Wednesday 15th of February, 2006
before I fly off with a pop
Get up at 7:45, which is later than I'd have liked to, and Sit.
Breakfast, and then a hiatus. Gah.
Packing.
To the bank, where I see the queues are ridiculous, and then to the post office where I collect a large number of bank notes. I'm slightly disappointed that they are not wrapped in a paper band. I'd have liked that.
Back to the flat. Flurry of activity - bank stuff, burning a CD of the Guildhall thing to send to the printer, and a DVD of ongoing work in case I'm called out of the blue while in Kiel. I 1471 someone who called while I'm out, expecting it to be George, but in fact it's someone about a possible upcoming font job. Hurrah.
The whole process is proving immensely slow and frustrating. It's often like this, trying to leave the flat to go somewhere, as if there's a huge gravitational pull I need to escape before I fly off with a popEventually I get printouts and disks and an envelope (that I leave for H to post, because I'm a cad), and everything (I think) in the case that I want to be there, and I'm out the door.
H accompanies me to the tube station. I take the tube to Liverpool Street and the train to Stansted. George calls while I'm on the train. Hopefully that's all all right.
Check in, go into the Inner Sanctum, buy a sandwich and coffee that I'm charged a pound too much for eat them and go to the departure gate. I call H, but she's standing in the queue at the Post Office. I hate it when people call me while I'm standing in a queue. I let everybody get on the plane, then get on almost last. Despite this I get a better seat than I usually do.
Slightly bumpy flight.
On the tube, on the train and now on the plane, I've been sat next to someone sniffing enthusiastically. It doesn't annoy me, but I wonder if they're in league in some way.
At the other end, I manage to race near the front of the passport control queue (they seem to have dropped all the smiling and being pleasant to people that they were doing the last couple of times I was here. I think I prefer it this way), so I get to wait longer at the bus stop.
Bus to Lžbeck Hbf, where as usual I have an hour to wait before the train. This last time I realise that I can go and browse in the Saturn next door to the station, so I do.
The first time I visited Kiel was virtually two years ago. They haven't improved Lžbeck Hbf one bit, in fact I think it might be getting worse. It looks like they're trying to refurbish it, but it's just been one huge defurbishment.
Train to Kiel, and I walk to the House. Jacek, Ignacio and Sylvain let me in, and I have Tortilla and salad that they've saved for me and catch up - an almost perfect analogue of a meal that I used to buy ten years ago at Bunjies, that I was thinking about today. I borrow Ignacio's phone and call Haruko. Then I log on to the wireless network and post this.
At some point I'll go to bed, but I'm not sure quite when yet.
