Deja Vu Part Two - It Rhymes...

So you already know where I've been this week so why am I writing? Well, having not updated this blog for a week it's nice to be able to sit down and connect and lovingly compose a message to the faithful followers - er...you are still there, yes?

And it gives me an opportunity to put a couple of old sketches up here from 1992. This was drawn whilst on one of Wales' great little trains and shows Llanberis lake and Snowdon. It was done in a rush because the train wasn't hanging about...

The trip down to Bridgend was uneventful - actually all the trips this week were uneventful thank Goodness. Travelling the mileage I do, you do tend to see a number of accidents but the only one I saw being recovered this week was a minor shunt on the motorway during a slow stop-start patch in the Birmingham area.

I pulled in at the hotel only to find I'd been booked in one further away this week. I suspect the travel agents had been told to find the cheapest accomodation for the standard required and got one Premier Inn branch to knock off a quid or so. I had to get back in the car, feeling foolish and quietly berating myself for not having checked the hotel address closely and then cheerfully spent the quid (or more) on petrol driving the extra distance...

The following day I ran a Change Management workshop to a mixed audience from universities, colleges and private training providers and then settled down to drive up from Bridgend to Colwyn Bay. From the south coast of Wales to the north coast. I'm not sure how far it is as the crow flies, but crows have it easy in Wales and I had to go west to join the M5 then up the M6 to the M56 towards and past Chester. 250 miles almost, with a meal snatched on the motorway services.

My hotel was a family run one this time and they were busy enough to have given me the Honeymoon room!!! Imagine my disappointment... I slept in a four poster bed with all the regulation draperies. You know, whenever I watch The Tudors on the telly this type of bed is always dripping with nubile young maidens, eager for the mature manly presence. But nothing! Not a one! Over-rated, honeymoon suites...

So I went downstairs and joined mine host for a drink in his bar and watched Birmingham and West Ham whilst the rest of his family wanted me to side with them for a channel change to Gold...

Yesterday I was at Coleg Llandrillo to deliver a workshop on Managing Multiple Projects in a Complex Environment. Almost as hard to say as "Coleg Llandrillo", though I had had practice for both. The last time I was at Llandrillo must have been around 15 years ago and I was doing a session at a conference for college people managing computerised Student Records systems. A colleague started his session by saying "Bore da" ("Good Morning" in Welsh) and got a murmer of surprise and a round of applause. I've never quite replicated the effect...

The day went well and the drive home this week was fog-free I'm glad to say and it was nice to get home last night and be welcomed by Miss Franny's loving words, "We're up early in the morning, I'm in work at seven..."

This sketch, also from 1992 was drawn at Beddgelert. This was fairly early on in my sketching days and my tree technique was perhaps a little short of something but not to worry! Someday I might even get it right!