![\"bunny\"](\"http:\/\/www.adoreamy.co.uk\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/04\/bunny1.jpg\" "\\"bunny\\"")
As I post following an exciting but exhausting week, the Bank Holiday rain is predictably and reassuringly steady, last night’s leftover takeaway is almost gone, and my chocolate bunny (courtesy of a charming gentleman from north of the border) is no more, having been reduced to barely-there crumbs, pretty gold foil and a nice red ribbon with a bell on it.<\/p>\n
This last Friday and Saturday have taken me in a single 24 hour stretch to Leeds city centre, across to Rochdale, back to Leeds (one of my favourite hotels, a grand old building of impeccable vintage, comfortable beds and woefully unpredictable plumbing), and finally the early train back to the coast in order to continue the good work uninterrupted until such a time as I was able to relax and enjoy some of the Easter break in a manner more befitting a public holiday; namely eating Peking duck in my pyjamas, gossiping on the phone and watching QI repeats on the television whilst the comforting and ever-present whirr of my faithful washing machine provided gentle and homely background ambience.<\/p>\n
Bearing this in mind, and that the earlier part of this week was spent in Manchester with the latter part of next week unfolding in That London, I have decided that enough is enough for now, and I am sorry to say that for the approaching two days I will be persona non grata<\/em>, at least to those not known to me already. Normal service will be resumed upon my return, and as the week is beginning to fill up gradually but steadily I would strongly recommend getting in touch early, as appointments will be as limited as always after a busy week away (plus it is high time I got on with some more decorating…)<\/p>\n I am, however, never out of the office for long and have already begun to make tentative plans for my next few trips, anticipating, amongst others, a return to Scotland as well as a possible jaunt to Wales (by way of Bristol, which I have been intending to get to now for months and still not quite managed yet). Details soon to be available, as soon as I have reassured myself accommodation-wise that a repeat of the Liverpool situation will not be an issue, and actual communication with people not in the same room will be guaranteed. The next London trip is likely to be the start of June; as some will know I have a brief sojourn at the end of this month for the Erotic Awards ceremony, but this is already pretty much booked and I have no plans to take further appointments – apologies, but the emphasis is to be very much on going to the ball!<\/p>\n The prospective (but now-defunct) rail strike had been on course to present me with problems this week and rightly so, otherwise what on earth would be the point, although this seems to have been anathema to some of BA’s unlucky customers\u00a0 following\u00a0 recent\u00a0 industrial action, who, whilst quite understandably put out, seemed to completely miss the point that the major purpose of a strike is to draw attention to an underlying problem by causing noticeable disruption, and not just to bugger up their holidays. Not unsurprisingly the journey between Scarborough and York failed to meet the designated ‘skeleton service’ criteria, and all services were to be cancelled for the duration – including my morning train intended to connect me with my comfy seat on the National Express.<\/p>\n The options were limited: get up around 5.30am to catch the\u00a0 843 service bus from the town centre, a journey spanning over two hours thanks to the designated route which laudably, but not particularly helpfully, stops at every conceivable hamlet between here and the final destination. Being as we are in a coastal corner of North Yorkshire, trust me when I say that’s an awful lot of B road. Alternatively I could pay \u00a350+ for a taxi to travel in relative comfort and at a civilised hour, but I do not plan trips carefully and in good time so that I can spend this kind of money on travel, and as far as I am concerned there are far better (mostly edible) things to do with fifty quid. So it was with some considerable relief that news of the injunction was received, and ought to be a particular bonus to my charming visitor on the Wednesday evening, who is now in no danger of having to wake me up mid-appointment (although this being a repeat meeting, I can state with some confidence that this would be extremely unlikely under any circumstances bar a blow to the head, a strong sedative, or prolonged exposure to the Parliament Channel).<\/p>\n I must take time to thank all of those who have kindly emailed in appreciation of my new pictures – more are in the pipeline and will be posted soon (and yes, I promise to try harder to conceal the camera remote this time). And lastly, a very happy Easter to everyone!