Some Thoughts

Yes, another weekend and another foreign part of the world. This time it's Bydgoszcz (pronounced Bid-gosh) in Poland. It's 3.15am, and I've just got in after a night with the mayor of the town (early doors) and a club.
The night ended on a bit of a downer with the boss's PA having a moan because he'd been flirting with her for the first part of the evening, then realised what he'd been doing and turned his attentions to someone else. I think she has some feelings for him, and I feel a mixture of sympathy and another word I can't think of right now. Part of me wants to shake her and say "for God's sake get a grip, you're a beautiful woman, go out and get a boyfriend your own age, and forget about him". For she is beautiful, and if I were ten years (ok 15 years) younger and more self-confident, I'd tell her how sexy I found her, and ask her out. I've got a taxi journey with her on Sunday morning, which I'm kind of looking forward to as she is very good looking and has fantastic nails, which I can't take my eyes off.
Oh well, must go as I've got a long day ahead of me tomorrow. Bye.

but it's OK sang Whitney Houston once upon a time. Well it's no longer OK as on the news today she announced that she's filed for divorce. I know I'm not aware of all the facts, but Bobby Brown has been out of the news for so long, while she's been in it with drugs and alcohol problems. She's a bit f***ed up if you ask me.

The view from my hotel window on the first floor. Check out the corrugated sheet roofing!



The crappy shower which doesn't keep all the water in the cubicle, it ends up all over the floor.


Finally a car with attitude - our Chrysler 300C complete with dead Latvian flies on the front.

It's now Monday morning, and I've got a well earned day off after my weekend away. The journey back yesterday was a long one - 11 hours in total, including an appalling delay at Gatwick Airport for our luggage. The journey back to Riga was quite pleasant in the sunshine, although one of our party got stopped by the Latvian Police for speeding! Fortunately they got off with a warning.
Trying to sort my car out today. I've got a van that I use for work, consequently I don't use my car much. In fact the last time I filled it up was in March!! The MOT has run out and needs doing. And I've got to put the washing out.

Last night went according to plan. I had a quick meal in a cafe on the pedestrian area, and on the way back stopped for a couple of beers. I was in bed by 11.30pm, and the alarm woke me at 9.00am this morning. I found out that everyone else went to a nightclub, with a couple of people getting absolutely shit-faced in an unable to stand kind of way. I'm glad I missed out, as I'm not as young as I once was, and find it increasingly hard to drink loads and recover quickly in the morning. I woke up this morning with a hard lump in between my 3rd and 4th toe on my right foot. It's a pale yellow colour and looks a bit like a spot but is harder to the touch. I've no scissors with me to try and break it, so I'll have to wait until I get home. It's a bit uncomfortable to walk on, but not too painful. Stay tuned for more updates.
I had a shower, and flooded the bathroom again. If only the brick lip was a foot further out, the curtain would hang well inside it and all the water would be contained. Apparently, the hotel has only been recently built - especially for tonight's event - and overall there is very little to complain about with it. The women who work in the bar are very nice to look at, with fantastic bodies, and long nails which are real, not the stick on stuff everyone seems to have back in the UK.
Went out this morning with a couple of the guys who were doing some filming. The only downside was that we were a out for a bit longer than I thought, and eventually got to work at 2.30pm. I'd had a phone call at about 11.45am asking when I'd be in, and I said about 1.00pm. 2.00pm passed, and when I went back to the car, I'd had two missed calls. I rang back explaining that we'd been to the supermarket to get lunch for everyone, and would be in at about 2.30pm. And I was. I had to do a quick thing for him, and was then finished for a few hours. At least I won't be clocking up too many hours overtime today, which will keep him happy. My working hours are a bit strange - any hours more than 8 worked in a day are counted as overtime, and any consecutive days worked past 5 are also overtime. I had Monday off so this is day 5, which means that I'll get paid overtime for travelling home tomorrow - fantastic!!

Got up and had a shower. Flooded the bathroom due to a shit design. Shower built into the corner with a six inch high brick lip and shower curtain that hangs down, leaving a gap at the bottom. And of course, there's nothing to stop the curtains blowing outwards thereby pissing water all over the floor.
Breakfast was interesting. No choice, but cold toast, something which was later identified as a russian salad, and savoury pancakes which were quite nice.
Found out why were were in the hotel - it's a five minute walk to the track.
Apparently there's an official function tonight (some kind of formal reception), but seeing as I've bought nothing remotely formal to wear, I won't be going as I'll stand out like a spare prick at a wedding. I do wish I'd get told these things sometimes. I'll see who else isn't going and if I'm the only one, I'll get something quick to eat and have an early night. I woke up at 7.30am this morning (5.30am uk time)! I'm never awake that early at home, but in a strange bed, I always seem to wake early. It'll also be nice to wake up with a clear head. I got a bit the worse for wear in the Czech Republic two weeks ago, and was a bit rough in the morning. I'd quite like to get up and have a walk around tomorrow morning as I won't have to start work until about 1.00pm. Easy life, you say? But I won't finish until about 11.30pm so it's not such an easy life!

