Five great upgrades

I’m fortunate but I’ve also got to apologise. I’m fortunate in that I’ve enjoyed lots of interesting business travel often in business or even first class. At one time I had three gold cards: with BA, KLM and SAS which meant that even when I was travelling economy I still got to avoid the long economy class check-in queues and was able to use the business class lounges.

Farewell to all that

At midnight a week ago last Monday I ceased to be a county councillor. I was first elected 16 years ago and, as I’ve said many times, I didn’t know what I was letting myself in for. Certainly I couldn’t have imagined it lasting so long. So as I look back, what are the highlights? And in keeping with my basic rule ‘what are the 5 highlights?’

5 life (career) changing decisions

Everyone’s life is the result of a mix of chance and decisions. You can’t do much about chance but it’s the decisions you make which map out your life. I reckon that there’s five decision which I’ve taken which, successively, have meant that I didn’t become an academic, a long term oil industry employee (and very possibly an American citizen God forbid), an old Asian hand, a senior Dow Chemical manager or a salary man through to retirement. 

5 indicators that the worst of Covid might be over

1 going for a coffee

We’ve already been there of course and it made life so bearable through last summer. We’re blessed in Histon & Impington in having a choice and the St Andrew’s Centre, the Geographer and Delicious all provide good coffee and they’re each different from the others.

5 business trips (which didn’t go to plan)

I’ve travelled enough so that I’m pretty adept at avoiding the pitfalls of business trips and the stresses that go with them but even then stuff happens which is outside your control and then you have to adapt. It’s happened to me several times, fortunately never catastrophically, but in today’s world the consequences of the earlier ones wouldn’t have been so easily managed.

5 German cities

the old town hall in Munich; it’s now the toy museum

They’re not the most interesting German cities and this is certainly not any sort of in depth profile of them but it’s the five cities which give me good memories. It helps that I spent 13 years working in the chemicals industry in Europe and of course three of the biggest chemical companies were German and there were many others besides.

5 early starts

It’s been a busy week and I’ve had 5 early starts.

Well actually not that early but earlier than I aspire to these days.

5 pubs and bars I could call locals

The Old Quay House, Dock Road, Connah’s Quay, UK

If The Yacht wasn’t my local (click here to go to my previous post about The Yacht) then maybe the Old Quay House was. It was the closest pub to my home in Garthorpe Avenue in Connah’s Quay and I did drop in often when I was at home in the early 70s.

Five restaurants with staying power

We had lunch at the Old Fire Engine House in Ely today. That in itself would be worthy of a post because the food is pretty good, there’s an acceptable wine list and service is intelligent and excellent. But there’s a twist. I first went to the Old Fire Engine House sometime in 1970. That’s 50 years ago and it got me thinking. Which iconic restaurants have I visited way back and are still in business today? I say iconic (a) to narrow the field a little but also (b) to highlight ones with a certain distinctive character. There aren’t many and I can’t find one to beat 50 years. 

5 parties through my time

I’m not a great party goer, even less a party giver but there have been times when I’ve filled the latter role and it’s turned out rather well. They’re an eclectic mix and evoke multiple memories. It’s amazing what you remember when you set your mind to it. Sadly the photographic record is somewhat limited and even where there are photos they’re not as good as they might be.