Dear Diary... September 2024
Sunday 29th September - Strictly Sunday
I got up and saw most of Match of the Day on catch up including Manchester City's draw at Newcastle United, whilst I gave The Love In My Heart some extra time to have some sleep. She hadn't had that much lately because of Tabby Cat coming and disturbing Brian the cat (which then means she has to wake up and keep Brian happy and not stressed) so I always like to give her that time to snooze for a bit longer. Once she awoke, I made us a coffee and started on the breakfast, and picked up where we left off on Strictly Come Dancing from last night so we could see what happened.
I have to say that for me there were two stand out couples, Tasha and Aljaz with their Viennese Waltz were elegant and classy, which The Love agreed with, and also at the end Sarah and Vito doing their Paso Doble to Free From Desire by Gala (cue me singing "Haaland's on fire, your defence is terrified", obviously), with the start being slow and then speeding up to get all the drama in. They did really well and no surprise those two were amongst the highest scorers of the night. I did think Toyah and Neil would be in the dance off though, but who knows how the public vote would go?
We had a really lovely breakfast whilst watching Strictly, and then got ourselves showered and changed and ready to head out later. I did see the first half of Manchester City's women versus Brighton, and saw Bunny Shaw score the opener (and what would prove to be the winner) before we were heading back into central London. We knew that the trains to St Pancras were diverted between East Croydon and Blackfriars and would take longer, and also wanted to go in some of the shops in St Pancras before having our lunch in the Betjeman Arms there.
It was nice to walk around the shops and indeed see what people might be tempted to get before boarding their Eurostar trains to mainland Europe. Naturally the toys in Hamleys weren't cheap, and the books in Hatchards were pretty good for all ages (which appear to be part of Waterstones now as when we walked past the tills, customers were asked if they had a Waterstones loyalty card.) It was nice to mooch around there for a while but because the lift was out of order, we had to divert out onto Euston Road and then back up past the posh hotel entrance and on to the pub.
We had a table booked in their lovely dining area with the big windows overlooking the views down to Kings Cross, and when we looked at the menu we noticed a sharing Sunday Roast, where you got beef, pork and chicken along with all the trimmings for two people, so we decided to share that. It was a really good move, the chicken was lovely and moist and just right with the gravy, and the pork and beef were also good. That came with Yorkshire puddings, carrots, roasties, mixed vegetables and a jug of gravy each, so well presented and so nice, and we enjoyed it in there a lot.
We walked back to the Captain Flinders pub near Euston and had a drink in there (so we were nearer the station in case of train issues) - all was good though and we headed towards the right platform in Euston for us to say our fond farewells and for The Love to head home on the 1732 train back. I walked back to St Pancras and heard some fans celebrating as I walked past one pub, and with good reason - Tottenham had gone 2-0 up against Manchester United, a game they would win 3-0, which naturally made me very happy indeed. In fact I had Chas and Dave in my head (as they were big fans of the club) and so Rabbit is tune of the day.
Saturday 28th September - Hoxton Highlights
It was nice to be able to relax and get things sorted in the flat this morning, in preparation for The Love In My Heart coming later on. I had done almost all the cleaning, so it was a case of changing the bedding, putting the other bedding in the wash, ironing any clothes needed, and sorting out a few bits. It didn't take that long so it meant I had some time to watch the Manchester City early kick off at Newcastle United. In truth that was not such a good game and although City did take the lead through Josko Gvardiol, Newcastle pressed second half and got a penalty, from which Anthony Gordon scored, and 1-1 at the end. A point earned but we didn't look our usual selves either.
By this time The Love had made it to Euston and to Victoria, and so went to East Croydon station to meet her off the train. It was of course lovely to see her, having missed her a fair bit as I was away with friends last week, and we soon were back at my place having a well earned coffee before heading out for the evening. Our plan did have to slightly change though due to a signalling issue between Norwood Junction and West Croydon, meaning the Overground train we would have got was going to be cancelled. Luckily I had Plan B which did mean we needed to leave a little earlier.
So that was invoked: we would do East Croydon to Clapham Junction and then from there take the Overground which goes via Denmark Hill and Peckham Rye to Surrey Quays, and although that did take a little longer, we were moving and it was good to see the line take in the high view over Brixton as well as the crossover just south of Loughborough Junction on the way to Denmark Hill. All was well and we got to Hoxton in good time for The Love's niece and her partner to meet us at 6pm, where a few drinks and an evening meal were planned together.
