Another day in London

Not the best night’s sleep, living in the country as I normally do, the sound of the jumbo jets coming into land at Heathrow Airport between 4:30 and 6:00 is quite disturbing. Although at home when the combine harvesters are going throughout the night at harvest I sleep through it, as does Mike.

He also slept through the earthquake on Tuesday night, although it woke Lynn and I. Lynn says that it was a similar experience for most of her friends at work.

Mike chaired the roundtable at the Obis Omni event today – he moaned because they only had bacon sandwiches on offer for the breakfast start. The tables were nearly round and it looked like the people were all just having a chat – I had a little sleep.

The event was near Blackfriars Station so we got the First Capital Connect service back to St Pancras International station and walked across to Kings Cross to get the 13:33 Hull Trains (which is also owned by the people who run First Capital Connect – I know which I prefer).

Got home about 5:00 ready for a good cuddle with Imogen and a nice long sleep. Next week Mike is taking me to Luxembourg for a meeting with people from the European Commision. Some of his friends say it is a ‘gravy train’ that means we are not likely to be happy, because whilst we both like trains, being vegetarian, neither of us likes gravy.

A boring afternoon and evening in London

Well yesterday, we arrived at Mike’s office and he left me alone to go into meetings.

Offices are quite smart, but apparently the phones keep going on the blink. Mike doesn’t have a desk as he usually works from home so he sits wherever someone else isn’t. As Tom told me from his trip, no one has an office all to themselves, but even though it is ‘open plan’ it is quite quiet.

Left about 6:00pm so we could go to our hotel. Mike then went and left me again so he could see the film Sweeny Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter. Mike said it was good and lived up to the critic’s description of ‘lashings of ketchup’. Mike did look a bit green when he came back. I think he shouldn’t have had is Penne Fresco dinner before he saw the film, although given his look he probably wouldn’t have wanted it either.

Today is Wednesday – so we are on a train again

This time we are going to Mike’s office and he is going to stay in London overnight (with me by his side to keep him safe you understand) before he ‘chairs a round table’ tomorrow. What does that mean? Is the chair on the round table? Is the round table actually a chair? In which case why is it called a round table? Actually I can’t be bothered.

Apparently when we get to Mike’s office I will sit in the same chair that my friend Tom sat in a few weeks ago. I like Tom, but he is always picking up the cats and they sometimes sit on me.

We started on a two-car Northern train going from Hull to Doncaster, very tatty and in need of new paint and carpet, but there was a nice lady who during the journey as far as Goole emptied the bins, picked up rubbish and cleaned the toilets. The guard was also very nice and smiled at me. The great thing about being small bear is that everyone smiles at you. It is a very nice feeling.

The National Express train from Doncaster to London was quite empty (well it was lunchtime) so I had a table all to myself. Good thing about National Express though is that there is free wireless internet, so this will be on my site before we get to London.

We're on our way to Wembley

Well Mike was, and I went for the ride.
Another early start on Hull Trains the 06:25 which these days is getting very full, but the staff were nice as usual.

It was EMC's Content Management Day, and like all software companies to ensure good attendance they hold such meetings in 'interesting' venues. In November last year they invited us Monte Carlo which allowed me to go in a helicopter for the first time (and Lynn came to - so loads of extra cuddles - just what a bear needed).


As always Mike was working on the train, and when we got off at Kings Cross, he rushed into the Firist Class lounge to email his work to his office. Then on the underground to Baker Street, and walk to Marylebone Station.

It was the first time I have been through Marylebone, although Mike says his boss uses it go home.The Chiltern trains are all small and cute (just like me) not so big and aggressive as the National Express.

The stadium is huge, and we had first go down three flights of stairs to get signed in, and then back up three escalators to up to the presentation.

Nice people talking (as always) got a bit tired when the term Enterprise Content Services got mixed in with Service Oriented Architecture.

At coffee break we got to see outside the room to look at the pitch and where all the people sit

There were some men kicking a ball around, Mike said it was only a game, but they all seemed very serious about it.

More presentations, very complex, but Mike did smile a couple of times, particularly when someone played a video of a squirrel.

Lunch looked nice, but although Mike complains that these posh places don’t cater for vegetarians very well, he should try being a small bear.

Left as soon as we could and Mike rushed through the underground so we got an earlier train, and be home more than an hour earlier. That will make Lynn happy.

Train back was the same one we came down on, although it had been to Hull and back during the time. Nice lady in the buffet smiled at me, but still didn’t have anything for a small bear.

Anyway been to Wembley, seen the arch, the pitch, and the blue seats where they put royalty, but quite tired, and got to go back to London tomorrow. This time to stay overnight. If I regain some strength I may write about it.