Breakfast, hotels and 2027 entertainment

U2 tickets went on sale (and any we might have been looking at sold out) on Friday.

A friend was keen to try.  I fear I was something of a disappointment to her on this.  I first heard about this on Thursday and was WhatsApp’d with a request, on Friday a couple of hours before ticket sales went live, to also try and get them to improve our chances.  This was prefixed with “As you are working from home”.   I’m not quite sure where that little gem came from.  I do know that my boss rather expects that when I am working from home, I will actually be working.   I consider this to be an entirely reasonable expectation on their part.  I also have no idea how I could possibly get through my work if I didn’t.  It is difficult enough as is to cram it into 5 days, getting it done in the three I am actually in the office is never going to happen.  On Friday, however, any such argument was a waste of breath.  I had a meeting schedule and video meetings, in which one has to take an active part, over an iPad are incompatible with simultaneously running a phone, laptop and Mac to try and get concert tickets.  

This did not stop me from getting updates.  At one point she was 59000th in a queue for tickets on a Tuesday.  That would be cost of a ticket, cost of a hotel, cost of transport …….  and 2 days holiday.  There was a point when I was slightly distracted trying to calculate how many days’ ski passes I could get for the cost of this concert.  At 58,999 people ahead of her, however, the lift pass was looking more likely.  Then again it would not be 58,999 individuals as many, if not most, would be on their phone(s), iPad, laptop, desk top and Mac.  I suspect such multi tasking attempts may be counter productive but they do get full marks for trying.  

Regardless, we (as in she, because I was about as much use as a chocolate fire guard in this particular exercise) failed to get tickets.  She was gutted, she’s still gutted.  I confess, at this point, I was still thinking about how many days’ ski passes I could get and that I had saved 2 days holiday (she gets rather more than I do and ‘flex’ which in her job equates to extra holiday, in mine it equates to taking a late lunch to go for a medical appointment and checking emails in the waiting room).  By lunch, however, I felt a little guilty about having not helped out in something that she was so keen on and we now have tickets (at a weekend so I don’t have to take holiday) to see the Kaiser Chiefs at Lincoln Castle.  Ticket cost around a third of the lowest hoped for U2.

We also have a hotel booked.  For now.  I am cool about it.  It is very well situated for the weekend as a whole, there is parking, there is (free) breakfast (back to that later).  It is 2/3rds of the price of the hotel for the Saturday night we booked for BST Hyde Park last year.  Even my mean streak is struggling to have issues with this.  I like Lincoln, I like the Kaiser Chiefs and this particular hotel chain has done nothing to incur my ire to date.  I go to Lincoln rarely (the roads Lincolnshire are shocking) and I get a hotel breakfast (‘free’).  All is good.  Except I suspect it isn’t.  The hotel cost is getting a sharp intake of breath and there is talk about staying at a family member’s student flat.   Oh joy!  It is a long time since I was a student and taking a sleeping bag anywhere I regard as an in extremis event.  

I am also a hotel breakfast fan.  Now I get this is a bit of a Marmite thing.  For the record I am in the ‘love it’ Marmite camp though I do like it spread sparingly on my toast.  It can be over done.  Hotel breakfasts, however, give one time to get into the day, check out the news, one’s messages/emails, drink a vat of tea (to rehydrate in the event of a heavy night previously) and select one’s personal choice for the start of the day.

I would mention that I am generally a breakfast fan.  Yoghurt and fruit in the office (sometimes yogurt eaten warmer than might be recommended and nearer lunch than breakfast).  Oats (un soaked), dried fruit, nuts and milk (cold) when working at home.  On route to an appointment scrambled eggs on toast from a greasy spoon cafe, avocado on toast or scrambled eggs and smoked salmon from somewhere trendier.  Always lashings of tea.  Weekend (if possible) - full English, scrambled eggs and smoked salmon on toast or an omelette.  I have long registered this is not the same for everyone.  Just about all my single friends regard a hotel breakfast as something totally incomprehensible.  It has to be said that they are all slimmer than I am by some margin.    One does go for overnight oats.  ‘Sludge’ as I call it, though I understand overnight oats are popular and not a bad thing, if you like sludge.  It is not exclusive to singlies either, some of my married friends have issues with hotel breakfasts.  Don’t like buffets (unhygienic) is a minority objection.  Cost a more pertinent one.  I do get that but I have not always been convinced that searching unfamiliar streets in the search for a more economical breakfast works on a time/cost/chilled start to the day. 

For now, however, it is in the diary and 2 days holiday have been reclaimed.  

The first half of next year is not looking hopeless diary wise.  Not packed and slightly eclectic but there’s definitely stuff to look forward to.  We will hopefully have a ski trip though the usual two weeks, when we would normally go for a week, have been taking over by a work thing that I can’t avoid.  

We are celebrating my sister’s 60th birthday in Skegness with a large group of family (our side and her husband’s) over a long weekend.  I’m not sure how Skegness was arrived at but I believe there is a gin tasting and distillery tour in the offing so that is a good cross section of attendees happy.

S and I have tickets to see John Lydon at a local theatre.  My sister saw him recently at a theatre where she volunteers and has proclaimed him “bonkers” (and sweary).  As expected then!  I also have tickets for a lunchtime talk on the life and times of Katherine Swynford.  Not sure what I was thinking when I booked that one but a friend was also up for it so whatever I was thinking at that time, I was not the only one!

All in all it is just that hotel and (free) breakfast that may be a source of friction!