturday 8th February - Oriental Escape
It was a relatively early rise for myself and The Love In My Heart, not least due to Brian the cat, who insisted on getting up early and having his quota of food and Dreamies really early on. It was hard to get back to sleep after that I admit, but I guess he's used to getting up with his Mummy early during the week, and explaining to a cat the concept of times and weekends being different might be a bit lost. He does however always snuggle back up to his Mummy if needed - say if I get up and The Love heads back to bed, he is right on it - as you would expect of course.
So with that in mind, I had some breakfast and settled in for the lunch time game in the FA Cup, as this one affected my team - yes it was Manchester City away at Leyton Orient. Now I'd been to Brisbane Road a couple of times last season to see the women play Tottenham Women there (I refuse to call it the Gaughan Group Stadium on principle) and it's a proper ground surrounded by housing - more so these days as there are some blocks of flats on two of corners and if you're on the balcony you can see inside the ground and pretty much watch the game for free. Naturally as you might expect, these balconies were busier today.
Manchester City were okay in the first half, but pressing without an end product. Leyton Orient already had two good chances early on but then after a midfield battle where the ball was won off our new signing Nico Gonzalez, the ball broke to Jamie Donley, who saw Stefan Ortega off his line. He tried an audacious chip which hit the bar, bounced down and cannoned back in off the back of Ortega. Donley deserved massive credit and the goal to be fair, especially for giving it a go, but it went down as an Ortega own goal. What a moment for Leyton Orient though and fully deserved.
City already had to bring off Nico Gonzalez for Bernardo Silva not long after that, and at half time two more changes were made with John Stones coming on for Ruben Dias and Abdukhadir Khusanov on for Vitor Reis. That proved to be an inspired move as a short corner from City went to Jack Grealish, and he found Rico Lewis from the edge of the box. Lewis shot, the ball cannoned off the back of Khusanov on the way and into the net - granted, a fortunate deflection but when you see it on the replay, Khusanov was very clever in the way he turned his back to the ball to help direct it on.
City pressed onwards although Leyton Orient were still dangerous, and sure enough they had a few good chances which weren't taken. Kevin de Bruyne and Phil Foden had come on by this point, and a lovely through ball from Jack Grealish found de Bruyne who managed to get ahead of their keeper Josh Keeley (who'd had a decent game to be fair) and slotted it home for what was to prove to be the winner, thankfully. We only just saw it out and a late free kick was headed wide when the goal was gaping, so we in the style of the Electronic classic (and tune of the day) Getting Away With It - and that was an understatement.
Sunday 2nd February - Chiswick Chilling
I decided this morning that it might be a nice idea to head out to a car boot sale. I hadn't done one for a while and it is always good to see what people do have for sale, and may even locate a bargain on occasion too. I had been wanting to go to the one at Chiswick for some time but it is usually on the first Sunday of the month (excluding January) and that doesn't always coincide with me being here, but on this occasion, well it did. I knew that the trains were also not that regular on that route on a Sunday and had an idea as to which way to go from the station, so after having some breakfast, it was time to set off.
I got to Clapham Junction for the second day on the bounce and this time over to Platform 5 for the train to Chiswick (which would go on to Woking via Brentford and Staines.) and that was relatively fine, although it seemed to wait at Barnes for a few minutes, despite no train heading the other way. Anyway, from there it was a short walk along Burlington Lane and turning right for the school. In hindsight had I known there was a second entrance further down that lane, I could have gone straight on (noted for reference) and paid the £1 entrance fee and started to look around.
The website had already noted that the field at the front could not be used, so the sellers were crammed into any playground and hard standing space possible. This did work well and I was able to get around perfectly fine without any issues. There was also a food truck serving breakfast items and also burgers if you fancied one, as well as coffee. I did note some rather cute ornamental cats but decided against them as they would be (as The Love In My Heart would say) dust collectors, and I do like the fact the flat these days is fairly minimal of ornaments now.
Still, that was enjoyable enough to walk around, and as I was here, I headed through the Burlington Gate and into Chiswick House's large gardens. That was quite nice actually as one path took me along towards the Classic Bridge (which was steep either side to get over the lake) - and I then followed the lake along with the morning sun reflecting the house in the water really nicely. Outside the house itself there was a small market with some gazebos and just to the right, the café, where I had a well earned coffee inside to relax the soul.
Afterwards I took more of a walk around the gardens, heading past the Italian Garden and conservatory before heading out towards Park Road and back to Chiswick Station. As there was no train for some time I decided to walk the path I had seen on the map which would take me virtually alongside the railway all the way to the River Thames (and I do remember this part of the North Bank of the Thames Path) before heading on the pedestrian crossing on Barnes Bridge (next to the railway) and heading over to that station to get the train later on - that worked out pretty well and meant I'd walked another three and a half miles or so at least today. Good going all round really.
