Day 205/206/207

Another blasted 3 days!!
I was attempting to blog on Monday evening. I had the night planned which included packing for the next morning. It was to be an early start and then the long drive to Oxford.
I regress, back to Monday.

The start of the day didn't go as planned! what i thought i would be able to do went out of the window when i had to go off to a hospital to do an assessment! That takes up so much of the day with travelling parking!! still always get a space in the sexually transmitted disease clinic car park! I'm not proud, its better than the wretched multi storey they have. I'm no good at those. The walk to the main hospital is a bit of a trek though but i really don't mind that.
Anyway back to work and its all just rush, rush, rush. Home about 6 and then got called in later in the evening because of some ambulance crew being difficult. The joys of management!
By the time i got back showered and packed etc it was too late to blog especially as i have real problems getting up in the mornings, um i wonder why.

Picked up early and off to Oxford! Get to the hotel where conference is and handed our bags over because of an over booking error made by the hotel we were supposed to stay in some of us had to go to another hotel. So that was not so good as we wouldn't have the time the others had to get ready and socialise.
We were then put on tables with people we didn't know for the whole day.

Lunch well , by the time we got to the salad counter there was no salad left! just a bit of tomato, some tuna and some cold processed sliced meat. So it was a jacket potato (hard) and tuna, still i thought we have our evening meal to look forward to.
On top of that our guest speaker was Nick Hewitt from The Apprentice. He was fab and he was so amusing. Gave a good insight into the apprentice and Alan Sugar and some of the contestants. He was staying to chat and mingle and let us have pics with him. We who had to move, had to get the mini bus so couldn't do that Grrrrrr. This was now 1700hrs. The evening entertainment was for 1900-1930pm and meal for 1945pm.

So we get in the mini bus 7 of us and there were 3 mini buses in total! we were then told that we were being picked up at 1815hrs!! and we were told the hotel was only 10 Min's away. Well that was a big mistake!!!
15 Min's later and still no sign of the hotel we decided we just couldn't be ready by the time they said. So after a call to my boss we agreed a time we could be ready and would tell the driver when we reached our destination. Almost to Aylsbury we arrived at 1735! and said no way could we be ready for 1815hrs but we would be ready at 1845hrs.
Finding our rooms, and yep not on ground floor and at the end of the furthest corridor from reception we found our bags in our rooms. As we had been unable to access our rooms at lunch time and hang our clothes up, they now needed pressing. So it was make a drink, run a bath and get an iron all at the same time. The water wasn't hot and the lighting was so poor you couldn't see a bloody thing!!! 4* hotel!!!!

Pick up for return journey!! we were told there would be buses running at the time we wanted from after the meal to midnight! Nope the bus would be there at midnight. Now you can imagine we were feeling pretty weary by now. Having to get up at 5 and travel to Oxford then not getting picked up till midnight and having to travel back to the hotel THEN we were told we would be picked up at 0715 the next morning!!!
We couldn't get breakfast till 0700hrs at the earliest. and the second day wouldn't start till 0915 re just refused!!!

We arrived back at the first hotel and i couldn't remember if i had put my knickers on in the hurry to get ready!! a quick trip to the ladies was very reassuring! all the others were already socialising and then, then came the evening entertainment. Murder mystery by some actors!! this was going on all through the meal and we had to guess who did it!

So here we were and this scene being played out whilst we ate, being told to be quiet to enable us to hear the players wasn't what we expected. Oh and yet again sitting with another group of people we didn't know!
The long awaited meal! Soup luke warm and wasn't nice so couldn't eat it.

The next course arrived about 2045hrs and it really was awful i ended up eating two pieces of broccoli. The beef was so fatty i though it was a crumble mix on the top! some sent theirs back i just left mine.
I thought the dessert would be promising, crumble. We waited so long that coffee was served and we ate the after dinner mints first, we really thought they had forgotten. Anyway along came the crumble and a spoonful of cream. I was sitting next to the H&S rep who informed me there was a hair in my cream!!! i didn't see it initially because of my eyes! Well that was that so i asked for an apple. I had to eat something. A red apple arrived. I cut it in two and lo and be hold it was bad in the middle. I gave up. The table were laughing at my misfortune. I did make some new friends as a result of the night though!!

We then had to decide who had murdered who! well we didn't have a clue, we couldn't hear most of what was occurring and we didn't really care either!
By now all i wanted was to go back to bed!! So we went for our mini bus and told it would be midnight. No way so we did eventually get one for 2245hrs but by the time we got back it was almost 2330. We decided to get a coffee and chat for a while outside. It was the only time we as colleagues had had time to mix with each other.

Mini bus was arranged somewhat reluctantly for 0845 hrs.

Up and had a good breakfast, we had already decided that we would not be staying on after the meeting for our lunch!! after the previous day we didn't think we would be missing much!!

Went to reception and just managed to get a lift. The mini bus was about to depart because they thought everyone was gone! Absolutely cream crackered by now.

Anyway we had a good ride home and Tim came and collected me from Tesco at Huntingdon.

Had a cup of tea and then went for McDonald's. And the bloody meal was luke warm, I gave up!! and had a bar of chocolate. Home and fell asleep! and unpacked and here i sit!!

Work in the morning, check up for my eyes at Cambridge in the afternoon. Toms coming home and I'm on leave on Friday so will have time with Tom Yippee.

Had a weep tonight because of all things a pair of shoes set me of. I wore them for Mikeys funeral and then i got thinking of the ones in the wardrobe i wore for his wedding. I struggled to hold back and the savage attack of grief was so overwhelming, it caught me unawares. I need to be alert for misery, she just doesn't let go once she has you in her clutches, she is forever waiting and ready to take advantage.

Ah well tomorrow is another day..................