501!

Yes Dave, I have been enjoying sleeping on my new mattress !
It's nice and soft and great for my back. The only downside to a foam mattress is that they do tend to trap heat. It's great in winter but not so wonderful now that its warming up. I'm waking in the middle of the night roasting hot and drenched in sweat, despite having forked out extra for the mattress with the NASA desigend cooling vents. But then nothing is prefect and so I shall just ditch my duvet for a sheet.

The main reason I haven't been blogging is pure and simple exhaustion. My boss has been off sick for the past 2 months and i have been doing both his work and mine. In the run up to the new financial year on the 1st April it was insanely busy. We were getting non stop calls from people who had found them selves with a supply in their budget and wanted to spend it on training courses for their staff rather than loose the money, because as we all know next years budgets are tight and one of the first things organisations cut back on in recession is training. So at least we have a full calender of work for the next 12 months.

During March I was doing so much overtime I accrued a weeks worth of lieu time, which would be brilliant if I were able to take it. In addition to the lieu time i had 5 days of annual leave I had to take or else loose.

Cue a shitty holiday to Portugal with my mum. We paid far too much and had a mediocre time. We kept finding dead cockroaches in the apartment. The swimming pool was cold as ice and we couldn't go out in the evenings because mother dearest had to watch Eastenders on the satellite TV every night. I felt just as crap when I got back as when I left.

Never buy the cheapest tent you can find

A cheap tent, while easy on the bank balance is not the most ideal lodgings during your typical British summer.

A cheap tent will be cold during the night due to its single layer of shower proof fabric. A more expensive tent will have 2 layers of fabric which will create a double glazing effect keeping the warmth in the tent and the cold outside the tent. A cheap tent will be cold at night.

On an cheap tent that single layer of shower proof fabric will do exactly what it says on the tin - a short light shower of rain will roll right off it but a long heavy down poor will soak right through and cause uncomfortable drips to fall on your head, neck and back making you cold wet and uncomfortable.

A cheap tent will be small. Small tents have small doors. Small doors can be tricky to get in and out of, especially and 4.30am when you are still a bit drunk and desperate to got to the loo.

Never buy the cheapest tent.

the reason I was at Gatwick

I'm just back from a week in Malta (hence the Gatwick debacle).
It was cold and windy and I wore my sweatshirt most days. I was quite disappointed. I mean I knew it wouldn't be hot, but I thought it would at least be warm. There was one fairly warm day when i only wore a thin cardi over my t-shirt but apart form that i was wrapped up nice and warm. I even wore socks to bed !
I shouldn't complain though because at least it didn't rain. Apparently it doesn't rain often but when it does it's torrential and everything floods and I mean the streets literally turn into rivers.

It's surprising to realize that when you can't spend time laying in the sun by the pool or at the beach most holiday destinations are incredibly boring. There is little to do apart form visit really poor quality museums and go window-shopping. Though I suppose I should be grateful for that because if it had been a Spanish or Greek Island I wouldn't have even have had the amateurish museums to fall back on. Malta has a lot of history- most of it military from medieval to WW2, and boy do they like to tell you about it.

I suppose I had an Ok time though, I went to the cinema and saw Bridget Jones: the edge of reason. It was hilarious!
I ate too much pizza and drank some hot chocolate that was more like chocolate syrup, and I finished the book I started months ago and lost interest in (not The Waitress, another one which I will tell you about later), and I discovered a whole new terminal at Gatwick, so all in all not a bad result.

Gatwick Airport has 2 Terminals

Airline informtion desk
Me: Hi, What time does check-in open ?
Lady: Check-in? We don't have any flights today.
HUH?
Me: Are you sure?
Lady: Yes, are you in the que? get in the que and I'll answer your questions.
BITCH, why can't you answer my question now? are you trying to give me a fucking heart attack?
Me: Oh, Ok....
30 seconds later
Man: Hi!
Me: That woman just told me there aren't any flights today. I'm sure my flight is today.
Man:No, there's no flights today...I think there's one from Heathrow.
FUCK! how am I going to get to heathrow before check-in closes. I'm sure it was Gatwick. It was definaly Gatwick unless it was Heathrow..

Man: Do you have your ticket?
Me: No! they didn't send me one they said they would send one in the post but it never arrived, the owman on the phione gave me a refrence number and said that would do. I'm sure she said Gatwick.
I'm so stupid
Man:What time do you think the flight's suposed to be ?
Me: 7.45
Man: Let me just check.
Gets out folder and starts flipping though pages.
Man: Ah! that flight is with service air it's going from North Terminal.
Thank god!!!
Me: Thank you ! I nearly has a heart attack ethinking I has the wrong day!!!
Man: Ha ha, Turn left and follow the signs to the shuttle train to North Terminal.
Me: Thank you !!!

Thankfuly the rest of the journey was much less eventful!