I did keep an eye on the afternoon's sport too, with Manchester City's women losing 4-3 to Arsenal and didn't help themselves going two down in eight minutes either. BBC Two had Chelsea playing Aston Villa away, and to be fair Villa acquited themselves well and only an own goal proved the difference - heart for the new Villa women's manager to take from that. City's men virtually copied the women by conceding early on and eventually would go on to lose that game, albeit by a rather heavier scoreline - 5-1. It's another painful lesson in that we cannot keep playing Matheus Nunes at right back and expect to get away with it (cue Electronic classic Getting Away With It being tune of the day.)
Saturday 1st February - Walking The River
This weekend would have been a weekend where The Love In My Heart would have come down to see me, and we'd have a lovely time. However, because of the train strikes on Avanti West Coast, realistically she would not be able to go back on the Sunday unless it was really early in the day, and staying until the Monday isn't an option because her work requires her to be physically present, so no can do there. In the end she did manage to get a refund for her train tickets at least, but still, would have been nice to see her. The main consolation she did have is that The Cute Little One was going to stop over, so she would have lots of fun there (and indeed she asked where I was, which was lovely.)
With that in mind and with the recent stormy weather meaning countryside walks might not be the best idea due to lots of sodden ground and mud (or else the next section of the Vanguard Way may have been considered) I instead went back to the South Bank of the Thames Path. I had done sections 1a to 1d back in late 2023, and really wanted to get back to doing that. The advantage is that it's almost all on hard standing paths so no mud to speak of, and this did mean that the next section (2) is around six miles or so, so a good distance to go and see how the legs handle it.
I got the train to Clapham Junction and changed there for the 170 bus, as the signage from TfL appeared to indicate that the stop by Battersea Bridge was closed, and as that head across and then right to the Albert Bridge, that made sense. Sod's law was a temporary bus stop was in place a Battersea, but hey ho. Still made sense anyway to walk over Albert Bridge to the start of the walk and then of course see all the park runners doing their weekly run around Battersea Park. I did of course walk past the peace pagoda which looks out to to the river, and before long I was heading under Chelsea Bridge and indeed the railway bridge.
It was on to Battersea Power Station, which had a light exhibition on and the one with the yarn by the front was pretty good. Upon leaving there, a diversionary route was on because of works around by the Thames, so managed to pick it back up close to Nine Elms (with its posh Waitrose) and follow the river by the wharf close to Vauxhall before then crossing the road close to the bus station, and again, due to the extended sewer works close to the river, had to walk down the main road before joining the Albert Embankment.
It was onwards past the old fire brigade headquarters and over Lambeth Bridge and past Lambeth Palace that it was on to the National Covid Memorial Wall. I must admit I did feel a tinge of sadness here with so many hearts hand painted, each one representing a life lost, and with messges from some families inside the hearts. It is a stark reminder of the time gone by and a moment to pause here felt the right thing to do. Once done, I passed the millions of tourists by the London Eye, and carried on down the South Bank past the Southbank Centre and the National Theatre.
I had walked this section many a time, not least with The Love In My Heart anyway, so it was more than familiar heading past Shakespeare's Globe, around past the Golden Hinde, under London Bridge and along past Hay's Galleria and past City Hall towards Tower Bridge. Six miles completed in around two hours and the latter part way more touristy of course. The next section pretty much mirrors what I did for the Jubilee Greenway in the reverse direction, so that might be interesting how I decide to handle that in the end.
I headed towards the railway arches from Tower Bridge and turned right, and headed over to Hop King. I'd not been in there for ages and the vibe is still very good - effectively a skate park with a pub bar area too. These days you get charged £5 but the first drink is free - and their pale ale is a very good and solid pint at that. I had a nice relaxing drink with the skateboarders doing their thing on the ramps and street ledges, and all of them ensuring no drinks were taken into those areas and being respectful. Naturally I had Suicidal Tendencies' iconic Possessed to Skate in the head (make that tune of the day) and that was all good to relax in there.
On the way home I did decide to go a different way, so did London Bridge to Waterloo East, walked to Waterloo, got the train to Clapham Junction and changed there to get the one to Wandsworth Common for the Belleville Brewery. I did fancy to see if they still had their Pret a Porter ale there as that's rather lovely. They didn't have that but the Southie Stout was on of theirs which is rather nice, so treated myself to that - and well why not? So that was a good way to relax during the afternoon, and headed home later all definitely feeling better for the good walk. You can see how I got on with the camera here, should you wish to.