Jimbo the Scot arrives in Cottenham
A completely mad panic late last night as Chris and Jo were off to bed (oh, yes... and we were in the midst of trying to get the next issue of the magazine off to bed too) when the phone went...
Jim aka 'Jimbo the Scot' called from the ship, Pride of Bilbao, as it was due to dock in Portsmouth from its Bilbao trip. Force 10 gales had delayed the ship en route, and for reasons I still cannot fully fathom (though they make perfect sense to everyone else!), he would need to alter his route around the UK for his numerous pick-ups for the journey back to Spain. This means that he would like to do the Cambridge pick-up sometime Wednesday afternoon... that is today! Well, with around 18 hours notice and a full 24 to 36 hours before he had been due to pick up our stuff, Jim arrived - thankfully to around 20 fully packed, taped and labelled boxes, 4 bikes, 4 deckchairs and our little emergency pine table which has been put up, taken down, put away, lent, lost and returned to base more times than I've had hot dinners. Well, the table and all the other weighty contents are now on their way round a quick circuit of the UK before meeting up with us again - and Jim - at Portsmouth on Friday night for the sail to Bilbao.
Jim aka 'Jimbo the Scot' packs 'em in
I spotted Jim whilst I was driving back to the office in Histon. You cannot miss the lorry! I called Liz to forewarn her and Chris and Jo were then dispatched, camera in hand, to flag him down as he arrived at the bottom of our street. I think Chris might make quite a good photographer as he gets older...
Chris and Jo inspect the lorry
Not so sure about Chris and Jo's abilities in the lorry-packing department!
Now we just have a further day-and-a-half slog packing up the car, sorting out the house - oh, and mentioning plans for our departure to our wonderful staff! Actually, the staff have - as ever - been great. We had a lovely evening out with them last week - drinks and a curry - and we were presented with a set of Pedro Almodóvar DVDs. We cannot think of anything more appropriate for our time in Spain than the collected works of Spain's foremost film director (thanks for the suggestion Emma!). Of course if the staff start misbehaving, then rather than carry out our threats to place webcams throughout the office in our absence, I'll just post evidential photos from last week's curry night on the blog!
Meantime, back to that packing...
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