A series of unlikely outcomes

Wednesday 8th July

Found it hard to sleep last night so woke up a tad knackered and rolled out of bed at 0730. Pottered then did the three s’s before having a call with Mike. Always lovely to chat to my old muckers – they aren’t missing me at all which makes me proud – as I said when we announced ‘If Carlsberg did leadership transitions …’

Unfortunately I find myself reading lots about the bullshit with Farage – god I hate him – grifter is exactly the right word. As someone said to me recently ‘not all reform voters are racist but they are all thick’. After Brexit why oh why would anyone vote for that twat – beyond me ! I really do hope that count bin face wins Clacton and Farage ends up in prison where he belongs – what an arrogant twat he is.

ok, rant over … I tidied and popped to Boots on my lovely Condor Pista then we headed to Gatwick South and a nice cool glass of Rosé was had.

ok, rant not over … my god instagram is killing me – just watched Robert Jenrick melt down on Sky – what an utterly odious man he is – my blood boils when I see stuff like that – he is the master of obfuscation – he and Farage’s whole strategy is to shout and feign outrage to avoid scrutiny … I may have to delete Insta again – I only really want to watch Rugby clips and comedy – I need to retrain the algorithm so I don’t have to watch f**kwit Reform politicians – I am becoming Carla – angry about everything and saying ‘it’s the principle’ e.g. pre retirement I would never have complained to the post office that my registered letter arrived late – nowadays I do just that and I got a cheque (a cheque ffs) for £9.95 back from them … I am Carla.

Norwegian (airlines) left on time – Scandi efficiency – I checked a bag again – although tbf I rashly bought a house warming present for Dan and Emily (well for me really) – a Jacques set of Boules – f**k they are heavy so my case was 24.2 kg – the check in chap let me off any excess thankfully – Keith me old mucker – remember how we loved it so much when I lived in France – L’As de Trefle for the beers and happy evenings playing Boules – you were a natural and of course instantly knew all the rules (geek) – we had all the gear too – including the magnet on a string to save us bending to pick up the balls. Played in Spain as well in Godieta – hot summer nights playing pétanque. I think we even played the Spanish and the French off and on (and won thanks to you – much to their chagrin). If we ever do get a house in the sticks I am having a Boules/Pétanque rectangle built for sure … you can forget the pickle ball court Isabel … although maybe one of those too. oooh also croquet – used to love that – played it at my old Rugby Coach’s house in Holly Village in the late 70s – that was a funny story – I wonder if Rod remembers that day? Nick Brandt, dead now – but such a lovely guy. Will tell some of those stories one day as I increasingly reflect on what a great life I’ve had.

On our way to Denmark I had an interesting thought re how connected to Scandinavia I am. My DNA is 8% Viking and the rest mainly English (hooray) with a tad of French (1066 and all that). So these are the connections:

Norway – lived there, worked there.

Finland – Jane (sister the younger) lives there

Sweden – Sarah (beloved daughter 2) has lived there for years, speaks the lingo and now is actually Swedish (as well as English and Spanish!)

Denmark – Dan and Emily have lived there now for three odd years.

Quirky no?

On Norway and living abroad generally my daughters will attest that for me it was always type 2 fun – I always missed Blighty so much when I was away with terrible FOMO (am not suited to it) – but after a while when looking back – I loved all those assignments (they – the girls – will dispute that reflection though).

Verbal diarrhoea today – sorry – but am on a plane with FA else to do – have my book with me but haven’t started reading yet – reading ‘again’ is one of my main retirement objectives – I used to read so much but stopped some 20 years ago .. my head simply had no room – fingers crossed that is a passion that will return. On that I actually used to read at School in the playground – what a geek – but I never got the shit kicked out of me for it though – I loved that School … I actually read Orwell, Huxley and Solzhenitsyn – I was only about 14 – what an egg head I was.

Train ride to Frederica went off without a hitch although the train carriage we were in had no air conditioning and was almost unbearable. We moved carriage eventually once there was room and that was much better. We arrived to Dan and a traditional Danish greeting – waving the Danish Flag and home to the epic farmhouse. A couple of beers and the best toasted sandwich I have ever eaten then bed.

What a day !