First of all, it was off to Molly's, which is the café and bar that is owned by the Museum of the Home. I'd not been in there since it reopened, but we all agreed it was ace. We got a nice comfy table and chairs, the vibe was spot on with music not being too loud, and they have beer from the Two Tribes Brewery (local) to drink too. I had their Metroland session beer which I've had before, and it's sound, and the remainder had the helles lager which was spot on too. It was really nice to catch up and natter too, and the time was going by nicely. In fact with the brewery in mind I had Two Tribes by Frankie Goes To Hollywood in my head, so tune of the day for that one.
We headed across the way to Brewhouse Bar and Kitchen where I'd reserved a table for the four of us, which was a wise move as it was very busy indeed. We had a nice table close to the window looking outside and were able to natter with the music not being too loud either which was a good thing. We ordered some drinks (I had the Starkeys Bitter which was brewed on site, nice) and the two ladies shared a bottle of wine. Conversation and drinks flowed, and although they had taken some time to get the food sorted, what we had was very good: I and The Love's niece had the fish and chips - spot on, The Love had the chicken schnitzel, also really good, and the niece's boyfriend had the currywurst as part of the extra Oktoberfest specials, and that also seemed to be spot on too.
We were going to head to the local tap room round the corner (Great Beyond Brewery) but they were closed for a private function, so instead after heading under railway bridges, we went to Dream Bags Jaguar Shoes instead. The unusual name is from the shop fronts of the former shops that occupied the premises, and they kept the signage above. They do their own beers too which is excellent value: the Milk lager is £5.60 whilst the Dark Milk stout, creamy and full of flavour, wasn't much more than that either.
We had a couple of drinks in there with music playing below, appeared to be some sort of gig on as the downstairs part can be used for a gig venue, but it was all lovely and we had plenty of time to chatter away about all sorts which was lovely. We said our farewells later and timed it almost to perfection as The Love and I got the 149 bus to London Bridge and then the train home to East Croydon from there, getting back around 11.30 in the end, and spending some time watching a little bit of Strictly Come Dancing on catch up, where we enjoyed the first few couples before bedtime.
Sunday 22nd September - Homeward Bound
It was a nice sleep that I'd had at my friend's place, and once the four of us were all up, and I'd got myself ready for the day, it was good to enjoy some more sausage baps for breakfast along with an orange juice. We had also been watching the EFL football highlights which as well as seeing our friends' teams had also seen some spectacular own goals along the way, which definitely has to be worthy of note. The time had gone by far too quickly and by the time I was walking back to the metro station, I did feel really sad.
Once on the Metro, I got to Newcastle's central station and noted that the Lumo service I was taking to London Kings Cross (as it was way cheaper) was from Platform 1, and this was non stop all the way into London too, so a trip to Sainsburys to get a meal deal for lunch was sensible, along with a check where Platform 1 was, and found it, with a number of people waiting to get on. Thankfully I knew where abouts coach D would come in at, and so made it and on to my window seat (proper window view, yes) with no issue and had the luggage all sorted in the rack above.
The journey was, I have to say, pretty comfortable, even with every seat taken and with people sat next to me. I did note that the staff were very attentive, doing a full ticket check, and also once that was done, coming down with a trolley of light refreshments, coffee, and beer as well as wine. I didn't need anything but for those that did, they were really good. No sandwiches etc though, if you want those, it is the Lumo Eats app before you depart and get those pre-ordered, which sounds a good idea but it is actually quite expensive when you work it all out. But still, all was good and had the iPod on playing tunes such as the lovely Trans-Europa Express by Kraftwerk as the train hurtled along, so tune of the day.
I got back to Kings Cross on time but I did know there were no trains from St Pancras home, so instead I walked along Pentonville Road and timed it perfectly to get the number 17 bus to London Bridge bus station, from where I entered the train station and got the fast train down the line to East Croydon. As a result, I had left Newcastle at 1209 on Lumo and was back at mine at around 1555, which wasn't too bad at all considering a bus was involved there!
