.....This time next week I will be winging off to the Caribbean for two weeks sailing. "You wot" I hear the cry. Look, for one thing this is my first break since August last year and secondly, I had booked it ages before we knew the end of the world was coming. Actually you would have been quite proud of me. I came into the office first day of the new year with a message on my Outlook Calender flashing to me that the balance of the booking fee was due to be paid. It was not a good start to 2009. I rang Sunsail to try to talk them into reducing the price or, I told them in all seriousness, I was going to just cancel the whole thing even if it meant losing the deposit. The conversation began well enough as they immediately offered me the gold discount instead of silver which cut £300 off the bill, but frankly this was a fraction of what I was looking for. Alas, their next proposal was that Sophie and I flew down the back of the Thomson charter flight instead of in the premium seats we had booked at which point I confess my resolve waivered and all further bargaining power was lost. So Hen will be ruling the roost and in charge of a brood of 6 kinders aged between 7 and 14 and a lovely peaceful flight the other passengers on TOM 093 to Antigua will no doubt have.
I am quite looking forward to heading off and all that remains to for me to do is a crash course in sailing. At the time I booked the holiday, with astonishing complacency and irresponsibility, even a touch of arrogance - you might say an approach which has characterized my professional life - I ticked the requisite box claiming that I had all requisite experience to maneuver a 43 foot catamaran through the treacherous seas around the BVI. Could be interesting. I have never skippered a boat before. I don't even know how a tie a bowline. A crossword clue from today's Daily Telegraph leapt out at me.... 5 Down: Distressed oarsman, I'd yearn to become a sailor (8,6) Answers on a postcard pls.
You know how I love to reminisce. Kestel wonders if the AIG memorandum included as the Last Word in B&P below can really be true. I don't doubt it. Tempers are running high. Even President Obama is angry. Very angry. I was with Barings in HK when we went bust and I recall clearly how we were given a lecture on the Monday, having blown up over the weekend, about taking care given the possibility of concerned, if not irate, unit trust holders haranguing or even assaulting us as we went in and out of our Edinburgh Tower office block. I am not ashamed to admit that it was with a certain amount of trepidation that I headed off to the Grill for lunch that day. Imagine my surprise when a complete stranger, seriously, just about the most beautiful girl I had ever seen, leant across the crowded lift, touched my arm, and told me how sorry she was about what had happened to Barings and wished me all the best. Bankrupt....jobless.....stranded 5,000 miles from home.....suddenly I couldnft care less. Never saw her again of course.
Hey ho....enough of this. Busy weekend ahead. I am off to pick up Hen and Jimmy from school tomorrow morning and it is going to be fun. Strictly speaking I am picking up only Jimmy plus Hen's copious amount of luggage in my new Toyota massive job Landcruiser. Hen will be getting a lift back to Newmarket with "The boyfriend", he of the sheepskin coat, dodgy haircut and skateboard under the arm. In his Mini. Ha ha. What a loser.
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