<\/p>\n \n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" As I post following an exciting but exhausting week, the Bank Holiday rain is predictably and reassuringly steady, last night’s leftover takeaway is almost gone, and my chocolate bunny (courtesy of a charming gentleman from north of the border) is no more, having been reduced to barely-there crumbs, pretty gold foil and a nice red ribbon with a bell on it. This last Friday and Saturday have taken me in a single 24 hour stretch to Leeds city centre, across to Rochdale, back to Leeds (one of my favourite hotels, a grand old building of impeccable vintage, comfortable beds and woefully unpredictable plumbing), and finally the early train back to the coast in order to continue the good work uninterrupted until such a time as I was able to relax and enjoy some of the Easter break in a manner more befitting a public holiday; namely eating Peking duck in my pyjamas, gossiping on the phone and watching QI repeats on the television whilst the comforting and ever-present whirr of my faithful washing machine provided gentle and homely background ambience. Bearing this in mind, and that the earlier part of this week was spent in Manchester with the latter part of next week unfolding in That London, I have decided that enough is enough for now, and I am sorry to say that for the approaching two days I will be persona non grata, at least to those not known to me already. Normal service will be resumed upon my return, and as the week is beginning to fill up gradually but steadily I would strongly recommend getting in touch early, as appointments will be as limited as always after a busy week away (plus it is high time I got on with some more decorating…) I am, however, never out of the office for long and have already begun to make tentative plans for my next few trips, anticipating, amongst others, a return to Scotland as well as a possible jaunt to Wales (by way of Bristol, which I have been intending to get to now for months and still not quite managed yet). Details soon to be available, as soon as I have reassured myself accommodation-wise that a repeat of the Liverpool situation will not be an issue, and actual communication with people not in the same room will be guaranteed. The next London trip is likely to be the start of June; as some will know I have a brief sojourn at the end of this month for the Erotic Awards ceremony, but this is already pretty much booked and I have no plans to take further appointments – apologies, but the emphasis is to be very much on going to the ball! The prospective (but now-defunct) rail strike had been on course to present me with problems this week and rightly so, otherwise what on earth would be the point, although this seems to have been anathema to some of BA’s unlucky customers\u00a0 following\u00a0 recent\u00a0 industrial action, who, whilst quite understandably put out, seemed to completely miss the point that the major purpose of a strike is to draw attention to an underlying problem by causing noticeable disruption, and not just to bugger up their holidays. Not unsurprisingly the journey between Scarborough and York failed to meet the designated ‘skeleton service’ criteria, and all services were to be cancelled for the duration – including my morning train intended to connect me with my comfy seat on the National Express. The options were limited: get up around 5.30am to catch the\u00a0 843 service bus from the town centre, a journey spanning over two hours thanks to the designated route which laudably, but not particularly helpfully, stops at every conceivable hamlet between here and the final destination. Being as we are in a coastal corner of North Yorkshire, trust me when I say that’s an awful lot of B road. Alternatively I could pay \u00a350+ for a taxi to travel in relative comfort and at a civilised hour, but I do not plan trips carefully and in good time so that I can spend this kind of money on travel, and as far as I am concerned there are far better (mostly edible) things to do with fifty quid. So it was with some considerable relief that news of the injunction was received, and ought to be a particular bonus to my charming visitor on the Wednesday evening, who is now in no danger of having to wake me up mid-appointment (although this being a repeat meeting, I can state with some confidence that this would be extremely unlikely under any circumstances bar a blow to the head, a strong sedative, or prolonged exposure to the Parliament Channel). I must take time to thank all of those who have kindly emailed in appreciation of my new pictures – more are in the pipeline and will be posted soon (and yes, I promise to try harder to conceal the camera remote this time). And lastly, a very happy Easter to everyone!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[67,66],"class_list":["post-1848","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-my-diary","tag-rail-strike","tag-trains"],"aioseo_notices":[],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adoreamy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adoreamy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adoreamy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adoreamy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adoreamy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1848"}],"version-history":[{"count":49,"href":"https:\/\/www.adoreamy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1899,"href":"https:\/\/www.adoreamy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1848\/revisions\/1899"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.adoreamy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1848"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adoreamy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1848"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.adoreamy.co.uk\/blog\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1848"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}