South Coast Road Trip - Highlights

Right now Im enjoying a 'proper' bean to cup coffee from my own coffee maker, in my own kitchen, having slept in my own bed for the first time in a week. Having been forced to endure 3 nights in a Travelodge and one in a freezing garret, my own bed was heavenly.

I drove over a thousand miles this week, all to enrol a hundred learners on a new course. To be honest, they could have posted the forms out with an instruction sheet, but who am I to worry about money being wasted.

I have to remember that this was a work trip, and not a weeks holiday for me to jaunt around meeting old friends and taking photos of seaside places - however, those were the highlights of the week. The lowlights were the hours spent sitting in grubby depots, waiting for drivers to come back in to sign a form. The nights in grubby Travelodges, and lack of decent showers!

I actually enjoy driving. I did a lot of it when working for Clarins in the early 90's when I travelled around the south west working in department stores and salons for them. The long drive to Bristol was ok, boring being on motorways, but I had the Newcastle match to listen to and my playlists.

The best driving was from Bristol to Portsmouth, passing sign posts for places I knew and fleeting memories of driving to Yeovil for some Giorgio perfume hours before attending a wedding, going to Wells for wedding dress fittings, Dorchester, Weymouth etc etc.

It was hard to plan anything as I never knew how long I would have to hang around in depots, so I was amazed that on Tuesday I went into Poole depot at 7am and had finished by 9.00 so was able to set off to Portsmouth much earlier than expected. It left me with an afternoon to spend with my best Navy mate, Mo and a chance to see Portsmouth, and Lee on the Solent again.

First stop was Lee, and HMS Daedalus. I spent 5 years there, and of all the places I was based, was the one I felt was most like home. It was sad to see her like this though.