After chatting with The Love In My Heart, I kept my eye on the audio commentary (and would watch the highlights later) of Manchester CIty v Arsenal at the Etihad. Naturally I was happy seeing Erling Haaland score his 100th City goal but then we sort of collapsed defensively and gave away two goals badly before Leandro Trossard got sent off for a second bookable offence right on half time, which was a poor decision to be honest, more so as he could have been booked for a foul on Bernardo Silva anyway, but also glad it was him as he's a bit of a nonce anyway.
City pressed and pressed but full credit to Arsenal, they held firm with David Raya on inspired form. That was until the 98th minute and deep into stoppage time. A short corner found Jack Grealish, his ball in caused some chaos and up popped John Stones to rifle one in with a deflection. 2-2! We had earned a point the hard way but would definitely take that in the grand scheme of things, and showed real spirit and fire to come back. Arsenal's time wasting (and the fact one of their subs told David Raya to go down and waste time) may get an FA disciplinary charge, but their own wasting meant we had time to score the equaliser. Still, both teams will be up there at the end of the season I think...
Saturday 21st September - Jarrow Weekender, Day Two
We had all had a good night's sleep and it was nice to wake up, have a shower and get myself ready for the day. My friend's place has two bedrooms and managed to get two beds into the second bedroom so two of the friends stayed there, and I took the option of the large corner sofa, which had really comfy cushioining plus a duvet and some pillows. That worked nicely especially as if I laid one way it would mean I had a little bit longer room to sit and relax at too, so that was a big plus really.
We soon had some breakfast and it was nice to have some sausage barms with the sausages via an air fryer. They did taste pretty good so was pleased with how they turned out, and that and an orange juice was perfect to keep us going during the morning. We had also got the TV stuff sorted out so that Sky Sports News was on in the background and could check the team news and so on for today's fixtures, as all three of my friends had games for their teams on today and would be keeping an eye on those during the day as we were heading out about.
We did have bowling booked at Dunes in South Shields by the coast, and as it turned out my friend had managed to get a good offer code in so that the bowling was a mere £8 per person for two games instead of almost double that - what a great move! So we took the Metro to South Shields, walked down Ocean Road and past where we had curry the night before, then went to Dunes. The staff were really helpful and got us sorted in lane five, and for once, hurrah, no cosmic bowling rubbish with all the lights, just straightforward proper bowling (albeit with the pins on strings, something we all dislike!)
The two games went by pretty quickly to be honest, and it was good that we were all on decent form with strikes and spares happening. I did find a ball I was comfortable with, the 10 medium, and that really did do the business with some consistency, and making my spares and strikes count afterwards was what edged the first game over my friend from Doncaster - but there had been some excellent bowling from us all. That got even better in the second game where I only just scraped the win against our host primarily because he missed on the second attempt to get the pins down. We had all played well and finished our drinks in the bar keeping an eye on the Sunderland-Middlesbrough game.
As we got back to the Metro station we saw a lot of delays so we veered off to a pub near the station which was nice enough and we got a half in there as we enjoyed the more laid back vibe, with even some old classic songs being played such as Love You Til Tuesday, a very early David Bowie number, so tune of the day for me that one. We got back to the Metro and a considerable number of people were waiting for it, and some looked ready to hit the town for the rest of the day, so was pretty busy all the way in.
We got off at central station and were soon taking a little walk over to Forth, which has a nice little hidden beer terrace upstairs. They also had the Titanic Plum Porter so that was a win for two of us, and we were able to relax up there in the fresh air with some nice beers all round. To be honest, I could have stayed there all day, but we were then heading over to Tilleys Bar. This had some good beers on (and Plum Porter again) but also had a Czech lager which two of us tried, and I went for a Tiny Rebel session. This was pretty good as we could see the football scores, so Barrow won 2-0 and went top of League Two on goals scored, Doncaster got a 1-1 draw at Franchise FC despite being down to ten men, and we already knew Sunderland had won 1-0, so a good football day all round.
It was then to the Head of Steam close to the train station, and managed to get a cosy slot upstairs for the four of us. I did see that they had Vault City sour beers, so treated myself to the rhubard and custard sour, which did what it said on the tin nicely! In fact, there was an excellent stout our friend and host had, as well as some Belgian beers and also some German beers, so everyone was catered for nicely. The vibe was very nice in here to be honest, and again, I could have stayed for more here no question. The night was starting to get livelier and we could see plenty making their way down to the riverside.
