Kent, Brighton and Wonderful Warsaw

So, folks, its been a busy time and I seem to have done lots of travelling. The weekend of 4th, 5th and 6th October I planned to drive myself to Brighton, stay in a super-luxury hotel, glide along to an artist talk and exhibition I wanted to attend, and then make my leisurely way home, refreshed and illuminated. The reality was that a dear friend, on learning that I was travelling so far south, found a horse she simply had to see, in Kent. Approx 60 miles from my own destination, but what are 60 miles between friends? So, we set off (in her very new and comfortable car) early on Saturday morning, straight to see the horse. He was a complete poppet, and we arranged to see him again on the Sunday morning. Thus, we were able to make our way to our previously booked accommodation in some rooms behind a Pub.  They had looked fantastic on line. The reality, folks, was somewhat different. Grubby, cobwebby, with a strong odour of damp and bed linen that would have benefitted from a very good hot wash, it looked like £95.00 very badly spent for us. My friend was reduced to tears. I offered to clean it if the Landlord would provide the materials! Instead we returned our keys, had a very frank exchange with the owners, and made our way to a spotlessly clean Premier Inn about 30 minutes away. Hooray! Thank you Premier Inn. Early next morning we were back with the little horse, and a deal was done in good time to transport me to Brighton for my Artists talk. I had not forgotten that the talk was the purpose of my journey to the south coast! Sadly a few miles into the motorway transfer the new car suffered a puncture, on the roadside rear tyre. We were too chicken-hearted to lay in the motorway to attempt a wheel change, and so a wonderful AA man had to come and risk his life.... this meant that my arrival at the talk was postponed until half-way through the event. No matter - it actually worked really well. The Artist's talk was poorly attended, she greeted me like a long-lost friend, and I achieved all I wanted (networking, advice, names, names, names) within the ensuing hour. My chauffeur and I then climbed back into her benighted vehicle, and crawled back to Lincolnshire on the 50mph safety spare.... it took some time.

Not content with this adventure the Farmer accompanied me to Warsaw in Poland last weekend to visit a life-time retrospective exhibition for Magdalena Abakanowicz (One of Poland's foremost sculptors) at their national centre for sculpture near Oronsko in the depths of the Polish countryside. I take my hat off to the farmer, who exited the aeroplane, booked out a hire car, drove us 100km across Poland, walked the exhibition and talked to the Curator all afternoon, then masterfully drove us back to Central Warsaw to drop off the hire car. Phew. We were absolutely shattered! We had a further two days exploring Warsaw and beginning to understand the awful wartime experiences they are still trying to come to terms with. Our homeward journey was not quite so straightforward, we had a 6 hr delay and  airport transfer on a coach, owing to fog, and the awesome awfulness of Ryanair. Oh well. You can't win them all.

This weekend brought us the Baby Boy and the lovely D to fill any time we thought we might have to spare, also more horse viewing with another friend and coffee and cakes with yet another friend! Luckily its half-term week from skool, so I have a couple of recovery days in hand, prior to a visitation from the Eldest, our silver wedding anniversary (tomorrow) and my 'slightly more than 21st' birthday on Thursday. Friday will see me in Lincoln. I am thinking of applying for some time off for good behaviour......

On the advice of the Kent horse buying friend I purchased some horse clippers and have shaved one of the spaniels. Her coat has deteriorated since we had her spayed, and she seemed to have become completely woolly. The clipping looks wonderful and she seems much happier in herself. Excellent advice and a very happy outcome.

The Baby boy is working hard at the Royal, the Big Boy also at FisherGerman. The Farmer is all harvested but the weather has turned before he has quite ploughed up. Now too wet to try, so he will have to be patient. He has sold his big blue tractor, and is now having fun trying to find a replacement, and scouring tractor porn on a daily basis.

College going very well, skidding downhill to finishing in 2014. Full of ideas for practical artistic output between now and then, and the first few pages of the dissertation committed to paper. So, all in all, a busy, productive and very satisfying October so far. Be Christmas before we know it.

Toodle - Oooooo old chaps. XXXX