In an attempt to keep my blog a little more up to date than I've previously managed, I've decided to let you know where I am in the world. I travel quite a bit with work, and although I won't tell you what I do, you should be able to guess with a bit of help from Google.
I'm in a small-ish town in Latvia called Daugavpils. I flew out yesterday with BA from LHR to Riga (RIX), and from there we were due to have a three hour drive to Daugavpils. Lunch on the plane was abysmal - a cold sandwich and a drink served 20 minutes after the sandwich. Then to top it all I left my passport on the plane. What a twat! I managed to get back onto the plane as they were cleaning it, but couldn't find anything in the seat pocket or the overhead locker. I was in "Oh fuck" mode by now, but fortunately after too long was told that it had been found and handed to the dispatcher. Tried to find out where the dispatcher was and eventually found out that the passport had been handed in at Passport Control. Wandered along to Passport Control (which is where I'd been about 20 minutes earlier when I couldn't find it and first started to panic!) and had a happy reunion. Joined the rest of the team at baggage control and the bags hadn't arrived, so I hadn't cost them any time. After we'd picked up our hire cars, a Chrysler Voyager, a Lexus RX300 and a Chrysler 300C, we referred to the RAC Route Planner instructions from RIX to Daugavpils. "Turn left onto the A10". Check. "Turn left onto the A6". Hmm, where's the A6, we should have passed it by now. Oh look we've just been overtaken by the Voyager, and the driver's been here before we must be on the right road. 45 minutes after leaving the airport, we stopped at a small garage and bought a map of Latvia. It was then that the true horror of what we'd done dawned on us. We'd turned left onto the A10 as instructed, but should have turned right. The wankers at the RAC had given us the wrong instructions!!!!
45 minutes later as we drove past the turning for the airport (90 minutes after we'd left it) we were finally on the right road.
We drove through loads of small towns with strange names, and in between them managed to get the Chrysler up to 160km/h. The further away from Riga we got, the less traffic there was, and at one stage we stopped the car, both got out to relieve ourselves, and got back in and set off without seeing another car!
Going through one village we saw signs for 70, then 50, but were still doing about 90. It was just past the 30 sign that we both realised that the road turned sharp right, and straight ahead was a no entry. Well, the brakes just about stopped us and we managed to turn right. Luckily this was one of the stretches of road where there was not much traffic.
20km from Daugavpils, we had a phone call from the Voyager (actually, the driver, not the car itself; although it had enough electronics in it that I wouldn't be surprised if it could make a phone call). Electrically opening doors worry me a bit. It's bad enough when electric windows don't open, or close, but what the fuck do you do if you can't get out of the car 'cause the doors won't open? Anyway, back to the Voyager phone call . . . "The display says 14km until empty". They were some way behind us as they had been in economy mode driving at 60km/h!! We were sure we'd seen a petrol station, but not sure where it was in relation to them. We told them this, and wondered how they'd used so much, when we still had half a tank? Anyway, about 8km from Daugavpils, we found a petrol station, having previously decided that we'd stop at the next one and if necessary, buy a petrol can and fill it up, and then drive back out to them, if the worst happened. We rang them to let them know where we were, and the backup plan. They arrive a few minutes later with the display having read "0 kms until empty"!!
We rang the third car, and told them where we were. "Oh yes, I can see you was the reply". They were just driving past the petrol station, as we rang, and managed to pull in.
We decided to travel to the hotel in convoy, as only one of us had been to the hotel before. "It's on a big square so just follow the centrum signs". A few minutes later, they went straight on and ignored the centrum sign pointing left. We followed it and failed miserably to find it. This was despite stopping at an off-licence and asking the extremely pretty girl in there if she knew where it was. She didn't, and a few minutes later we got a call saying that the hotel we were staying in was not the one that had been stayed in previously. Well thanks a bunch! We stopped at another hotel and they were kind enough to give us a map and we found it easily. By this time it was 9.30pm, and I was hungry enough to eat a scabby horse! Checked in and changed and went out to a Restaurant called Europa, which had been recommended to us by the hotel receptionist. It turned out to be in an entertainment complex, with nightclub (also recommended) and ten-pin bowling. The whole place seemed deserted, and it was not really a surprise when we arrived at the restaurant, and found no-one else in there. I'd never eaten in a restaurant with no other people in before, so I've just done something for the first time ever! We got a table in the corner, and had a surprisingly good meal. I had rabbit casserole (my daughter, and step-daughter would be horrified if they knew). Went back to the hotel spoke to my wife on the phone (we're two hours ahead of the UK, so it was only 10.30pm at home) and then went to bed.