It was onwards to Bacchus in High Bridge which certainly had some good beers on, and I went for a sensible session one as the Crystal Palace v Man Utd game was coming to a conclusion. We managed to get some seats and chatted some more about all sorts, with thankfully not too much noise, before then taking the walk downhill, past the Crown Posada (definitely always well worth a visit when time is on your side) and to the Bridge Tavern, where outside you are literally right under the Tyne Bridge (the one that they run over in the Great North Run)
Here I did note the Shindigger Mango Unchained was on, so that was me sorted, along with some good session ales all round so it was good to be there for a good further natter although it did get a little noisier as the night went on. We then got a taxi back towards my friend's place, but dropped ourselves off at Codfellas Fish and Grill to get some late night scran. I ended up getting the 10 inch tuna and prawn seafood pizza which was lovely, and the pizzas we all had were good, with some going more meaty and others having a mix of toppings on, Either way when we walked back to our friend's, they were still pretty hot and good to go!
Friday 20th September - Jarrow Weekender, Day One
It was the start of a nice weekend and heading up to my friend's place - only this time a slightly different location, as he had moved house and was now based in Jarrow - and actually very close to where one football team plays, as well as being just as close to a station on the Tyne and Wear Metro as he was before. So I knew it was easy enough to get around and a case of being able to take the train and be leisurely for the Friday. In fact I had won a Seatfrog auction for the journeys involved, so that meant first class lounge at Kings Cross, and could relax in there with a coffee and a water before starting off the journey, which was two trains for less money. Allow me to explain.
So for some reason LNER are trialling out this new fangled fare system where advances seem much less available for a cheap fare, and you can book other tickets which are less cheap but give you a small amount of flexibility. Ironically, this is a fare increase via the back door and you would think something that the current Government would actually now stop (especially as LNER are under Operator of Last Resort terms at present). So this means for example going direct between Kings Cross and Newcastle is way more expensive. However.. if you put in "via Leeds", then look, trains for £33! So that's what I did, effectively LNER Kings Cross to Leeds, then Transpennine Express Leeds to Newcastle. May take a bit longer, but a lot cheaper.
As such this meant I could use Seatfrog to upgrade each bit of the journey to first class, costing me £14 on LNER and £12 on Transpennine - both of those were instant auction wins when I bid, which saved waiting til last minute and also gave me the access to the first class lounge - which you can go in an hour before departure at weekends. The staff were all friendly and lovely, and even though my train out was delayed, we knew when we could board and so made it over to Platform 2 in good time ready to go, and as it was an older electric Intercity 225 (no Azuma) it meant bigger comfier leather seats which recline properly, and lovely service as ever - a bacon roll freshly cooked for brekkie and coffee and orange juice along the way too.
Once at Leeds, with the train retaining its delay from leaving London, it was over to Platform 15 for the 1241 to Newcastle. Tickets were checked, and this meant coffee, cake and crisps to keep me going along the way which was appreciated, and a really comfy seat too. I wanted to arrive feeling refreshed and as the train crossed the River Tyne and over to Newcastle's main train station, I certainly felt that in abundance. It was down to the Metro station and top up the Pop pay as you go card, with as it worked out enough to make a journey to my friend's local Metro station and pay less because of it being less zones travelled. Nice.
My three friends came to walk up to meet me as I left the Metro to go to my friend's house, and once at theirs we chatted and caught up over coffee and beers as needed. It was just really good to see everyone, and I was able to reconfigure a wireless repeater that had been handed to my friend but looked like it was configured for another network, so I worked out the reset, how to reconfigure it and then get it working, which it did and meant that it was a good extender out to the conservatory at the back of my friend's house. All was good. In fact the new house was really nice, lovely front room and kitchen area with breakfast bar, conservatory extension and a nice back garden too. Really good.
Later on we walked down the road as one of the friends of our host was coming to collect us and to drop us off at their place, which had a mini pub built into their back garden complete with pool table, dartboard and a litle bar area with seating, cask pumps and all sorts. They were really nice and it was good just to chatter for some time whilst we were able to play a few games of pool and to catch up too. The time sped by way too quickly and to be honest, we could have stayed there all evening and enjoyed the company, but we did get a lift into South Shields to continue our evening.
