Cold and windy corners
Up so very very early. I don’t know how or why. Made it onto a train just after half seven that should have turned up at just after seven, and was in the office at half eight. Spooky quiet again. It’s quite nice being in at that time of day, actually.
Mark came back from his holiday with donuts, cookies and sickly chocolate rolls, which we ate in our editorial meeting. I came out feeling fat and in dire need of a cup of tea. Chocolate should never be consumed without tea.
Bumped into Riyad at lunchtime. It was good to see him again and have a chance for a good chat. We stood on the windy corner outside Pret until I was too cold to go the rest of the way to the organic shop for soup. I retreated to the office, shivering, with a Pret baguette, and carried on with my column, which this month is turning out to be very tricky. I made the mistake of eliciting a response last month, and had so many suggestions for web sites that should be put into an archive and preserved for future generations that they took some going through. Something to be remembered for future reference.
I’d arranged to meet with Barry, who has just taken over our Unix column. We’ve been email-chatting for years but never met up, and this week he’s down in London on a course. He drove into the West End and I stayed on at the office working until he arrived, then went and stood on the wrong corner to meet him. Eventually we worked out where we each were and headed off to find food.
Being a Monday almost everywhere was almost empty, but we settled on Kettners, where I’d still never been before, for Pizza. Barry explained that it was just a posh Pizza Express, which was evident when the pizzas arrived, as they looked exactly the same at the Pizza Express equivalents - a good thing, I’d say.
We got on to talking, mostly about mag and Linux stuff, and stayed there a long time, then went on to The Yard for a drink. It’s months - probably over a year - since I’ve been on the scene in London and the Yard has been redone. I always did prefer it to the alternatives, and it’s much nicer than it used to be. Quite relaxed, and although it was too cold to stay outside the courtyard was far prettier than it used to be. We got on to talking about Harry Potter, Lord of the Rigns and Star Wars, then noticed the time and headed off home.
I took the midnight train back to Chelmsford, reading proofs on the way, and arrived to find my windscreen as frosty as a bathroom window. I guess it had rained at some point, as it was frozen right on, and scraping it off made a lot of noise. I was parked at the back of the car park, right by the new flats, and bedroom lights started flickering on…
If you liked that post, then try these...
London This Week on December 22nd, 2002
Spam fax on February 3rd, 2003
The Sixth Sense on March 19th, 2002
Doing stuff on January 16th, 2005
Hoarse and Horse on August 9th, 2005
