After our first trip to Durham, where I didn’t really organise myself properly, I think I’ve learnt some lessons because, so far, Ireland has been working quite well.
We lost all of Tuesday due to travel. We drove up to Manchester on Tuesday morning so we were at least 90 minutes early for a 1:30pm flight. I think we got there at around 11:45am. We only had time to grab something to eat before the departure gate was announced, and then we were off at a rate of knots to get to the right gate.
It was very busy in the airport. We were lucky to get seats in which to relax and eat our dinner, bought from WH Smiths. The aeroplane was full and ready to go 10 minutes ahead of our flight time. But by the time we taxied around to the runway and it was our turn in the queue to go, we were 10 minutes later than our flight time. The runway was a conveyor belt!
We landed bang on time, though. So that was good. And our taxi was waiting for us. We got to the hotel in good time too, and just chilled for a couple of hours, unpacking, familiarising ourselves with our surroundings.
At about 5:30pm, we went for a short walk to get room nibbles, and dinner for me for yesterday. Then we gate-crashed the restaurant at about 7:30pm, completely forgetting that we should have booked. The poet had a rib-eye burger, I had a caesar salad with prawns. For pudding he had apple crumble, custard and cream and I had a knickerbocker glory.
On our way out, we booked for yesterday. Then we went back to our room and watched VERA on telly.
The next morning, the poet went downstairs for his breakfast, then carried on to work on foot. I’d ordered a tray for the room, which arrived bang on the time I asked for it. The ‘muesli’ didn’t have any muesli in it, just fresh fruit with natural yoghurt (very nice), and they forgot to send bread on which to spread the butter, jam and marmalade that did come.
I called room service, and they brought me a tray of soggy toast, so I figured that perhaps they’d run out of bread…The platter of cold meats and cheese went into the fridge because I thought I ought to at least have some jam on the toast that they did bring.
It was all very nice, but I preferred the tea I made with our regular room tray. It stayed hotter for longer for a start, and I had several cups throughout the day. I’d just sat down to start work when someone knocked at the door: housekeeping. I said we were fine, but did ask her to empty our bin and for fresh loo rolls.
The first job of the day was yesterday’s blog post. It was a big one and I had to send a picture from my phone to myself as I forgot to ask the poet to bring his hard drive with our holiday pictures on from last week. I hadn’t scheduled in any blog posts this week, but as I was working anyway, decided to do them anyway.
Today’s picture is a free one. Driving across to Manchester the day before we could see the heather just coming through, so I thought the free picture offered by DepositPhotos was quite apt. Then I saw that it was lavender and not heather…Ah well.
Once I’d done that, and added the words to my word-count spreadsheet for short material, I had a break and caught up on a friend’s blog. It was about then that someone knocked at the door again: the TV engineer. We hadn’t reported a fault, but as he was there he did check our telly.
I’d just started work again when my phone pinged. It was my sister giving me an update on our Probate. We’ve had a formal apology and a monetary offer, which I think we’re going to accept. But when it seemed that Case Manager #4 has had her phone line disconnected, my sister went straight to the customer complaints manager, who is now dealing with her request.
My final job of the morning was the author responses to the copy edit I sent on the first night of our holiday. These took me a full Pomodoro, although I did also field a call from the poet in the middle of it. He said I’ve had more visitors here in one morning than I usually get in a whole week at home!
I checked the layout of the (clean) file and sent it to the client. Then I sent an email to the author letting her know I’d made all the necessary changes. She very nicely sent a reply within an hour or so. She’s currently researching her next book, which she promises will be less sad.
This was followed by a late lunch, but I only ate one half of the sandwich we bought the night before. It was very nice, but very filling: Irish ham and cheese on brown bread. Saying that, I had already eaten a jam-sandwich biscuit (cookie) with icing on and a packet of crisps (chips).
My next pomodoro of the day was on the proofreading I’d brought with me. Then I created a new Scrivener file for newsletters and made a start on that. This consisted of creating the starter template for August and copying it to September. This will no doubt evolve but, for now, I’ve copied the blog posts Scrivener file and I added the newsletter to my word-count spreadsheet.
The poet came back from work and I finished what I was doing. There were 2 jobs I hadn’t managed during the day, but I hoped I might be able to do some doodling during the evening.
I added today’s blog post word-count to the spreadsheet, scheduled it to post, and called it a day.
Sounds like a good day’s work, in spite of the interruptions.
Ugh, more Probate hassle. Invoice them for all the time they’ve wasted.
I think I got more done in a hotel room this time than I’d’ve got done at home!
Sometimes the hotel room is great for concentration!