First port of call was a place my friend had reserved and one we had been in before - The Cask Lounge. Sure enough there were some lovely beers on including a very nice caramel stout which hit the mark really nicely, and some good session beers including one from the Beartown Brewery whose beers are always solid. My friend from Doncaster loved the Skinful from them - and I had that as my second beer in there for that reason, it was delicious!
We then headed over to Spice Garden later on for some curry, and I had the chicken korma with pilau rice, naan bread and a nice little starter of garlic mushrooms. My friend from Ulverston had the same curry but with a keema naan, one went for a prawn madras (brave) and another for a bhuna, which all looked decent and definitely well worth it. In fact considering we all had done their deal with starter, main and rice, and a beer, and we added a tip, then £22 per head was not too bad at all and we all were able to split that cost on the cards so all was good and we were having a really good night.
Once we'd got a taxi back, the final thing of the night was to do the quiz that I had prepared, which was mainly in our specialist subjects of 8-bit related computers and music and so on. I did however do one round where I played 80s songs and then you had to name the artist and if there was an 8-bit computer game based on them or not. I did put You Spin Me Round by Dead or Alive in that (make it tune of the day) and we had heard that earlier at our hosts' friend's place as part of a music channel. For those that don't know, it was the first Stock Aitken and Waterman produced number one single too!
Sunday 15th September - Open Up John Lewis' Door
It was nice to be able to rest and relax a little with The Love In My Heart today. Brian the cat had got himself up and of course he was looking around to see if Tabby cat had been calling, and if he did spot him, it would be a stand off between them - as had already happened earlier in the week, and that was stressful all round for both The Love and Brian. I have to admit though that I do think Tabby wants to try and be Brian's friend, but unfortunately Brian is having none of that!
We did decide as the weather was a bit bobbins to head to John Lewis and Partners in Cheadle, primarily as The Love had a gift card for there and it may be worth getting something nice for the flat from there if at all possible. We did note too that on arrival the car park was relatively busy, possibly with parents of students arriving for their terms in the Manchester universities and them being treated to some nice homewares prior to their start of term (and moving into a student flats, either the ones in Owens Park or others dotted around the city.)
In any case it was always good to look around, and for me I wanted to see if I could spot an idea for a potential early Christmas present, and as it transpired in one section, one of the things I was after was on offer, and that item met with The Love's approval, so that was good. I decided to get that and something else which was all good to sort out, and The Love did make her way around and spotted a nice cushion which would look good in the front room - plus she wouldn't have to put that much more towards it as she was paying with the gift card in part, so everyone was indeed a winner.
We decided to later on head for some well earned lunch and so it was off to The Gateway, where the decision was to be made as to what to have. In the end I went for the boneless basket and The Love had the fish and chips, both of which went down well, and I also had some Monster energy drink as well instead of alcohol so in theory I could get some energy for later - much needed as I was taking an alternative train route home due to engineering works.
The Love dropped me off later near Manchester Piccadilly station and first off was the 1745 Northern train to Sheffield which stopped at Chinley and then the Hope Valley stops, which did all look lovely as it was still light. I arrived in Sheffield fine and then went into the Sheffield Tap for a cheeky little half pint - in fact it was the 0.5% of Thornbridge's Green Mountain ale which tasted very nice indeed. I did have a Richard Hawley song in my head when I arrived in Sheffield, and so hummed to myself Open Up Your Door, so tune of the day for that. I then later got the East Midlands Railway train from there to London St Pancras which was nice and quiet, so that was a positive.
Saturday 14th September - Haaland Has His Say
It was nice to head up to Manchester last night and be able to spend some time with The Love In My Heart and be have a good weekend in between the trip to Dublin and a forthcoming trip out next weekend. We had watched Gogglebox together and that was nice and enjoyable to see some familiar faces back casting their eyes on the TV including Celebrity Race Across the World, which we have both been enjoying massively, and still want to see how that pans out for its final episode next week.
The Love was heading to her sister's for the afternoon whilst I was off to the Etihad Stadium to see Manchester City take on Brentford with the hope that there would be three points in the offing for the Blues as they tried to continue their winning run in the league. I was in the Family Stand behind the goal and the seat I did have was close to the back so had a good view of both ends of the pitch, and it was good to head over there early and get a nice steak pie followed by a pint - and for this season, they now have the Fullers Black Cab Stout as well as the likes of Asahi, so had to go for that of course!
I had got to my seat in good time for kick off, and pretty good job that I did and it was the first attack from Brentford that resulted in confusion in the Manchester City defence, with Wissa scoring for Brentford and making it 1-0, in - get this - twenty two seconds! I think that may have been the quickest goal City have conceded ever at the Etihad, and not the sort of record that you want to see to be honest. And in fact Brentford were going forward well and causing problems - they could have been two nil up easily to be honest, but there you go.
City though were finding their feet and as the ball went forward, City passed the ball well between the midfield and forwards, and with his back to goal, Erling Haaland turned on a sixpence and slotted the ball into the bottom corner, cue the chanting of "Haaland! Haaland! Haaland!" from the masses, and that was all good. Later on Ederson took a goal kick and knew what he was doing, he found Erling Haaland and he brushed off the defender and slotted it perfectly and made it 2-1 to City - and that was more relief than anything else, but all good.
City couldn't make any further inroads second half despite having some good chances to put the game to bed, and Erling Haaland hit the post and had a shot well saved by Mark Flekken to deny him a successive hat trick. However I was mindful of the Brentford break going forward and it was good that City kept their concentration levels up and going, with nice to see Rodri coming back on and having a welcome return after a long period out of rest, so that was definitely good. City were singing to Joy Division, City, tearing Cockneys apart, again, and that original classic has to be tune of the day for obvious reasons.
Wednesday 11th September - Dublin Day Three
It was good to have had a good sleep in the hotel, with a bit of sadness that I was going to check out this morning before heading back to the office one final time. I did think it'd have been sensible possibly for us to have had a later checkout or even an option to store luggage there, but all was fine as it was only a small case for me to wheel anyway, and after a stop off at McDonalds on O'Connell Street for some well earned breakfast to keep me going for today, it was back over to the office for one final push to get everything sorted.
Most of the shredding had been bagged ready and one final bag was collated this morning, and my colleagues from facilities and legal had arrived a little bit earlier to ensure that the shredding company arrived when they said they would. You could actually watch all the paperwork being shredded live in the truck which was a pretty good thing and so that was all sorted out thankfully. I have to admit that it was a positive that all those bags were cleared, we had all the equipment for collection (which included fifty monitors as well as four standalone laser printers) all in one room ready so hopefully it'd be an easier job for the recycling company.
We did manage to sort a few bits out later in the day including ensuring that anything in the old network rack was inventoried as that could also be removed and collected, effectively two HP Proliant servers looking worse for wear and were disconnected, so couldn't even get to it if I could to be honest. It did feel surreal leaving the office one final time knowing that we'd done all we can and that it was going to be a good exercise to get things sorted, and that all changes were afoot, but there you go.
Three of us were booked on very similar timed flights and so they had managed to book the same Dublin Express coach as me back to the airport, so we made our way over to Custom House Quay for the right bus stop (take note Scott from Planes Trains Everything, we didn't rely on Google Maps and used their website to locate the right stop!) and sure enough it arrived on time and whisked us to the airport via the Dublin Port tunnel (which other vehicles have to pay for and it isn't cheap) - so that certainly helped. We checked in and all the flights were pretty much in gates close by..
In fact so much so we saw our colleague from legal, as her flight was slightly delayed. Having said that hers was first to leave, as the one our Facilities manager was on had been delayed further (well it's Ryanair, say no more on that one) and the one to Heathrow another colleague was on also was next to go. My colleague and I were on the British Airways flight to London City Airport. It was delayed a little leaving, but soon made up ground heading East and then turning at the Essex coast to head back towards Docklands, landing smoothly. And in around five minutes, I had the luggage, and was out of the airport and on the DLR heading home! Tune of the day is the impressive 80486DX by Master Boot Record - no we didn't find a machine that old, but when one of the laptops did have Windows XP on beforehand...
Tuesday 10th September - Dublin Day Two
I woke up in the very nice hotel room and had a shower and got myself ready. I had already walked over to the Tesco Express close to the office to get a razor, some shaving gel and some paracetemol as I was still not feeling 100 per cent as yet. I hadn't packed any toiletries mainly because the hotel would have them but also as I didn't know if I had to check the bag in or not, and if I didn't - the whole liquids and other things rule would have had to be operational. So it was nice to be able to head over and get that sorted and look more presentable as we carried on the clearout of the old Dublin office.
I had decided that a sweep of the desks on the ninth floor would be useful - not just for any paperwork to shred, but just in case we located anything IT underneath. In fact in one desk we found two laptops deeply buried under the paperwork in the drawers - a bit worse for wear, but managed to get both of them booted to at least diskpart clean the hard drive so that was something. The paperwork we handed to our legal person there and that was ripe for the shredding collection, where the number of bags were growing hugely as we found more things needed to be securely removed.
I had also found two Dell tower desktops which came in handy for a second use later on - as I had also spotted a NAS drive which had four SATA hard drives in and were detachable. So as the NAS drive itself was very old and software support not that existent, it made more sense to attach the drives via SATA to the tower desktop, boot it and format then diskpart clean the disk that way, which is exactly what I did. We'd also found a number of USB sticks, so formatted and then snapped in half with the circuitboard deliberately damaged and the USB part removed, making sure it was fully unusable.
The day had been pretty productive all round to be honest, and after heading back to the hotel to drop the work bag off etc, we headed off to a bar close to the office which was a much more traditional Irish pub and that meant some Guinness for some. For me at least I tried the Guinness 0.0% to see if it was all it was made up to be, and actually it wasn't that bad. It did feel very traditional in there complete with local music playing so definitely less touristy and more for locals too, and at sensible prices unlike those in Temple Bar down the way where €10 for a pint are common (yes, really!)
We walked up O'Connell Street and headed off a side street to a Chinese restaurant, M&L Szechuan Chinese, that we liked the look of online and noted it also catered for vegetarians well too (as we did have some within our team.) We went in and the fact it was already busy even at 6.30pm told us all we needed to know - any busy place in the week generally is decent. We all ordered and we noted that they had beer, so a colleague and I went with the Murphys to have with our food. The staff clearly had some sort of deal going on with a nearby bar as they headed across and came back with the beer for us - which was gorgeous and just right for the evening ahead too.
All the food that we ordered was really good: I had the lemon chicken with egg fried rice and you got plenty of well cooked chicken in a good sauce. One of my colleagues had the twice cooked chicken in a nice sauce which really did have good flavour to it, and another had both the duck and a sweet and sour chicken, both of which hit the spot too, as did all the other vegetarian options the other two had ordered and the fried tofu in sauce looked really good. All in all, not that expensive for the five of us either, an excellent value all round. Definitely if I come back here for leisure, I'll be heading there I think for food as it was a good chilled out vibe in there.
We walked back down O'Connell Street and off to our respective hotels, and as the England game against Finland was on ITV, I settled in my room to watch that and see Harry Kane do the business with a good win for the team overall. It was different to see football with ITV being available in Ireland - most of the domestic channels were concentrating on Ireland playing Greece in the same Nations League group as England (and they lost) - which we did debate about paying ourselves and going to tonight to see a diferent game. Tune of the day in the meantime is Fleetwod Mac's Dreams, primarily as we heard The Corrs' cover version earlier, and straight away had to mention the original, which is just ace.
Monday 9th September - Dublin Day One
I had spent the last week or so pretty unwell, with a lot of coughing and nasal congestion. I did have the weekend at home anyway planned but it did mean that I wasn't able to really go out and do anything, which I did feel really gutted at. Also at the back of my mind was the fact that there was a work trip booked to our former Dublin office this week in order to ensure that any stock was cleaned up and assembled ready for collection, and in addition any waste that needed to go was gone, along with a booking for a full office cleanup. The lease on the two floors of the building hasn't yet expired, so a possible sublet to someone else may mean some money recouped: as long as we can get it all sorted.
The facilities manager (who I get on really well with) had done a reccy and reckoned it'd need a few of us to get sorted, so there was one of our legal folks along as well as two of my service desk colleagues. All the flights and hotels had been booked through work, so it was a case of turning up and getting there. I headed to Gatwick Airport this morning therefore in order to be on the British Airways flight to Dublin, which is actually operated on BA's behalf by Emerald Airlines. Still, that did mean I could check in my weekend cabin case for free with all I needed there, and a nice easy walk through security and so on towards the gates.
The plane was at the gate on time, but we were delayed leaving because the staff were having an issue getting someone's assisted chair on - they weren't able to store it folded at the back of the plane and so had to put it into the hold, a la Chucklevision - to me to you. Eventually the plane set off and did make up some time so the arrival into Dublin wasn't too late, but you would think that the staff would know that the passenger was coming and would have given them the chair information in advance so they'd be ready to get it placed on board correctly wherever it needed to be.
It wasn't too long before I was heading out of Terminal 2 and located the Dublin Express coaches. I had booked in advance primarily so I knew I'd have a seat on Wednesday for the journey back, and you get standby for a few hours if your plane is delayed arriving - and so was able to get on the first one, get off at Eden Quay and cross the O'Connell Bridge and over to where the office was, having been given directions by the team beforehand. I got the security pass and headed up to the tenth floor where two of the team had arrived.
Most of Monday was spent collating whatever laptops we could find, and then being able to see if any of them were usable or not - and even if they were in the correct specficiation. A lot of them weren't, so it was then a case of booting up and using diskpart and then the clean commands to at least trash the start and end of the disk with zeros as well as remove all the partition data - with a view that the recycling company we'd use would do a fuller wipe as well later on. Amazingly, only a few laptops were within a reasonable spec that we'd consider re-using for any reason, so there were plans made to get those sent back over.
After the day was done, I checked into the hotel which was a short walk away from the office. It was very nice indeed, a nice big comfy double bed, some bottles of water, a television, free wifi and a nice bathroom with shower too. That all felt very nice and later got ourselves ready for heading out - I had noted there was a Wetherspoons not far away from the hotel and we thought that going there meant food at a reasonable price and meaning expenses would be kept down a little - sensible idea that. I did end up having the boneless basket and a pint of Jaipur for not that much, and later on a refill coffee to keep me going nicely. Tune of the day in the meantime is the excellent Dublin City Sky by Fontaines DC, kind of appropriate when looking out of the tenth floor over the city!
Sunday 1st September - Where Is My Counter House Mind?
The Love In My Heart and I had a good night's sleep, and Brian the cat was purring contentedly as he headed up to say hello to us both with his super cute face wanting Dreamies and to get up. I got up and then fed him, and he was of course super happy and purring more, which was good. I did watch the remainder of Match of the Day that I had not watched (as I went to the bed after seeing Manchester City's game, as I was tired.) and that did at least mean that I got to see some good games - and then on with the Paralympics.
What I didn't realise was that today was going to be such a historic day for the Great Britain team. They would end today with twelve gold medals, across cycling, athletics, swimming and rowing, which was super impressive and went to show just how much a lot of the athletes really have trained so hard and pushed themselves onwards. When I did watch The Last Leg later on it was essentially a full show of celebrating all those gold medals and rightly so too.
Back to the day, and The Love and I got ourselves ready and headed out into the city centre, getting off at New Islington tram stop and walking along by the canal basin and through to Cutting Room Square, and into Seven Bro7ers Beerhouse where our friends were there with a table and we had a beer in there to start the afternoon. It was always good to catch up and natter, and as it was one of our friends' birthdays tomorrow, it was good to hand over a nice present of the wine we got from the Holmfirth Vineyard a couple of weeks ago, so definitely appreciated all round.
We had booked The Counter House a couple of doors down, and so was able to head in there and have Sunday lunch complete with great tunes including Where Is My Mind by Pixies (make that tune of the day) and plenty of other good pieces. I ordered the fish and chips which I'd had in there before and was consistently good, with The Love and one of our friends having the roast chicken, and our birthday friend having a Greek salad, which looked really fresh and nice actually. All the staff were all really nice throughout (a similar experience to what we have had before) and that really does make a difference.
We did of course brave the rain quickly that had been coming down and went back to Seven Bro7ers Beerhouse (would have been rude not to, to be honest) and I did try their new sour, Currant Affairs. It was very blackcurrant like and very nice indeed, with a good little sour kick along the way too. I have to say that that and the session are both really good and can recommend them - and later on it was Happy Hour which meant that the Helles was a mere £4 a pint, can't argue with that really.
I headed off later to catch my train, leaving The Love and friends to have another drink. I was on the 1655 train back (primarily to avoid all the Man U fans heading back to London later) and at Stockport, another train load got on due to the previous 1635 train being cancelled at Stockport. It was carnage and not very nice all the way to London - I was glad I had my seat but fitting two train loads into one 9 carriage train really doesn't go, and poor form from Avanti Worst Coast with the lack of foresight and good maintenance.